Hyderabad: Hyderabad District Congress Committee President Syed Khalid Saifullah flagged Hyderabad SIR gaps and cited 148 sets of apparent duplicate voter entries in Yakutpura that required official verification.
Saifullah also alleged that political parties had not received crucial anomaly and unmapped voter lists despite directions from the Chief Electoral Officer. He raised the concerns while visiting ward sabhas conducted at polling booth locations across Hyderabad.
During the visits, he interacted with Booth Level Agents, party workers and election officials. Saifullah said political parties were expected to participate in verification during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
However, he alleged they lacked information needed to identify and assist voters whose records required scrutiny, correction or additional documents.
Hyderabad SIR gaps include incomplete ASD details
Saifullah said the Absent, Shifted and Dead lists supplied for verification lacked house numbers and adequate address details. He argued that BLAs could not effectively conduct household verification without precise addresses.
“How does the Election Commission expect BLAs to visit households when the ASD list itself does not contain house numbers?” Saifullah asked. He also questioned how BLAs could locate and verify such voters without adequate address information.
According to Saifullah, the problem was particularly serious in Hyderabad’s densely populated localities. He said names and limited locality information alone could make identifying individual voters difficult.
Saifullah also alleged that political parties had not received the anomaly and unmapped voter lists. He said the CEO had directed Booth Level Officers and Electoral Registration Officers to provide these lists to political parties.
Despite those directions, Saifullah said the Hyderabad DCC had not received the lists. He argued that BLAs needed the information to approach flagged voters and explain deficiencies in their electoral records.
The agents could then guide voters about documents and help eligible citizens resolve anomalies or mapping problems, he said.
Hyderabad SIR gaps: 148 apparent duplicate sets cited
Saifullah alleged that discrepancies remained in electoral rolls despite the SIR exercise. He cited the Yakutpura Assembly constituency and said the Hyderabad DCC had compiled 148 sets of apparent duplicate voter entries.
According to the party, each case required verification by election authorities before any corrective action. The DCC compilation contained side-by-side electoral records that the party identified as possible duplicate cases.
Several entries had identical or closely matching names, relatives’ names and photographs, Saifullah said. However, differences appeared in EPIC numbers, polling parts, addresses, ages or other electoral particulars.
Saifullah said the presence of apparent duplicates after SIR raised questions about the effectiveness and quality of the exercise. He demanded proper verification and correction of every such case.
At the same time, he cautioned against deleting genuine voters solely because of suspicion or a database match. Saifullah said electoral roll revision should remove ineligible or duplicate entries while protecting every eligible citizen’s voting rights.
Hyderabad SIR gaps prompt transparency demand
Saifullah demanded that the Election Commission immediately provide complete anomaly and unmapped voter lists to political parties. He also sought house numbers and sufficient address particulars in ASD lists.
In addition, he called for thorough verification of apparent duplicate entries detected after the SIR exercise. Saifullah accused the Election Commission of lacking transparency in the revision process.
He alleged that withholding crucial electoral data while discrepancies remained created doubts about the institution’s independence. “The ECI is behaving more like a frontal organisation of the BJP than an independent constitutional institution,” Saifullah alleged.
He said the Election Commission should address such doubts through greater transparency and action. Saifullah maintained that the Congress concerns involved the integrity and credibility of the electoral roll revision process.
Therefore, he argued, authorities should not treat them merely as objections raised by a political party. “The objective must be clear: remove bogus and duplicate voters after proper verification, but protect every genuine citizen’s constitutional right to vote,” Saifullah said.
“Neither inclusion of an ineligible voter nor deletion of an eligible voter can be justified,” he added. No response from the Election Commission or BJP to Saifullah’s allegations was included in the supplied material.