BJP Urges Election Commission to Extend Electoral Rolls Revision Deadline to October 7

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged the Election Commission to extend the deadline for submitting claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by three weeks, warning that many eligible citizens could be excluded from the voter list.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Hyderabad on Wednesday, BJP State general secretary Vemula Ashok requested an extension of the deadline from September 16 to October 7. He also appealed for the timeframe for issuing notices and disposing of claims and objections to be extended from October 15 to November 6.

The party stated that 92.88 lakh notices were generated for voters whose records had discrepancies or lacked mapping with the 2002 electoral rolls. However, only 31.74 lakh of those notices have been delivered so far, and hearings have been conducted in only 1.94 lakh cases at the Assistant Electoral Officer level.

The BJP further alleged that more than 45 lakh voters had been categorised as 'absent, shifted, dead or duplicate' and marked as permanently shifted. This resulted in the deletion of their names from the draft electoral rolls, even though many continue to live in the same neighbourhoods.

Citing a polling station in Hyderabad's Karwan Assembly constituency as a specific example, the party claimed multiple voters were improperly classified. The party also alleged that voters across the GHMC area and other municipal corporations were receiving notices requesting details from the 2002 rolls despite their records already being mapped.

Urging the Election Commission to intervene, the BJP asked officials to rectify these discrepancies and provide additional time to ensure no eligible voter is left off the rolls.