Nearly 16,000 votes were deleted through Form 7 applications in just four days, between October 27 and 30, according to data available on Saturday.
Since October 8, after the period for filing “claims and objections” closed, more than 48,000 votes have been deleted through Form 7 applications. Officials at the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s office were unable to explain how thousands more names were deleted in just four days.
The surge in Form 7 applications has unsettled voters, who fear further removals. “Appears like deletion tactics through Form-7, by getting more time,” said a social media post by Meer Hamed Ali, a city resident. Together with the nearly five lakh votes removed from the rolls earlier this year, before the SIR began, the total number of deletions reached 5.16 lakh on Saturday.
Meanwhile, poll officials found more than 50,000 additional voters ineligible after completing hearings for over 92 lakh of the 92.8 lakh voters who received SIR notices. The exclusions include voters in the “logical discrepancies” and “no mapping” categories. Nearly 90 lakh voters have made it to the final roll so far.
The names have passed through several administrative stages, beginning with the generation and delivery of notices, followed by hearings at the electoral registration officer (ERO) or assistant ERO level, and scrutiny by district election officials.
Elsewhere, Congress leaders questioned the Election Commission’s extension of the SIR dates, announced earlier in the week, noting that hearings had been completed for almost all voters who received notices. “I am still unable to stomach as to why the ECI has extended the date. The rise in the number of deletions is questionable,” said Pulipati Rajesh Kumar, chairman of the TPCC Election Commission coordination committee.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
