Hyderabad: Telangana’s election authorities have intensified voter list mapping across the state in preparation for the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) survey. After Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar confirmed Telangana’s inclusion in the third phase, officials accelerated groundwork at the field level.
This will be the first SIR in the state since 2002. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have received copies of both the 2002 electoral roll and the draft list for 2025. Using these records, BLOs are conducting door-to-door verification to check if names from the older list still appear in the current roll. They are also collecting information about voters’ children and mapping those entries, if listed. If any deceased voters from the 2002 roll still exist in the updated list, their names are marked for deletion.
Election officials stated that this mapping process will play a crucial role once the SIR is formally launched. The exercise spans all 33 districts, 76 revenue divisions, 620 mandals, 13 municipal corporations, 129 municipalities, 10,434 revenue villages, and 12,769 gram panchayats.
Voter list mapping finds over 50% from 2002 missing
Preliminary data from the BLO surveys suggest that, in many areas, more than half the voters listed in the 2002 roll no longer reside locally. In some cases, only 30 percent of voters could be located. These findings highlight the need for a full revision of electoral data.
Telangana currently has 3,38,76,836 registered voters. Of these, 1,68,05,321 are men, 1,70,68,629 are women, and 2,886 fall under the ‘others’ category. The mapping exercise will cover 83.04 lakh households. A total of 35,985 BLOs and 3,596 BLO Observers have been deployed.
For identification, BLOs are verifying voters against 11 approved documents. These include:
- Passport
- Central/state/PSU employee ID
- Government-issued proof dated before July 1, 1987
- Birth certificate from authorised body
- Caste certificate
- Education certificate from recognised institution
- Official residence proof
- Forest rights document
- National identity card
- Family ID issued by local authority
- Land or housing allotment order from the government
These documents will help verify both identity and residence, especially in cases where name duplication or outdated entries exist.