Hyderabad: The Election Commission has removed 73.39 lakh names from the draft electoral rolls of Telangana following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and a targeted digitisation drive, officials said on Monday. The deletions amount to 21.70% of the state’s total electorate.
Breakdown of deleted entries
When the SIR began on June 25, Telangana’s voter list comprised 3.38 crore electors. The state election machinery reported that booth-level officers (BLOs) digitised 2.64 crore enumeration forms by the deadline of August 10. The remainder — forms that could not be collected or matched — correspond to the names removed.
| Category | Number (lakh) | Share of total electorate (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Deceased | 9.22 | 2.73 |
| Absent | 11.25 | — |
| Permanently shifted | 45.18 | 16.99 |
| Enrolled at multiple places | 6.70 | 1.98 |
| Total deleted | 73.39 | 21.70 |
Mapping issues with the 2002 base year
Officials said the digitised forms included 32 lakh voters who could not be mapped to family entries in the base-year rolls of the 2002 SIR. Another 60 lakh digitised records showed discrepancies in linking with the 2002 data. The Election Commission attributed the unmapped cases to incomplete responses in the first section of the enumeration form — which seeks the elector’s details as recorded in the 2002 SIR — or omission of parents’ details required in the second section.
Next steps: notices and timelines
The state election authorities said that after publication of the draft lists, Returning Officers will issue individual notices to the approximately 92 lakh voters whose entries require clarification. This phase of verification will continue until October 15. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on October 19.
- Draft publication released at a press conference in Hyderabad, led by Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy and Additional CEO Vasam Venkateswara Reddy.
- Digitised forms and draft lists are available on the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s website, officials said.
- Booth-level officers were required to complete digitisation by August 10; uncollectible forms account for deleted names.
Administrative and voter-impact considerations
Removal of entries on this scale has administrative and civic implications. The 45.18 lakh voters marked as permanently shifted reflect internal migration patterns within and outside the state, while the 6.70 lakh duplicate enrolments point to weaknesses in the de-duplication and verification processes at local levels.
Election authorities will need to ensure notice delivery and accessible grievance redressal for voters who find their names deleted in error. For those affected, the upcoming verification window until October 15 is the formal opportunity to present documentation and secure reinstatement before the final list on October 19.
Context within Telangana's electoral management
The SIR is a routine revision mechanism that the Election Commission uses to update rolls to reflect deaths, migration and duplicate registrations. Telangana’s exercise this year included a significant digitisation push tied to the 2002 SIR as the base year, which both enabled mass processing and exposed the challenges of linking decades-old records to current entries.
Officials emphasised that the deletions reported are from the draft publication. Final lists will incorporate the outcomes of the individual verifications and any successful objections or corrections by electors.
Voters who wish to check the draft lists or respond to notices should consult the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s website or contact their local Returning Officer/BLO for guidance on documentation required to claim inclusion before the October 19 final publication.
