Khairatabad Assembly bypoll first test after SIR exercise in Telangana

The Khairatabad Assembly Constituency is headed for a by-election following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of former MLA Danam Nagender’s plea against disqualification. The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls has drastically reduced the electorate, with over 1.23 lakh names excluded and thousands served notices.

Hyderabad: An inevitable by-election to the Khairatabad Assembly Constituency is set to be the first test of the prospects of different political parties after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State.

Before the SIR process commenced, the Khairatabad Assembly constituency had 2,93,667 electors. However, the draft rolls brought the number down to 1,70,195, with only those who submitted enumeration forms included.

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As many as 1,23,472 voter names have already been excluded from the draft rolls under the Absent, Shifted, Death and Double votes (ASDD) category. Of these, 95,082 electors were cited as having permanently shifted from their residences in the Khairatabad constituency.

In addition, 81,404 notices have been served on electors for not being linked to the SIR 2002 list and for discrepancies in their enumeration forms. It remains to be seen how many of the electors who have received notices will be included in the final electoral list to be published on November 9.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed former Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender’s petition challenging the Telangana High Court judgment that disqualified him from the Assembly for defecting from the BRS to Congress. This judgement made the by-election to Khairatabad constituency inevitable. As per the rules, by-election should be conducted within six months of the vacancy.

In 2023 general elections, a total of 1,53,730 (52.34 percent) out of the 2,96,036 votes were polled and Danam Nagender contesting as the BRS candidate, won with 67,368 votes, while his opponent P Vijaya Reddy from Congress polled 45,358 votes.

Before the SIR process commenced, the constituency had more than 85,000 BC, 75,000 Muslim and 65,000 SC voters, who constituted a majority among the other groups. How does the composition of the electorate in the constituency emerge after the SIR exercise is to be seen.