The Telangana SIR process has left 18,12,367 electors at risk of exclusion from the final electoral rolls after they failed to respond to notices issued during the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists, according to figures shared by the Telangana Chief Electoral Office.
The electoral revision has generated 92,88,187 notices, of which 92,23,486 have been served to the voters concerned. The remaining 64,701 notices are pending. The notices are part of the process to verify electors before the final rolls are published.
Hearings for 82,11,205 electors have been completed so far. Of these, 74,62,851 voters have been found eligible for inclusion in the final electoral publication, while 12,969 electors have been declared ineligible and will be excluded from the final list.
The largest unresolved group comprises electors who have not responded despite multiple reminders and visits by Booth Level Officers. Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharsan Reddy told Telangana Today that these voters would be placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Double votes, or ASDD, category and removed from the final list if they failed to respond.
“Our BLOs are making house visits and completing the process. If an eligible elector is left out, they can enrol again,” Reddy said.
The status of the unresolved notices comes as the Election Commission of India has announced changes to the procedure for handling the revision. The new measures do away with mandatory in-person hearings and house visits by Booth Level Officers to collect documents and upload them on the ECINet platform. Except in circumstances determined by the Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer, hearings will preferably be conducted online through available and convenient communication modes.
Before the SIR exercise began, Telangana had 3,38,26,448 registered voters. Of these, 2,64,87,213 submitted enumeration forms. A further 73,39,235 electors categorised under ASDD had already been removed from the draft rolls.
The figures show the scale of the administrative exercise facing election officials and residents. For electors whose notices remain unresolved, the immediate issue is whether their eligibility can be established before the final publication. The process also places importance on the ability of Booth Level Officers to reach households and on voters’ access to notices, hearings and enrolment procedures.
Under the revised schedule, the period for issuing and disposing of claims and objections will conclude on November 5. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on November 9.
