Revanth asks EC to extend Telangana SIR claims window by four weeks
HYDERABAD: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy has asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to extend the claims and objections window under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state by four weeks.
In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar dated August 28, 2026, Revanth said the revision had reached a stage where the number of entries flagged for verification required the commission’s attention.
The letter said Telangana had 3.38 crore electors as of June 10, 2026. Of these, 73.39 lakh entries, or 21.7%, had been placed under the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD) categories.
Of the 2.65 crore enumeration forms digitised so far, 60.50 lakh were flagged for anomalies and 32.36 lakh for lack of a link to the earlier electoral roll. The two sets, according to the letter, do not overlap and together account for 92.86 lakh electors who may have to establish their eligibility afresh.
Revanth said the ASDD list was a “matter of grave concern”, noting that 45.19 lakh, or nearly 62%, of the 73.39 lakh flagged entries had been classified as “permanently shifted”.
CM says verification process needs procedural safeguards
Revanth said the present verification process did not distinguish between temporary absence and permanent relocation. A voter who was away for work, travel or another temporary reason when a Booth Level Officer (BLO) visited was being treated in the same manner as a person who had permanently moved, he said.
He also said voters who had genuinely shifted to another address were not being assisted in applying for enrolment at their new residence, while their names could be marked for deletion from the previous address.
The chief minister further said deletions under the “shifted” category bypassed the formal notice mechanism, with notices issued only for data anomalies or unmapped entries.
“This would mean a large number of eligible citizens are systematically denied natural justice and will likely discover their disenfranchisement only when they are turned away at the polling booth on election day,” the letter said.
The letter also highlighted the distribution of the SIR workload. Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts together account for about a third of Telangana’s electors, but the letter said they accounted for 58.6% of all ASDD entries and 41.9% of verification notices.
Revanth said frequent changes in ward and district boundaries, along with the difficulty of maintaining continuous paper records of residence, made verification particularly difficult. He said ordinary movement for work or marriage should not result in disenfranchisement.
Six measures proposed to widen voter verification process
Revanth requested the ECI to consider six measures.
First, he sought a four-week extension of the claims and objections period. The notified window currently runs from August 17 to September 16, 2026, with final publication scheduled for October 19, 2026. He said the existing period was too short for an exercise of this scale and would leave little time for voters, particularly those in the ASDD category, to file Form 6 claims.
Second, he sought public reading of draft electoral rolls. Citing the ECI Manual on Electoral Rolls, he said draft rolls should be read out at Gram Sabha meetings and, in urban areas, at Ward Committee meetings. He suggested that District Election Officers be directed to convene such meetings at least twice in all villages and municipal wards, with advance publicity.
Third, he sought three to four weeks for voters to respond to notices. Revanth said a week’s time followed by a second notice could be inadequate for daily-wage earners, migrant workers and elderly people, particularly when documents had to be obtained from another district or state.
Fourth, he proposed opening helpdesks, particularly in urban districts. He suggested that helpdesks be opened at the booth level to assist voters in understanding notices, identifying admissible documents and obtaining documents from the relevant authorities.
Fifth, he sought a wider and clearly defined list of admissible documents. The letter referred to an ECI communication dated August 11, 2026, which said Family Register Certificates issued under Telangana government’s G.O. Ms. No. 172 dated July 25, 2026, would not be accepted for SIR verification.
Revanth said many urban voters might not possess other admissible documents. He requested the commission to notify a wider list that included documents obtainable at mandal level at short notice, so Electoral Registration Officers could apply a uniform standard.
Sixth, he sought stronger capacity at the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) level. The letter said additional EROs had been appointed but the sanctioned strength would not be enough to handle the volume of notices.
In Hyderabad district, the notice workload could exceed 78,000 cases for each Assembly constituency, while the prescribed procedure required voters to appear personally before the officer, the letter said.
Revanth requested sufficient additional EROs and decentralised hearings below the ERO level, with fixed dates and times printed on notices, particularly in Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy.
The chief minister said the objective of the revision should be to ensure that no eligible elector was left out and no ineligible voter was included. He said the exercise should give voters confidence and ensure that eligible electors were not excluded for lack of time or opportunity to establish their eligibility.
The Telangana government, he said, was ready to assist the commission by opening helpdesks, mobilising the administration for Gram Sabha and Ward Committee meetings, disseminating information and providing other logistical support sought by the ECI.
Revanth ended the letter by requesting the commission to consider the suggestions and take necessary action.
