7.3 million names not included in Telangana draft rolls

As many as 7.3 million names have not been included in Telangana’s draft electoral rolls published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday as part of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.

Another 9.2 million electors will be issued notices over anomalies or failure to establish a link with the 2002 rolls during the ongoing SIR, Telangana chief electoral officer (CEO) C Sudharshan Reddy said.

He said that about 7.3 million names were in the absent, shifted, dead or duplicate list.

Genuine electors can still have their names included in the electoral rolls during the claims and objections period from August 17 to September 16 by submitting Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration form, the CEO said.

“The enumeration forms of 7,339,234 electors, accounting for 21.70%, could not be collected and uploaded,” Reddy said, adding the revision was aimed at maximising elector participation, not at indiscriminately deleting names from the rolls.

According to the CEO, the SIR exercise revealed that 45,18,961 voters, or 16.99% of the total, had permanently shifted residence and were categorised as migrants.

“These voters were found to be no longer residing at the addresses mentioned in the present electoral rolls. In several cases, field-level verification indicated that voters had moved permanently to other locations,” Reddy said.

Apart from migrated voters, booth-level officers (BLOs) identified 922,230 voters who had died; 1,125,546 who were not available at the given addresses or had otherwise become untraceable; and 670,203 who had already enrolled elsewhere. Another 102,294 voters had not submitted their enumeration forms, the CEO said.

The SIR also detected considerable variation in the digitisation of around 61 lakh enumeration forms collected.

According to official data uploaded on the Telangana CEO website, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district topped the state with 94.31% of enumeration forms collected and digitised, while Hyderabad recorded the lowest progress at 58.89%.

Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, adjacent to the Hyderabad capital city, recorded 65.16% and 63.97% digitisation respectively, the data said.

In Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, which account for 28 assembly constituencies, the total number of voters has fallen from around ₹1.14 crore to approximately ₹71 lakh after the completion of SIR. “This means that more than one out of every three voters included in the earlier electoral rolls is currently not reflected in the provisional figures,” an official said.

Of the 15 assembly constituencies in Hyderabad district, 10 have recorded a decline of more than 40% in the number of voters. In Rangareddy district, three constituencies logged a reduction of more than 40%. In Medchal-Malkajgiri district, Uppal has recorded a decline of 39.95% among the five constituencies in the district.

The CEO said genuine electors can still be added back to the electoral rolls during the claims and objections period (August 17 to September 16) using Form-6 along with the prescribed declaration form.

Booth-wise lists of electors categorised as absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD), whose names have not been included in the draft rolls, have also been displayed at electoral registration officer (ERO) or assistant ERO (AERO) offices, gram panchayat and municipal offices, and polling stations.

The lists, along with the probable reasons for non-inclusion, have also been uploaded on the websites of the chief electoral officer and the respective district election officers, the CEO said.

The ECI has used specialised software to detect multiple registrations. The exercise reportedly identified around 3.18 lakh voters who possessed voter identity cards at two or three different locations. These duplicate entries are also likely to be removed from the electoral rolls as part of the SIR exercise.

“Notices will be issued to such voters now. Such voters will have an opportunity to appear before the electoral registration officer (ERO) and establish their eligibility by producing any one of the identity documents specified by the Election Commission,” the CEO said.