Revanth Reddy Urges ECI to Extend Telangana Electoral Roll Revision by Four Weeks

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to extend the ongoing claims and objections period for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls by four weeks beyond the current September 16 deadline.

In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Minister warned that lakhs of eligible electors risk being left out of the final rolls. He noted that out of the state's 3.38 crore registered voters as of June 10, as many as 73.39 lakh entries, or 21.7 percent, have been placed under the absent, shifted, dead, and duplicate categories.

Revanth Reddy stated that of the 2.65 crore enumeration forms digitised so far, 60.5 lakh have been flagged for anomalies and another 32.3 lakh for not being linked to the earlier electoral roll. Together, these two non-overlapping sets add up to 92.8 lakh electors who must now respond to notices, meaning nearly one-third of the state's electorate must prove entitlement afresh or face deletion.

The Chief Minister expressed serious concern over the composition of the flagged list, pointing out that 45.1 lakh of the 73.3 lakh flagged entries—nearly 62 percent—were classified as permanently shifted. He argued that the verification methodology failed to differentiate between temporary absence, such as being at work or traveling during a booth-level officer's visit, and permanent relocation. He also noted that voters marked as shifted were excluded from the statutory notice mechanism.

According to the Chief Minister, Hyderabad, Medchal Malkajgiri, and Rangareddy districts accounted for 58.6 percent of all absent, shifted, dead, and duplicate entries and 41.9 percent of verification notices, despite making up only about one-third of the total electorate.

To address these issues, Revanth Reddy requested the ECI to direct district election officers to conduct public readings of draft rolls at least twice in every village and municipal ward. He also sought three to four weeks for voters to respond to notices and submit documents, proposed setting up help desks in urban areas, and urged the commission to expand the list of admissible local documents.