The Election Commission of India (ECI) has deleted 12,204 names from electoral rolls after scrutiny of 24,323 Form-7 applications received during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
According to data released by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), a total of 10,24,169 applications under Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8 were received between June 15 and October 7, the deadline for submission of claims and objections. Of these, election officials disposed of 2,91,864 applications.
Form-6 applications accounted for 4,88,417 submissions, while 5,05,159 applications were received under Form-8.
Hyderabad district recorded the highest number of Form-6 applications at 1,94,204 and Form-8 applications at 1,44,800. The district also received 6,335 Form-7 applications, of which 2,066 resulted in deletion of names from the electoral rolls.
Among other districts, Rangareddy received 2,223 Form-7 applications, followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri (1,749), Peddapalli (1,737), Karimnagar (1,390), Hanamkonda (1,281) and Nizamabad (1,173).
Apart from Hyderabad, Peddapalli and Rangareddy recorded deletions in four digits, with 1,332 and 1,122 names removed, respectively.
Within Hyderabad district, Nampally Assembly constituency recorded the highest number of deletions at 316 against 523 Form-7 applications. Jubilee Hills received 1,026 Form-7 applications, the highest among the constituencies mentioned in the district, but only 161 names were deleted. Khairatabad recorded a comparatively high proportion of deletions, with 118 names removed against 172 applications.
Several Assembly constituencies outside Hyderabad also recorded relatively high proportions of deletions against Form-7 applications. These included Sirpur, Mancherial, Adilabad, Nirmal, Banswada, Nizamabad Rural, Jukkal, Yellareddy, Jagtial, Ramagundam, Sircilla, Narayankhed, Zaheerabad, Medak, Narsapur, Dubbak, Gajwel, Chevella, Pargi and Vikarabad.
The figures reflect the disposal of Form-7 applications and the deletions carried out during the revision process up to the October 7 deadline for claims and objections.
Activists describing the Form 7 deletions 7 as ‘quite reasonable’ demanded that the poll officials make the entire list of deleted votes public. “It is good development that the data is being shared, but until and unless the entire list is made public, people’s confidence cannot be restored,” said social activist S.A. Masood. “Since voters across the country are maliciously targeted for deletion, for the sake of transparency the details including the names of those who submitted the form should be in the public domain.”
Others referred to the way the data was compiled by the CEO’s office “in haste”. Advocate M.A. Mujeeb Ayyub noted that the statistics shared could not certainly reflect the ground situation. He said that people had come to the conclusion that the process was a farce and a waste of resources and time.
“The data shared by poll officials do not match two different data sheets. The number of Form-6 and Form-8 applications received in both Assembly constituency-wise and district-wise shows different figures,” he said. “If Hyderabad has 1,93,135 Form 6 (received) in the Assembly-wise information sheet, the figure appears as 1,94,204 in district-wise information sheet. When it comes to Form-8, the district-wise document shows 1,44,800 for Hyderabad, but it does not match with the Assembly-wise info sheet where the figure is 1,44,495.”
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