Over 45 lakh voters in T'gana found ‘shifted’ during SIR

More than 45 lakh out of 73.39 lakh voters who did not submit enumeration forms during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Telangana had permanently shifted to other States, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.

A day after the deadline for submitting enumeration forms came to an end, CEO C. Sudharsan Reddy released details of Absent, Shifted or Dead (ASD) voters.

A total of 73,39,234 enumeration forms were uncollectable during the door-to-door visit by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) across the State.

Out of 3,38,26,448 voters, enumeration forms of 2,64,87,214 (78.30%) were digitised. The remaining 21.70% (73,39,234) voters did not submit enumeration forms.

Out of these, 9,22,230 were dead. The number of absent/untraceable voters stood at 11,25,546.

As many as 45,18,916 voters were found permanently shifted. Another 6,70,203 were already enrolled. Others are 1,02,294.

As per the status report of August 10, Hyderabad recorded the lowest digitisation of enumeration forms at 58.89 per cent.

Out of 47,36,669 electors in Hyderabad, digitisation of enumeration forms of only 27,89,214 voters has been completed. As many as 19.47 lakh voters in the state capital face deletion.

Yadadri Bhongiri district has completed 94.31 per cent of the digitisation and stood top among 33 districts in Telangana.

The draft rolls will be published on August 17. The period of filing claims and objections will be from August 17 to September 16.

The notice phase (disposal of claims and objections) will be from August 17 to October 15. The final publication of rolls is scheduled for October 19.

Election officials are likely to issue notices to about 60 lakh voters whose enumeration forms are reported to have anomalies.

Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao held a meeting with the party's SIR committee on Tuesday.

He inquired about the party's grassroots activities regarding the SIR process, the issues faced by voters, and the measures needed to prevent the deletion of eligible voters' names.

Later, addressing the media, KTR expressed concern that approximately 73 to 74 lakh votes are classified as 'uncollectible,' with no response received regarding them so far. He expressed alarm at the possibility of many of them being deleted.

KTR also mentioned that there are reports of anomalies in approximately 60 lakh votes. Overall, it appears that by the time the SIR process concludes, only about 2 crore votes will remain without issues; information from the Election Commission suggests that while some of the remaining votes face deletion, others contain errors or raise suspicions. He emphasised the utmost importance of ensuring that not a single eligible vote is unjustly removed.

KTR stated that election officials have announced plans to publish the draft voter list. He mentioned that a decision has been made to hold district-wise party meetings following the publication of this list. He added that they have already consulted with the party's legal cell and sought advice from legal experts.

KTR explained that they discussed with legal experts the necessary legal actions and party-level initiatives to secure justice for eligible voters whose names might have been removed from the list, as well as how to mobilise the party machinery to support affected voters.