EC removes 10 lakh voters in Telangana, majority from in and around Greater Hyderabad area

In a important development, 10 lakh duplicate voters have been identified and removed from the electoral roll in Telangana, with over a half originating from constituencies in and around Greater Hyderabad.

As per a TOI report, the constituencies of Quthbullapur, Serilingampally, and LB Nagar emerged as the areas with the highest concentration of eliminated duplicate votes. The total count of weeded-out duplicate electors in the state stood at around 1 million, out of which a noteworthy 50,000 were traced to Quthbullapur alone. The primary regions where the highest instances of duplicate voters were discovered include Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Karimnagar, and Nizamabad Urban, as revealed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana, Vikas Raj, told TOI that the grounds on which entries were purged from the electoral roll. He stated, "Entries were removed based on three distinct criteria. The first pertains to multiple entries that are either generated by the system or flagged by individuals, officials, or political entities. In these instances, crucial details such as the elector's name, relation's name and type, age, gender, and address either match entirely or show slight variations."


Raj further said, "Another reason for deletion was 'shifted electors,' which encompasses cases where a voter applies for a change of residence or address through Form-8. This entails the addition of the voter's name to the new electoral registration office (ERO) and simultaneous removal from the previous place of registration by the prior ERO. Additionally, the elimination of names can also occur based on information received from various sources, including submissions through Form-7."

Responding to the process of removing duplicate votes, Raj affirmed, "We have diligently adhered to the stipulated procedure for eradicating duplicate votes."

Vikas Raj delved into the details of an ECI circular that outlined the methodology for handling shifted voters and led discussions on streamlining the process for managing the associated forms.