Telangana SIR: Social audit tracks 23% deleted voters in Secunderabad Cantonment constituency

Dignitaries attending a public hearing on voting rights organized by the Telangana Voter Rights Forum at St. Joseph’s in Secunderabad on Saturday, October 31, 2026. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Surekha Joshi from Trimulghera is a very angry woman. Five of her family members retained their votes in the draft electoral rolls published on 17 August 2026 as part of a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls. But she couldn’t.

This despite all six filling out their enumeration forms together and handing them back to the cabin level officer. She is now asked to file Form 6 to register as a new voter.

“First let them explain why they deleted my vote. Why should I re-register? I want to vote with my old EPIC number,” she demanded at a public hearing organized by Telangana Voter Rights Forum for voters in two polling stations in Secunderabad Cantonment constituency.

Dignitaries attending a public hearing on voting rights organized by the Telangana Voter Rights Forum at St. Joseph’s in Secunderabad on Saturday, October 31, 2026. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Many voters with similar complaints were outraged by the new registration request. A few of them were holding copies of the filled forms signed by the BLO as proof that they had submitted the forms.

“I was born in Lalbazar and lived at the same address for the last 22 years. I have been voting since I was 18. Why should I sign a new voter registration form? I feel it is an insult,” asked Yadagiri, 78, who was born the same year India gained independence.

Farzana Begum was notified that she is the sixth sibling mapped to the same parent. However, her husband, who attended the hearing, said she only had four siblings.

K. Ganesh, an advocate who attended the public hearing, informed that he had to fill his details in the enumeration form by watching YouTube clips as no one was guiding him. The form has been submitted but its name has been removed.

Joseph, a soldier who voted in 2024, found his name on the Absent/Shifted/Dead/Duplicate (ASDD) list marked as Absent/Untraceable. His wife Priya said no one came to give the forms.

In several cases, the address published on the enumeration form was different from the actual address printed on the EPIC form.

“Me and my wife’s forms were sent to two different addresses. We found out when we inquired with the BLO. I am marked as ‘Permanently Shifted’ and my wife is marked as ‘Untraceable’. We don’t know how the address changed. Our EPICs have the correct address,” Isaac said.

Most of the voters learned about their deletion from the voters’ list through the Forum’s volunteers, who did the hard work of tracking them down as part of a social audit.

“We developed an open-source app and uploaded the information before sharing the lists with volunteers who went door-to-door to collect details and inform voters,” said Sreeharsha Thanneru, who was part of the initiative.

Volunteers checked 174 voters out of 721 marked as ASDD and found that 40 of them existed at the same addresses. This represents a 23% deletion. The forum has now set up a help desk to help deleted voters fill Form 6, but is protesting against it.

Lawyers at the hearing, social activist Shanta Sinha, political commentator Parakala Prabhakar, journalist and writer C. Rammanohar Reddy, activist Ashhar Farhan demanded that the SIR process be quashed and the voter delisting be cancelled.

Published – 31 Oct 2026 21:35 IST