Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has raised concerns that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) could exclude a very large number of genuine voters from Telangana's electoral rolls. With about 3.38 crore electors in the state, the reported 73.5 lakh “uncollectable” voter records currently requiring further action would represent roughly 21.7 per cent of the existing electorate—almost one in every five voters. The CM has repeatedly asked Congress leaders and workers to be vigilant during the exercise. In May, he specifically expressed concern that Dalits, minorities, women, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups could lose their voting rights and called on party workers to ensure that not a single eligible voter was removed.
Besides the non-digitised votes of 73.5 lakh, more than 88 lakh electors may receive notices over anomalies in their records. The Election Commission officials said that 90 per cent of the anomalies could be rectified and voters could get their rights.
Talking to the media, Reddy said he was worried that genuine voters could lose their votes if they failed to prove their credentials through the established process. He directed the 10 in-charge ministers, MLAs and constituency leaders to work on the SIR process. The AICC Telangana in-charge, Meenakshi Natarajan, also questioned how the Congress leadership did not take an active interest in the SIR process.
Talking to THE WEEK, Addanki Dayakar, MLC and Congress spokesperson, said, “The EC must first verify every case and allow every genuine voter to establish their eligibility. Cleaning the electoral rolls is necessary, but it cannot become a process of disenfranchising genuine voters.” Uncollectable voter data shouldn’t automatically translate into loss of voting rights, he added.
Congress has sought booth-wise information on the 73.39 lakh electors whose enumeration forms were classified as uncollectible, including the reasons for their classification, and plans to have its booth-level workers verify the cases individually. It has also urged the EC to re-verify questionable cases before deletion and help genuine voters file claims and objections when the draft roll is published. The party’s broader strategy is to identify voters who have been wrongly classified as shifted, absent, untraceable or otherwise problematic and assist them in retaining or restoring their names on the rolls. Congress leaders have stressed that no eligible voter should lose the right to vote due to an administrative or documentation issue.
