Over 50 Lakh Voters May Be Deleted in Draft Voter Roll

Hyderabad: The number of voters not available at the registered address stated in the electoral roll has crossed 44 lakh in the state. This number includes voters not present at the address, those who have shifted residence, deceased voters, and those whose vote was registered elsewhere.

According to officials, this number of ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate) voters is likely to cross 50 lakh by August 3, when the deadline for submitting enumeration forms expires. These names will be deleted from the draft electoral roll as part of the special intensive revision of the electoral roll.

The ASDD number surprised poll officials, who were expecting about 30 lakh voters in this category. Out of 44 lakh ASDD voters, more than half reportedly moved to a new residence, while up to four lakh people were reported to have died.

By Thursday, the poll officials had digitised 76.72 per cent of enumeration form data in the state. However, Hyderabad remains lagging behind all the districts with 55.57 per cent digitisation of enumeration forms.

“Most of the voters marked for deletion are migrants from Andhra Pradesh, who prefer to have their votes in their hometowns. Similarly, the voters from northern states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar prefer to have their vote in their respective places. This will result in them losing their voting right in Telangana,” explained the official.

“As part of the ongoing SIR-2026, a polling station-wise list containing details of ASDD voters during the enumeration forms digitisation phase of the SIR-2026 exercise has been prepared, and the enclosed lists are being furnished for your information and necessary verification as on 29.07.2026 at 10 am,” read a formal message sent by the Chandrayangutta electoral registration officer (ERO) to a political party.

This message renewed concerns about BLOs wrapping up the enumeration process prematurely before the August 3 deadline, succumbing to pressure from higher-ups. Similar incidents were also reported in Karimnagar, where poll officials began printing voter details under various categories including ‘untraceable/absent’, ‘death’, and ‘permanently shifted’.

“I was surprised to know that EROs are already listing out the voters under different categories. I don’t understand what the rush is, when there is time till Monday (August 3),” wondered advocate M.A. Mujeeb Ayyub, a volunteer of SIR exercise, expressing concern that eligible voters may get deleted.

At Kishanbagh under the Bahadurpura Assembly constituency, a GHMC sweeper, G. Uma Rani, was surprised to know that her and her family members' Enumeration Forms were already struck off as ‘deleted’, ‘shifted’, before they could receive the forms on Wednesday.

“Since we were running after our daily bread and butter, we placed little focus on this issue. We had trouble pushing through our case. Fortunately, the issue was resolved with the local leader’s intervention yesterday itself,” said G Nikhil, son of Uma.

“The voters, who were in the 2025 voter list, have not submitted the enumeration forms to the BLOs. They are already being put in the ASDD list, though there are still four days for submitting the enumeration form,” said P. Rajesh Kumar, chairman, TPCC Election Commission Coordination Committee, in his representation to Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy.

Even the BJP has criticised booth-level officers for uploading forms online to meet the deadline. “To fraudulently inflate completion metrics, the blank backside of the enumeration forms was scanned and uploaded into the application,” alleged Marri Shashidhar Reddy, the chairman of the BJP Election Commission Affairs Committee.

“When confronted, the concerned BLOs openly admitted to the malpractice, defending their actions by citing immense pressure from supervisory officers, AEROs, and higher authorities to artificially display a high percentage of digitisation completion within tight deadlines. While administration targets are important, compromising statutory electoral processes under pressure is completely illegal and unacceptable,” the BJP leader added.