Form-7s Will Be Scrutinised, if Received in Bulk: CEO

 Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C. Sudarshan Reddy on Thursday said Form-7 applications filed in bulk would be properly verified and deletions from electoral rolls would be made only on the basis of verified field information.

Addressing a press conference at BRKR Bhavan, the CEO said deletions must be carried out transparently, particularly when Form-7 applications are submitted in bulk. “If Form-7 applications are received in bulk, say from a political party, they have to be properly enquired into and properly verified and speaking-order and type-order has to be given,” he clarified.

As of Thursday, 28,753 Form-7 applications had been submitted in Telangana. Of the 65 lakh voters who completed the hearing process, 54 lakh were found eligible for inclusion in the final rolls. Of nearly 93 lakh notices issued, about three lakh remained pending.

The CEO said that though October 7 was the date for ‘claims and objections’, the process would continue until November 5, when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Telangana concludes. The final electoral roll will be published on November 9.

Responding to former MLA Danam Nagender’s allegations of large-scale voter deletions in the Khairatabad Assembly constituency, the CEO said 80,000 votes had been removed during the enumeration phase and another 80,000 voters had received notices. Of those issued notices, 40,000 had already made it to the final roll.

Providing an update on the voter list verification exercise, he said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) had been instructed to rigorously collect enumeration forms. More than 46 lakh voters had already cleared the SIR scrutiny.

Responding to a question from Deccan Chronicle, the CEO said Telangana, unlike Andhra Pradesh, would not extend the dates further. “We have already extended the dates by three weeks. The Election Commission of India has already considered our request for extension by three weeks,” the official clarified.

On the preparation of de-novo electoral rolls for the MLC elections, the CEO said the rolls would be prepared strictly in accordance with Election Commission instructions. “Even if a person was already enrolled in the electoral roll of the concerned Graduates’ Constituency during the previous election, a fresh application must be submitted for inclusion in the de-novo electoral roll,” the official clarified.

He said applicants must have acquired their degree at least three years before the qualifying date of November 1, 2026. Accordingly, the cut-off date for acquiring the prescribed educational qualification is October 31, 2023.