HYDERABAD: As many as 1 lakh voters were deleted from electoral rolls in Hyderabad district ahead of the Lok Sabha elections held in Telangana in April. This was revealed in an a reply to an RTI application filed by a Karim Ansari.
Only a few months ago, during the 2018 Assembly elections, there had been a massive furore over en-masse deletion of voters. According to the data furnished by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, over one lakh voters were deleted in Hyderabad district alone -- consisting of 15 Assembly segments. It may be added that another 2,23,302 names were added in the said months, between December 2018 and March 2019.
This data explains why many voters who had voted in December 2018 were not able to do so only a few months later. Srinivas Kodali, an independent researcher and data expert, said, “It is strange that there were so many deletions, considering the fact that it was apparent so many named were removed in the December elections,” said Srinvas Kodali.
Kodali added that according to the Election Commission’s rules, before a voter’s name can be deleted from electoral rolls, he/she needs to be sent a notice to the registered address. “Once this is done, a voter is given time to raise objections. Only after this can the deletion process be initiated,” he said. Interestingly, a majority of the deletions came from three constituencies in Old City. There were over 13,382 deletions from Yakutpura, 12,786 in Karwan and 11,116 in Malakpet.