Nearly 43.98 lakh voters in Telangana are facing a serious verification hurdle in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. These voters reportedly received notices but did not appear before officials with the required documents within the earlier hearing schedule. Their names are therefore under scrutiny, although a notice or non-attendance does not automatically mean that the voter has been deleted. 43.98 lakh should be described as voters who reportedly did not complete the required hearing/verification step—not as 43.98 lakh confirmed deletions. The SIR process is still underway, and the Election Commission has extended the claims-and-objections deadline to October 7.

The scale of the exercise is huge. Telangana had 3.38 crore electors before the revision. After the enumeration exercise, 2.64 crore voters remained in the draft roll, while 73.39 lakh names were placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD) categories. Of these, officials identified about 45.19 lakh voters as permanently shifted, 11.25 lakh as absent or untraceable and 9.22 lakh as deceased.

Mapping with 2002 Rolls is Major Hurdle

Another major part of the exercise involves 92.87 lakh voters whose records were flagged either for data anomalies or because they could not be mapped with the 2002 SIR electoral rolls. Notices were generated for this group, with the Election Commission later extending the claims-and-objections deadline to October 7. The final electoral rolls are now scheduled to be published on November 9, giving voters additional time to respond.

The problem is particularly visible in the Hyderabad metropolitan region. Earlier SIR data showed that Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri accounted for a disproportionately large share of voters whose forms could not be collected or digitised. Hyderabad alone had around 18.74 lakh voters classified as absent, shifted or dead, while its digitisation rate was only about 58.6% at one stage of the exercise.

The numbers also show why the issue has become politically and socially sensitive. A voter may have an old address, a spelling mismatch, missing family details, migration history or difficulty establishing a link with the 2002 roll without actually being ineligible to vote. The challenge for the Election Commission is therefore to remove genuinely duplicate, dead or shifted entries while ensuring that eligible voters are not excluded because of documentation or procedural difficulties.

Substantial Public Participation

There has already been substantial public participation. By September 1, officials had received more than 9.07 lakh claims and objections, including applications from new voters and requests for corrections. The extended schedule gives affected electors another opportunity to check their status, respond to notices and submit the necessary claims or documents. The key issue now is not simply how many names are flagged, but how many genuine voters successfully clear the verification process before the final roll is published. With nearly three months remaining before the final electoral roll, the coming weeks will be crucial for both election officials and voters, particularly in Hyderabad and other high-migration urban areas.