Telangana SIR: Congress seeks safeguards against deletions

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin placed the party's demands before the Election Commission of India (EC), saying the scale of exclusions and notices in Telangana required strong safeguards before the final rolls were prepared.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday, September 26, demanded that no elector be deleted from the rolls merely for failing to attend a hearing under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), even as it sought greater transparency over notices, discrepancies, Form-6 applications and the software governing electoral rolls.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin placed the party’s demands before the Election Commission of India (EC), saying the scale of exclusions and notices in Telangana required strong safeguards before the final rolls were prepared.

Nizamuddin said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy would take Telangana’s SIR concerns to the Congress Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on September 29.

“The Chief Minister is not going to Delhi with a political complaint. He is going with the EC’s own figures,” he said.

He said the Chief Minister had turned Telangana’s experience into a national question concerning protection of voting rights and that the Congress would formulate a statewide protest programme after the CWC deliberations.

‘There should be daily Form-6 tally on CEO website’

The Congress demanded that every elector given notice be informed of the exact discrepancy and that the EC publish a segment-wise breakdown of all 11 categories of discrepancies.

It also sought a daily Form-6 tally on the CEO’s website showing applications received, accepted, rejected and pending, besides gender-wise data on the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate) list, hearing absentees and restorations.

The party demanded acceptance of the Telangana government’s new family certificate as a valid supporting document and an independent audit of the electoral-roll software.

“Not a single eligible voter should lose the right to vote merely because of a missed hearing, a spelling variation, or a procedural problem,” Nizamuddin said.

He said Telangana had 3.38 crore electors when the SIR began, while the draft roll contained about 2.65 crore names. Around 73.39 lakh electors were kept out of the draft roll in the ASDD categories.

In addition, about 92.87 lakh notices were issued, including around 60.50 lakh relating to discrepancies and 32.36 lakh concerning failure to map with the 2002 electoral rolls.

‘Missing hearing not proof enough’

Nizamuddin said about 47 lakh noticees had not attended hearings, while another 7.41 lakh notices remained unserved.

“Missing a hearing cannot be treated as proof that a voter is dead, shifted, duplicate or ineligible,” he said, adding that people could fail to appear because of work, migration, changed addresses or lack of understanding of the notice.

He said the exercise had cast a wide net, while, according to figures available with the party, only around 3,400 electors had ultimately been found ineligible after verification.

‘No break-up of 11 categories of logical discrepancies’

The TPCC spokesperson also questioned the lack of a public break-up of the 11 categories of ‘logical discrepancies’, claiming that a large number involved spelling or name variations rather than substantive questions of eligibility.

He said only about 4.4 lakh Form-6 applications had been received against 73.39 lakh names excluded from the draft roll, amounting to about six per cent.

“This shows that merely giving people a restoration route is not enough. The EC must disclose how many applications are being received, accepted, rejected and kept pending every day,” he said.

‘Local ERO has authority over additions/deletions or software from Delhi’

Referring to recent reports of internal objections within the Election Commission over voter registration procedures and electoral-roll database controls, Nizamuddin sought clarity on whether local Electoral Registration Officers retained full authority over additions and deletions or whether software controls operated from Delhi could restrict changes.

He also demanded disclosure on whether Telangana’s Form-6 process carried additional questions relating to the 2002 SIR and whether any request for a software audit had gone unanswered.

Nizamuddin warned that if a substantial number of the roughly 47 lakh electors who had not attended hearings were eventually excluded, the electoral roll could fall to around 2.2 crore.

He demanded that the EC publish its own projection of the likely final electorate, along with complete figures on additions, deletions, restorations and pending cases, before freezing the rolls.

“The Congress supports removal of genuine duplicate, deceased and ineligible entries. But an eligible citizen cannot lose an existing vote because of a software flag, an unserved notice or failure to attend a hearing,” he said.