Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy has ordered detailed verification of bulk Form-7 applications seeking deletion of names from electoral rolls, saying no voter would be removed without verified field information and a documented decision.
Reddy made the clarification at a press conference at BRKR Bhavan on Thursday as Telangana’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls progresses. He said applications submitted in bulk, including those received from political parties, would have to be properly investigated before any deletion was approved.
“If Form-7 applications are received in bulk, say from a political party, they have to be properly enquired into and properly verified and speaking-order and type-order has to be given,” Reddy said, according to Deccan Chronicle.
A total of 28,753 Form-7 applications had been submitted in Telangana as of Thursday. Form-7 is used to request deletion of a name from an electoral roll. The CEO’s statement places additional emphasis on field verification and recorded orders where applications are submitted in large numbers, a process intended to establish the basis for each deletion.
Reddy also provided an update on the wider roll-revision exercise. Of the 65 lakh voters who completed the hearing process, 54 lakh were found eligible for inclusion in the final rolls. Nearly 93 lakh notices had been issued, of which about three lakh remained pending.
Although October 7 had been set as the date for claims and objections, the CEO said the process would continue until November 5, when the SIR exercise in Telangana is scheduled to conclude. The final electoral roll is due to be published on November 9.
The Hyderabad-specific implications of the exercise were highlighted in response to allegations by former MLA Danam Nagender regarding large-scale deletions in the Khairatabad Assembly constituency. Reddy said 80,000 votes had been removed during the enumeration phase and another 80,000 voters had received notices. Of those who received notices, 40,000 had already been included in the final roll, he said.
The CEO said Booth Level Officers had been instructed to rigorously collect enumeration forms. More than 46 lakh voters had cleared the SIR scrutiny, according to the update provided at the press conference.
Reddy also ruled out any further extension of the schedule in Telangana, contrasting the state’s position with Andhra Pradesh. “We have already extended the dates by three weeks. The Election Commission of India has already considered our request for extension by three weeks,” he said.
The press conference also covered the preparation of de-novo electoral rolls for the upcoming MLC elections. Reddy said the rolls would be prepared strictly under Election Commission instructions and that even voters enrolled in the relevant Graduates’ Constituency during the previous election would have to submit a fresh application.
Applicants for the Graduates’ Constituency must have obtained their degree at least three years before the qualifying date of November 1, 2026. The cut-off date for acquiring the required educational qualification is October 31, 2023. The SIR process is scheduled to conclude on November 5, followed by publication of the final electoral roll on November 9.
