Hyderabad:
With Telangana set to begin house-to-house enumeration under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls from tomorrow, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Wednesday warned Congress leaders of strict action if they fail to actively participate in the party’s voter awareness campaign.
Addressing ministers, MPs, MLAs and constituency in-charges during a Zoom review meeting, Revanth Reddy said the SIR exercise was a “very serious matter” amid fears that names of genuine voters could be deleted from the rolls.
“I will not remain a silent spectator if the party suffers due to negligence on SIR. We have received district-wise reports and some leaders are not taking the campaign seriously,” he said.
The Chief Minister set a 10-day deadline for party functionaries to intensify awareness meetings and grassroots mobilisation, warning that in-charges who fail to implement party instructions would be replaced. He said the Congress was determined to safeguard the voting rights of the poor and weaker sections.
“If the poor lose their vote, they risk losing access to welfare-linked identity and entitlement systems too,” he said, urging sarpanches and local leaders to spread awareness in villages.
The Election Commission’s SIR exercise in Telangana will involve Booth Level Officers visiting households from June 25 to July 24 to distribute and collect enumeration forms. Draft rolls are scheduled to be published on July 31, with the final rolls due on October 1.
Earlier AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi met the Chief Electoral Officer and sought greater transparency, voter assistance and pre-filled forms based on existing electoral data.
“The revision must be transparent, inclusive and voter-friendly. Genuine voters should not face unnecessary hurdles,” Owaisi said, also demanding forms in Urdu and English besides Telugu.
The BRS, meanwhile, pushed for a broader clean-up of duplicate and bogus votes across states. Party MLC Dasoju Sravan, after submitting a representation to the Chief Electoral Officer, called for implementing the “One Nation, One Citizen, One Vote” principle. He urged joint verification of electoral rolls by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh authorities and said retaining multiple voter registrations was both undemocratic and punishable under law.
Amid all Telangana State Chief Electoral Officer Sudarshan Reddy has assured that the main objective of the Special Intensive Revision is to ensure voting rights for every eligible citizen in the state.
The political heat around the SIR has intensified after the Election Commission flagged discrepancies in nearly 89.88 lakh electors during a pre-revision mapping exercise. Of Telangana’s 3.38 crore voters, election officials said 2.38 crore electors had been mapped so far, with anomalies highest in Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri.
