Hyderabad: Deleted Voters Vent Anger at Poll Officials Over SIR
Deleted voters, those who found their names in the ASDD list during the SIR of the electoral roll, on Sunday expressed their anger against poll officials and poured out their woes during a public hearing conducted by the TVRF.
Hyderabad: Deleted voters, those who found their names in the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead, duplicate) list during the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, on Sunday expressed their anger against poll officials and poured out their woes during a public hearing conducted by the Telangana Voter Rights Forum (TVRF).
Several dropped voters and their family members from the Musheerabad Assembly constituency, mostly from the working class and daily wagers, challenged the process undertaken by the Election Commission of India and demanded restoration of their votes without mandatory submission of Form-6.
Musheerabad has the highest number of deletions in Hyderabad district, with 45.17 per cent (ASDD), compared to the city average of 40.99 per cent.
As of June 10, the constituency had 3,10,116 voters, of whom 1,40,070 were deleted, according to official data.
Deposing before a panel of experts, Jasibunnisa said her husband Abdul Kareem Malik, covered by polling booth 128 at Bholakpur, was deleted on the ground that he was dead.
She said they never received the enumeration form from the local booth level officer (BLO) and were shocked to learn of the deletion.
“We have been residents of this constituency for at least eight years, but my husband’s name was deleted citing his death. We are a poor family.
If we run after these voter-related works, who will take care of the family?” she asked, as Malik, the sole breadwinner, continued with his busy day.
The panel included Prof. G. Haragopal, former chairman of the Telangana Education Commission, Akunuri Murali, Prof. Padmaja Shaw, and social activists S.Q. Masood and Rubina Nafees Fathima.
Jayasree, wife of Saranappa from polling station 126 of Bholakpur, residing in the area for 30 years, said her husband’s name was deleted on the ground that he was untraceable.
She herself received a notice about a mismatch in her name. Questioning how officials could delete her husband’s name, she demanded restoration.
“Why should we apply for Form-6 when we are genuine voters and residing in the same area for three decades,” she asked.
Saibaba, a painter, said the names of ten family members were deleted on the grounds that they had permanently shifted.
He explained that he had gone out for a month following a relative’s death, while his family sold their house and moved to an adjacent lane.
They did not get to submit the enumeration form, though he has Aadhaar and other documents.
Several deponents, many of them women, were visibly traumatised and vexed with the exercise, questioning why they had to again prove eligibility when they had voted in several elections.
Prior to the hearing, a 20-member volunteer team audited two polling booths —94 and 95 of Musheerabad — using the 2025 electoral rolls as the base list.
The random survey revealed that BLOs had not visited most homes, and each house was linked to multiple polling booths. Voters could not comprehend why they had to fill forms despite voting in many elections.
“Since polling booths were not contiguous, we ended up surveying 1,829 voters verified across 78 polling booths. After publication of the draft voter list and the ASDD list, the team went back to verify the status of voters — whether they got included in the draft list, received notices, the reason for notices, or got deleted and, if so, on what grounds such as untraceable, shifted or dead,” explained Dr Suneetha Achyuta of Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad.
