PoliticsElectoral rolls
Telangana's voter list is on course to shrink by a quarter as SIR hearings near their end
About 2.5 crore people are currently counted as eligible, against 3.38 crore before the revision. Nearly 9.6 lakh cases are still to be checked before the final roll on 9 November.
Key points
- Telangana's eligible electorate stands at about 2.50 crore, down from 3.38 crore before the SIR.
- 83 lakh voters cleared the notice stage after attending hearings.
- The Election Commission is due to publish the final roll on 9 November.
Telangana’s electoral roll is on course to come out of the Special Intensive Revision about a quarter smaller than it went in, according to figures compiled by election officials as of Wednesday.
Before the revision began, the state had 3,38,26,448 voters. After the enumeration stage and most of the notice hearings, 2,49,85,204 people are now counted as eligible, a drop of 88,41,244, or 26.14%.
The figure is not final. About 9.6 lakh voters who were sent notices are still to be verified, and if they are cleared the electorate would rise to about 2.60 crore. That would still leave Telangana with roughly 78 lakh fewer voters than before the exercise.
Who cleared the hurdle
Officials distributed 2,64,87,213 enumeration forms. The draft roll that followed listed 1,66,81,849 voters. The rest were sent notices, either because their records showed anomalies or because they could not be mapped to earlier rolls.
Of the 92,88,188 notices issued, all but 22,457 were delivered. A total of 89,75,562 people turned up for hearings, while 3,02,925 did not appear and 9,699 stayed away even after their hearings were rescheduled.
So far 83,03,355 people have been cleared at the notice stage: 56,86,890 from the anomalies category and 26,16,465 who had been unmapped. Another 30,407 were found ineligible. Rangareddy district had the most people declared ineligible, 8,208, followed by Peddapalli with 4,424. Adilabad had the fewest, 71.
Telangana's SIR in numbers
- 3.38 crorevoters before the revision
- 2.50 crorecounted as eligible now
- 9.6 lakhcases still to be verified
- 9 Novemberfinal roll due
New voters waiting
Separately, 10,45,519 applications for new enrolment under Form 6 were received between 1 January and 16 October. Of these, 5,12,960 were approved, 2,23,416 rejected and 3,09,143 are still being examined. Eligible applicants among them are also to be included in the final roll.
What happens next
Notice hearings end on 5 November. The Commission plans to reschedule hearings for those who missed them and to send officials to voters’ homes to deliver notices and collect documents. The final electoral roll is due on 9 November.
Telangana’s numbers will add to the national argument over the revision, which opposition parties have taken to the Supreme Court and which has fuelled weeks of street protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.