HYDERABAD: Around 73 lakh electors in Telangana are likely to be left out of the draft electoral rolls to be published on August 17 after Enumeration Forms (EFs) could not be collected from them during the field-level exercise for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. About 58% of these voters may be from the Hyderabad metropolitan region.
The field-level deadline for collecting the duly filled forms ended on Monday. Forms that could not be collected by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been categorised as “uncollectable” for the purpose of the SIR exercise.
As of 6 pm on Monday, election authorities had received and digitised 2,64,73,616 Enumeration Forms, covering 78.26% of Telangana’s 3,38,26,448 electors. This leaves around 73.53 lakh forms that had not been received and digitised by the end of the field exercise.
The number is not necessarily final. Officials expect some more forms to come in through designated collection centres and online submission facilities even after the field-level deadline. Such forms will be dealt with according to the prescribed procedure.
The large number of forms that remain uncollectable is largely concentrated in the Hyderabad metropolitan region. Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts together account for nearly 43 lakh, or about 58%, of the uncollectable forms in the state.
Hyderabad district has the highest number. Of its 47,36,669 electors, forms relating to around 27.90 lakh electors had been received and digitised, covering 58.89% of the electorate. This leaves around 19.47 lakh forms uncollectable.
Digitisation of SIR forms high in rural areas
In Rangareddy, which has 36,99,743 electors, around 24.10 lakh forms, or 65.16%, had been received and digitised, leaving about 12.88 lakh forms uncollectable. In Medchal-Malkajgiri, 19.05 lakh of the district’s 29,79,130 electors had been covered, giving a digitisation rate of 63.97%. Nearly 10.73 lakh forms remained uncollectable.
The relatively low coverage in these three districts is particularly noticeable because they account for a large share of Telangana’s electorate and cover much of the Hyderabad metropolitan region. The figures are also considerably lower than those recorded in several rural districts.
The final day of the field exercise produced only a marginal increase in the number of forms received. At 6 pm on Sunday, 2,64,30,494 forms, or 78.14% of the total electorate, had been received and digitised. By the same time on Monday, the figure had increased by around 43,000 to 2,64,73,616. Officials said a few thousand additional forms could still be received through designated collection centres and online channels.
Difference is stark
The statewide figures mask considerable differences between districts. Several rural districts recorded substantially higher levels of form submission and digitisation. Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, Medak, Suryapet, Jangaon and Mahbubabad crossed the 90% mark.
A second group of districts recorded coverage in the 85-89% range. These include Asifabad, Adilabad, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Jagtial, Peddapalli, Siddipet, Mahbubnagar, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Jogulamba-Gadwal, Nalgonda, Warangal, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Khammam, Mulugu and Narayanpet. The constituency-wise figures also show that the picture within individual districts is not uniform.
In Jagtial district, Dharmapuri recorded the highest proportion of digitised forms at 92%, followed by Koratla at 89.18% and Jagtial at 87.70%. In Peddapalli district, Manthani led with a digitisation rate of 90.01%, followed by Peddapalle at 89.74% and Ramagundam at 85.63%. Ramagundam also had the highest proportion of uncollectable forms among the three segments with 30,742 forms (14.37%).
Karimnagar presented a wider variation. Manakondur recorded 91.28% digitisation, followed by Huzurabad at about 88.81% and Choppadandi at 88.06%. Karimnagar Assembly constituency, however, was considerably lower at 72.23%, with 2,66,423 of its 3,68,832 forms digitised. Nizamabad district recorded 85.28% digitisation as of 6 pm on Monday. The Assembly constituency-wise progress covered Armur, Bodhan, Banswada, Nizamabad Urban, Nizamabad Rural and Balkonda. Adilabad district reported completion of the digitisation exercise. Officials said the BLOs had also identified electors who had died, shifted or were absent.
In the Adilabad and Boath Assembly constituencies, forms had been distributed to all 4,66,784 electors. Forms relating to 4,03,367 electors were digitised, while 63,417 electors were identified for removal from the rolls. This included 13,364 deceased electors, 30,442 who had shifted and 11,909 who were marked absent, besides others identified during the exercise.
The three constituencies of Mancherial district, Mancherial, Bellampalli and Chennur, together had 6,61,467 electors. Forms were distributed and 5,45,736 were digitised. The remaining 1,15,731 cases included electors identified as deceased, shifted or otherwise requiring removal or further verification. Nirmal and Komaram Bheem-Asifabad districts also reported completion of the exercise.
In Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts, the exercise was also nearing completion. Khammam recorded 87.25% coverage and Bhadradri-Kothagudem 86.65%. Officials attributed the forms that remained unaccounted for partly to electors who had died or shifted. The six districts of the erstwhile Warangal region also recorded relatively high levels of progress. Jangaon recorded 91.68% completion and Mahbubabad 90.07%. The other districts also crossed the 85% mark, while Hanamkonda recorded around 96% progress.
Draft rolls on August 17
The Chief Electoral Officer, Telangana, will now prepare and publish the draft electoral rolls on August 17 based on the enumeration exercise.
The publication of the draft rolls will not bring the revision process to an end. Electors whose names do not figure in the draft roll, as well as other stakeholders, will have an opportunity to file claims and objections between August 17 and September 16.
The disposal of claims and objections, including completion of the prescribed notice process, will be taken up between August 17 and October 15. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on October 19.
Election authorities have maintained that an elector’s name not appearing in the draft roll does not necessarily mean that the person has lost the opportunity to have it included. Claims and objections can be filed during the prescribed period, after which the cases will be examined before the final rolls are published.
(With inputs from U Mahesh, B Satyanarayana Reddy, P Krishna, S Raja Reddy, MVK Sastry and Naveen Kumar Tallam)