8 Lakh ASDD Voters May Return To Telangana Electoral Rolls
The ECI gives excluded voters another chance to submit Enumeration Forms, potentially reducing deletions from the draft rolls.
An estimated seven to eight lakh voters are likely to find their way back onto the final electoral rolls in Telangana, following the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to provide another opportunity to those excluded from the draft rolls under the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate) category to submit Enumeration Forms for inclusion.
Officials have clarified that voters who have already submitted Form-6 to restore their names need not submit a fresh Enumeration Form to the Booth Level Officer (BLO).
By the end of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, around 65 lakh names are expected to be deleted from the existing 73 lakh voters classified under ASDD. This would leave approximately 2.72 crore voters on the final electoral rolls, against 3.38 crore in the base rolls in Telangana.
“Following the ECI’s decision, there will not be a significant change in the numbers, as most of the 45 lakh voters classified as permanently shifted have already opted to retain their votes in their native places, whether in Andhra Pradesh or states such as Rajasthan," a senior official told Deccan Chronicle.
Before the ECI decision to accept Enumeration forms from voters in the ASDD category, around 5 to 6 lakh people in this category had already submitted Form-6 applications to restore their names during the Claims and Objections period.
“Going by the response to the special enrolment camps organised earlier for voters in the ASDD category, we expect no more than one to two lakh people to submit Enumeration forms to BLOs. By the end of the SIR exercise, the number of deleted voters could be around 60 to 65 lakh, down from the current 73 lakh in the ASDD category,” officials said.
In view of the latest developments, state officials have directed district election officers (DEOs), electoral registration officers (EROs) and BLOs to reach out to voters included in the ASDD list.
Those who did not receive Enumeration forms during the enumeration phase will now be provided with the forms. BLOs and EROs will follow the same procedure adopted during the initial enumeration phase to reach out to voters in the ASDD category.
