Hyderabad election officers bypass door-to-door rules for voter form distribution

On Sunday, booth-level officers (BLOs) conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive in Hyderabad bypassed mandated door-to-door distribution of voter enumeration forms, instead operating from centralized camps, political venues, and religious places. The violations were reported across several localities including Moosapet in Kukatpally, Qazipura in Charminar, Chandulal Baradari in Bahadurpura, Karwan, and Nanal Nagar, prompting intervention from election authorities.

During the exercise, BLOs were found operating from community halls, schools, and private venues instead of delivering the forms directly to the addresses of voters. This forced electors to travel to collect and fill out the forms.

In Moosapet, under the Kukatpally assembly constituency in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, four BLOs were seen distributing enumeration forms from the Sitarama Anjaneya Kalyana Mandapam in Anjaneya Nagar. Electors were called to the venue to collect forms, where booth-level agents (BLAs) of the BJP and BRS were also present.

In the Charminar assembly constituency, forms for booths 47 and 48 were distributed from Arif Function Hall in Qazipura division. Forms for booths 19, 20, and 22 to 26 were allegedly distributed from the residence of an AIMIM leader.

Further violations were reported in Bahadurpura, where BLOs reportedly left forms at a chicken centre owned by a politician in Chandulal Baradari division. In Karwan, forms for booths 53 to 57 were distributed from a religious place.

In Nanal Nagar division, a BLO handling booths 103, 104, and 105 reportedly stated that as an employee of the planning department, he could not distribute nearly 1,500 forms door-to-door and chose to sit at one place to distribute them instead.

In Budvel, forms were distributed from a zilla parishad high school to residents of several colonies, including Saikrishna Colony, Srikrishna Colony, Green City, New Green City, and Bhagavath Nagar. Allegations also emerged of political agents distributing forms themselves in Sivarampally and Hyderguda.

Responding to the reports, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana, C Sudharshan Reddy, stated that BLOs are strictly required to visit electors at their homes and cannot replace the prescribed process with centralized camps.

Sudharshan Reddy confirmed that after the Moosapet incident was brought to the notice of authorities, the Medchal-Malkajgiri Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) dispersed the BLOs and directed them to resume door-to-door distribution.

The bypass of guidelines raised concerns that electors who did not receive information about the centralized venues or were unable to travel would be left out. Field observations indicated that only a small proportion of households had been covered through home visits, with some booths in Kukatpally reporting only a 5% coverage rate.