Hyderabad could see large scale deletions in SIR owing to residents shifting homes

The polling percentage in the State capital might see considerable improvement in the next elections, with the threat looming large, of deletion of a large number of voters during the upcoming house to house enumeration for the Special Intensive Revision.

A large number of city residents who shifted residence but not their vote, might be at the risk of losing their name as a voter in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which is set to begin in Telangana on June 25 and continue for a month.

Officials under the condition of anonymity informed that the enumeration could at the best add 10-15% more voters, to the 46.69% voters already mapped as part of the pre-SIR exercise. The actual voters in the city might not exceed 60% of the number mentioned in the 2025 electoral rolls.

As per the existing rolls, Hyderabad district has about 47.37 lakh voters, Ranga Reddy district has close to 37 lakh, and Medchal Malkajgiri has 29.79 lakh.

During the enumeration, the Booth Level Officers, armed with the voters’ list of 2025, will go from door to door distributing and collecting the enumeration forms. They have been instructed to visit only the electors listed in their respective polling stations and not all the households.

The BLOs have also been directed to mark the absent, dead and shifted voters separately, so that they can be removed from the voters’ list.

In case of voters who have shifted home, but have not re-registered themselves as voters at the new location, the BLOs would not even visit the new address for enumeration. At the previous location, the BLO would mark them as ‘shifted’, unless the elector is present at the time of the visit.

The only option allowed to such residents is to proactively approach the BLO and register themselves as voters by filling up the Form-6 afresh, Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy told the media conference on Saturday. If they fail to do that, their names will have been removed from the draft electoral rolls.

With a large number of city residents being migrants from other districts and even other States, the draft electoral rolls might be downsized by lakhs of entries this time. With no elections around, it may be unlikely that voters proactively register themselves with the BLOs by obtaining Form-6.

This could also be a blow to residents who would prefer retaining their vote at their respective native villages, unless their family members fill the enumeration forms for them there.

Mr. Sudharshan Reddy categorically said no extension will be given for SIR process, and names of the persons who do not return the filled in enumeration forms to the BLOs too will be deleted from the rolls. He said enumeration forms will be printed in English for the city voters, following request from all the political parties.