Hyderabad: Expressing concern about 92 lakh voters in the state receiving notices during the ongoing SIR, Telangana Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud on Tuesday, August 18, demanded that the Election Commission remove the necessity of voters linking themselves with 2002 electoral rolls.

As many as 73 lakh names have not been included in Telangana’s draft electoral rolls released on August 17, while another 92 lakh electors will be issued notices over anomalies or failure to establish a link with the 2002 rolls during the ongoing SIR.

Goud claimed that it is the poor who are losing their voting rights as they are not able to produce the requisite documents.

On the EC using the 2002 electoral rolls as a baseline for the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR), he said the poor are not able to link their names with the 2002 voters lists.

All citizens should have right to vote regardless of linking says Goud

He said all citizens of India should be given voting right after conducting an enquiry regardless of whether their vote is linked with 2002 rolls or not.

The Booth Level Officers are supposed to take a call on Absent, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate (ASD) voters after making three visits to a house in their jurisdiction but the BLOs, especially in Hyderabad, have hardly visited, he said.

Though Congress submitted a list of its 35,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs), the election authorities in Telangana show the number to be over 13,000, he claimed.

BJP trying to delete votes with its ‘pocket institution’

He alleged that the BJP is trying to remove names of ordinary people by imposing tough rules and reducing the Election Commission (EC) as its “pocket institution.”

He demanded that the Election Commission provide details of 1.60 lakh voters (including those in categories of ASD, anomalies and unmapped categories) so that the BLAs can try to help in enrolling them in the electoral rolls.

Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy on Monday said that about 73 lakh names were in the Absent, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate list.

Genuine electors can still have their names included in the electoral rolls during the claims and objections period from August 17 to September 16 by submitting Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration form.

Reddy said notices would be issued to 60 lakh people in the ‘anomalies’ category and another 32 lakh in the ‘unmapped’ category, comprising those who could not establish a link with the 2002 electoral rolls.

Those who receive notices can submit the necessary documents, as specified on the reverse of the Enumeration Form, during the hearing.

The notice phase and disposal of claims and objections will be held from August 17 to October 15.

The final electoral roll will be published on October 19.