Over 1.52 lakh mapped voters in four Hyderabad constituencies were later classified as dead, shifted or untraceable, raising questions over SIR verification.
Over 1.5 lakh voters, who were mapped during the pre-SIR exercise in four Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, were found to be classified under the ‘absent, shifted, duplicate, deceased’ (ASDD) list.
Figures from the Chandrayangutta, Bahadurpura, Yakutpura and Charminar raised serious questions over the consistency and credibility of the verification process. Analysts pointed out that 24,449 mapped electors in the four constituencies were subsequently classified as dead, 87,914 as permanently shifted and 40,597 as untraceable or absent (ASDD). Together, these three categories accounted for 1,52,960 electors.
“This is not a small discrepancy that can be dismissed as routine electoral-roll cleaning. We are talking about more than 1.52 lakh voters in just four Assembly constituencies of Hyderabad, who were first successfully mapped, and were later shown as dead, permanently shifted or untraceable,” said Syed Khalid Saifullah, DCC president, who analysed the data of four constituencies.
“How such a large number of voters who had gone through this mapping process could subsequently fall into categories suggesting that they were no longer available at the same status ?” Saifullah asked
Meanwhile, about 20 civil society groups representatives and social activists from Telangana on Sunday wrote a representation to Gynesh Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner, and C. Sudershan Reddy, Chief Electoral Officer, highlighting ‘lack of transparency’ in notices and hearings in SIR.
Citing that there was no mechanism to check current status, they demanded that the authorities provide access to the full status of the voter’s case. Urging the poll authorities to maintain transparency, they demanded that all the documents and details be uploaded and remain accessible online.
“The CEO should publish daily statistics or a daily bulletin on the portal, constituency-wise, showing the number of notices issued, the number of voters who attended hearings, the number of voters whose claims were approved, and the number of voters whose claims were not approved or were rejected,” they demanded.
Those who backed the demand include social activists S.Q. Masood, R. Venkat Reddy, Varghese Theckanath, Prof. Padmaja Shaw, Meera Sangamitra of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) amongst others.
Now present, now absent
Analysts said more than 1.5 lakh voters who were mapped ahead of the special intensive revision of electoral roll have not been listed as absent, duplicate, shifted or dead.
Constituency - Mapped –Absent –Shifted -Untraceable
Chandrayangutta -40,075 -6,155 -23,750 -10,170
Bahadurpura - 36,891 -4,755 -22,085 -10,051
Yakutpura -47,200 - 7,694 -31,349 -8,157
Charminar -28,794 -5,845 -10,730 -12,219
WHAT IS PRE-SIR MAPPING?
Pre-SIR mapping was the preliminary phase conducted by the Election Commission of India to link and authenticate current electoral roll data with records from the SIR conducted in 2002.
It establishes a clear lineage and continuity of voter credentials across generations by matching voters or their family members (parents or grandparents) to past electoral rolls.
At the administrative level, it helps block-level officers to identify voters and flag discrepancies, missing entries, or duplicate registrations.
Pre-SIR mapping also reduces the administrative load of door-to-door enumeration during the main SIR phase by pre-populating and pre-matching stable records.
