48L Telangana voters face deletion, 3L in Hyderabad’s Old City

Hyderabad topped in absolute numbers with 7.41 lakh uncollectable forms. 

Hyderabad: Election authorities have identified 48.3 lakh electors, or 14.2 per cent of Telangana’s 3.38 crore electorate, for deletion from the state’s voter rolls under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with the number likely to climb further as nearly 29.5 lakh enumeration forms remain to be digitised.

The deadline for the exercise has been extended from August 3 to August 10.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Sudharshan Reddy told the Times of India that all uncollectable cases would be removed from the rolls as they fall under recognised deletion categories. “Most of them have shifted to other places,” he said.

All 48.3 lakh electors flagged for deletion are those whose enumeration forms could not be collected, meaning that when officials visited their registered addresses, the persons were either found to have shifted, were dead, could not be traced or turned out to be duplicate entries on the rolls.

Of these, the largest segment – 28.7 lakh or 8.5 per cent of the total electorate – were found to have permanently shifted from their registered addresses. Another 8.6 lakh were reported dead, around 4.8 lakh were classified as absent or untraceable, and 5.8 lakh were identified as duplicate entries or persons already enrolled elsewhere.

Of the 3.38 crore enumeration forms distributed, election officials have so far digitised and verified about 2.6 crore, covering roughly 77 per cent of the electorate. The final status of the remaining 29.5 lakh forms will determine whether those electors stay on the rolls, face further verification or are added to the deletion list.

Anomalies and absent-shifted-dead (ASD) discrepancies detected in forms that were successfully collected and digitised will not lead to immediate deletion. “Notices will be generated and issued in all such cases,” the CEO told TOI.

Hyderabad belt bears brunt

The revision has thrown up a significant concentration of uncollectable forms in Telangana’s urban districts. Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy together account for 22.1 lakh uncollectable forms, which is nearly 46 per cent of the state total, and a further 23.9 lakh forms from these three districts are yet to be digitised.

At the constituency level, Uppal recorded the highest proportion of uncollectable forms, with 1.84 lakh of its 5.47 lakh electors, or 33.6 per cent, falling in this category. Warangal West ranked second at 27.7 per cent, followed by Secunderabad (27.1 per cent), Quthbullapur (26.8 per cent), Sanathnagar (26.8 per cent) and Secunderabad Cantonment (26.8 per cent).

In absolute numbers, Quthbullapur recorded the highest count at 2,00,690 uncollectable forms, followed by Uppal (1,84,224), Serilingampally (1,59,713), Maheswaram (1,52,040) and Medchal (1,48,247).

Rapid urbanisation, migration, tenant mobility, locked houses and restricted access in gated communities are believed to have contributed to the high numbers in these areas.

At the district level, Hyderabad topped in absolute numbers with 7.41 lakh uncollectable forms. 

Old City below average, Yakutpura the exception

The SIR data presents a relatively less alarming picture for the seven Old City and adjoining central Hyderabad constituencies, all represented by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). 

Together, the seven seats of Yakutpura, Charminar, Nampally, Malakpet, Bahadurpura, Karwan and Chandrayangutta recorded a combined uncollectable rate of about 12.2 per cent, against the state average of 14.28 per cent, accounting for 2,92,859 uncollectable forms.

Six of the seven constituencies came in below the state average. Yakutpura was the exception, recording 71,688 uncollectable forms, or 19.12 per cent of its electorate. Karwan and Bahadurpura recorded the lowest rates among the seven, at 7.59 per cent and 8.69 per cent respectively.

However, digitisation remains significantly pending across the cluster. A total of 6,99,926 forms are yet to enter the digital system across the seven seats.