Telangana SIR: Over 73 lakh electors may be excluded from draft roll

More than 73 lakh Telangana electors have been marked uncollectable during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The categories include shifted, deceased, untraceable and duplicate voters. Names may be excluded from the draft roll, subject to claims, objections and verification.

Hyderabad: A minimum of 73 lakh electors are set to be removed as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in the State.

As the enumeration forms submission date concluded on August 10, a staggering 73,39,234 forms have been designated as uncollectable by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

---

Among the uncollectable are 45,18,961 electors permanently shifted, 11,25,546 voters are either absent or untraceable at their respective addresses, and 9,22,230 electors have been recorded under death. A staggering 6,70,203 voters have already enrolled (dual votes) and 1,02,294 electors have been categorised under others. All these electors will be removed from the draft electoral roll.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy had recently warned electors that failure to submit a filled-in enumeration form to the respective Booth Level Officer (BLO), as part of SIR, would result in the removal of the voter’s name from the electoral rolls as per the ECI guidelines.

A BLO from Hyderabad said they have already marked ASD (Absent, Shifted and Death) categories for deletion. “Electors who have returned the blank forms will also be deleted from the roll,” the BLO said.

While Telangana recorded 3,38,26,448 voters, 2,64,87,214 (78.30 percent) have returned their enumeration forms as the deadline concluded on Monday. The returned forms have been digitised by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

The draft electoral rolls will be published on August 17, with the period for filing claims and objections scheduled from August 17 to September 16. The disposal of claims and objections will be carried out between August 17 and October 15. The final electoral rolls will be published on October 19.

“Electors whose forms have anomalies will be served notices. Based on the response and documents submitted by the elector, a decision will be taken whether or not retain or mark the vote for deletion. We are anticipating between 90 lakh and 1 crore votes for deletion in the final electoral roll,” the BLO added.