CM Revanth to Review SIR Process on July 19

Hyderabad:With less than three weeks left for the completion of the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan will hold a full-fledged review of the ongoing exercise with Congress leaders through video conference on July 19.

The review assumes significance in the wake of the Election Commission extending the deadline for the house-to-house verification by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from July 24 to August 3, amid concerns over the poor response from voters across the state. The Congress leadership is increasingly worried over the possibility of a large-scale deletion of genuine voters from the final electoral rolls, particularly in urban areas where the response to the exercise has remained dismal.

The virtual meeting will be attended by ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, DCC presidents, among others. The leadership is expected to assess the district-wise progress of the exercise and issue fresh directions to intensify awareness campaigns and ensure that every eligible voter submits the required enumeration form before the deadline.

The EC data till July 15 show that while the distribution of enumeration forms has reached an impressive 99.99 per cent across the state, only 54.84 per cent of electors had submitted their completed forms, which were subsequently digitised. The low return rate has triggered alarm within the ruling Congress, particularly because the SIR exercise is aimed at verifying the eligibility of voters before the preparation of the final electoral rolls.

The situation is particularly worrying in the Hyderabad Core Urban Region comprising the GHMC, Malkajgiri and Cyberabad Municipal Corporations. Medchal-Malkajgiri district recorded the poorest performance in the state, with only 24.09 per cent of voters returning their forms by July 15. In Hyderabad district, although all 47.36 lakh voters received their enumeration forms, only 27.29 per cent submitted them back to BLOs. Rangareddy district also reported a weak response, with just 38.10 per cent of its 29.76 lakh voters completing the exercise.

In contrast, Yadadri Bhongir emerged as the best-performing district with 83.34 per cent of voters submitting digitised forms, followed by Siddipet at 77.35 per cent and Nalgonda at 77.30 per cent.

These figures have raised serious concern within the Congress, with the state leadership reportedly concluding that several ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and party functionaries have continued to treat the SIR exercise casually despite repeated instructions from the Chief Minister.

The upcoming review comes barely three weeks after Revanth Reddy held a similar review on June 24, where he issued a stern warning to party leaders against displaying negligence.

During the previous meeting, the Chief Minister had said that he had already received district-wise reports on SIR awareness meetings and warned that the Congress would not remain a silent spectator if such negligence damaged the party or affected the voting rights of genuine electors.

He cautioned leaders that the party possessed complete information on district-wise participation in awareness meetings and that disciplinary action would become inevitable if performance did not improve.

Revanth Reddy had further directed party leaders to improve their performance within 10 days or face disciplinary action. He warned that the Congress was closely monitoring the performance of MLAs and would appoint new constituency in-charges wherever legislators failed to work effectively.

He also made it clear that even in-charge ministers would not be spared and could be replaced if they failed to implement party directives. However, despite these repeated warnings and reviews, party sources said that there has been little visible improvement in the pace of the exercise, especially in urban constituencies.