SIR: Telangana may witness net deletion of 70 thousand or more names from electoral rolls

Form 7 deletions make up only a fraction of the total deletions. | Photo credit: File image by MOHD ARIF

Telangana is staring at the permanent removal of nearly 70 million voters or more from the electoral rolls by the end of the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Since more than 73 million voters were deleted from the draft list and new registration applications received did not exceed 5 million voters during the claims and objections phase, the net final number of voters may end up being less than 2.7 million, resulting in a 20% deletion. Form 7 deletions make up only a fraction of the total deletions.

The draft voter lists after the enumeration phase were released on August 17 with 2,64,87,213 voters, down from the previous year’s 3,38,26,448. A total of 73,39,235 names were deleted from the list. A further 92,87,577 voters from draft lists were listed for issuance of notices as unmapped or anomalous.

Telangana election authorities have so far disenfranchised a total of 72,47,873 voters who were either not mapped with the 2002 SIR lists or were listed under anomalies/logical discrepancies.

They account for more than 78% of the total electorate listed as uncharted or anomalies, with only about 22% still ongoing. A total of 12,135 voters, representing 0.13% of the total number of voters who received notices, were listed as ineligible for the final voter rolls.

If the notices being processed receive no response from voters or are found to be ineligible for inclusion, the number of deletions may increase further.

According to data shared from the office of Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy, a total of 10,24,169 complaints and objections were received through Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8 till October 7, which is the deadline for submission of applications and objections under the SIR.

Forms 6 and 6A are for new additions of voters, Form 7 is for deceased or permanently moved voters and Form 8 is for corrections of any kind.

Most of the correction applications were filed at 5,05,159, followed by 4,94,687 applications for inclusion in the voter list. A total of 24,323 voter deletion applications were filed through Form 7, which has been at the center of controversy over mass deletion applications recently.

Complaints and objections filed are still in process. A total of 51,939 applications for inclusion in the electoral roll through Forms 6 and 6A have been processed by 7 October 2026 and the lists have been updated. Form 7 erasures updated on the rolls after verification are 12,204 with a total of 2,27,721 required corrections.

Hyderabad district topped the number of claims and objections filed, with 1,98,331 applications for inclusion, 6,335 forms for deletions, and 1,44,800 for corrections.

Published – 8 Oct 2026 21:36 IST