EC Rules Telangana Family Register Certificate Invalid for Electoral Roll Revision

HYDERABAD — Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao on Thursday welcomed a clarification issued by the Election Commission, which confirmed that the state government's Family Register Certificate cannot be used as identity proof during the ongoing Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana.

The clarification from the Election Commission was communicated on Wednesday. A senior official told news agency PTI that the commission formally informed the office of the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer that the newly introduced Family Register Certificate (FRC) would not be accepted as valid identity proof for the SIR exercise.

Following the directive, Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao reacted to the development on Thursday, alleging that the ruling Congress party had attempted to use the certificate to alter voter lists. Rao claimed that the Congress was attempting to facilitate the inclusion of "illegal aliens" into the state's electoral rolls through the Family Register Certificate.

Expressing his views on the matter in a post on the social media platform X, Rao targeted multiple political parties in the state. He claimed that the "Congress, BRS and MIM must at least now stop sheltering illegal vote banks and stop finding new ways to legitimise illegals."

The Family Register initiative was launched recently by the state government. Last month, the Telangana government constituted a statewide electronic Telangana Family Register. Along with creating the electronic register, authorities introduced a facility for citizens to obtain a Family Register Certificate through the MeeSeva platform, which operates as a flagship e-governance initiative of the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments.

According to the government order issued for the initiative, the state created the Family Register to facilitate the delivery of citizen services. The official order specified that the register was intended to ensure uniformity in the verification of family particulars and provide an easily accessible record for administrative purposes. However, following the Election Commission's decision, the document cannot serve as valid identity proof for the ongoing electoral roll revision.