37% of pre-issue SIR Form 6 applications rejected in Telangana due to absence of declaration form

Shifting target positions by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in view of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has resulted in the rejection of tens of thousands of new voter registration application forms in Telangana.

A large number of new voter registration applications submitted through Form 6 before the SIR process began were rejected because they were not accompanied by the declaration form, which is a requirement for registration.

The declaration form, which was an attachment to Form 6 exclusively for the SIR process, sought details of the voter or parents/relatives of the voter from the 2002 SIR. Since this data was not available, applicants were asked to submit one of the 12 documents listed as proof of their citizenship.

ECI has recently announced that declaration is not required for submission of Form 6 in states where SIR is not enabled. It was too late for Telangana as a large number of voters who submitted Form 6 before the start of SIR were rejected due to lack of declaration form.

According to data obtained from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana, a total of 5,20,331 new registration applications were received during the pre-SIR period between January 1, 2026 and June 14, 2026. They were not accompanied by a declaration form which was only mandatory during the SIR process.

According to Voter Registration Rule 196, such claims should be presented at the office of the voter registration officer and disposed of within a week. This has not been followed and forms submitted by 14 June 2026 are now processed together with forms submitted at the enumeration stage, at the claims and objections stage and after the claims and objections stage.

Out of the total SIR Form-6 provisional applications, only 3,22,785 were accepted as new applications till 28 October 2026. A total of 1,92,574 were rejected, representing a rejection rate of 37%. A total of 4,972 forms remained to be processed.

The election officials attributed the rejection to not submitting the declaration form along with Form 6. This despite the fact that the forms were filed before the SIR when the declaration form was not mandatory. Officials say the names of rejected applicants will not appear in the final lists unless they resubmit the form.

The ERO, who did not wish to be quoted, informed that in order to process applications before SIR Form-6, declaration forms are now being sent door-to-door through stall level workers (BLOs).

BLOs failed to distribute door-to-door enumeration forms during the enumeration phase, due to which 73.39 lakh voters were removed from the draft electoral rolls and grouped into Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate categories.

They were additionally burdened with the work of the ERO in the notification phase, collecting documents and uploading them to the ERONET software. In addition, they are asked to go door-to-door to distribute notices and collect documents from voters who did not respond to the notices.

Many of the BLOs could not even be present at the polling booths on October 15 and 16 for a special camp announced by the Director General of Voters Registration.

Published – 29 Oct 2026 19:15 IST