BRS urges CEO to extend voter roll revision timeline

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

A delegation from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Monday met Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy, requesting that the Election Commission of India (ECI) extend the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by an additional month.

The delegation, which included former MP B Vinod Kumar and MLC L. Ramana, presented a memorandum outlining concerns about procedural shortcomings and insufficient time to complete the verification process accurately and transparently. Later, Vinod Kumar addressed the media, stating that the BRS had formed a special committee to work with Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) throughout the SIR process.

He expressed that party members across the state had reported that BLOs were not operating consistently, and many eligible voters had not received enumeration forms, especially with only 20 days left for the exercise.

The BRS highlighted that approximately 2.96 crore out of Telangana's 3.38 crore electors had received enumeration forms, but as of July 5, only 19 lakh forms had been digitized. The party contended that a one-month extension of the SIR would facilitate a more transparent and error-free revision process, ensuring that qualified voters are not mistakenly left off the electoral rolls.

The senior BRS official further claimed that the 2002 electoral rolls being used for reference were not readily accessible with EPIC numbers, complicating the verification process. He noted that the ECI portal was often unavailable and that the existing rolls, primarily in Telugu, lacked EPIC details for more than half of the voters.

Additionally, the party expressed concerns about the lack of adequate training and clear directives for BLOs, the removal of voters for minor spelling discrepancies, inconsistencies in surname and first name order, the absence of voter mapping information, and a lack of transparency in identifying duplicate and deceased voters, as well as the failure to provide acknowledgments for submitted enumeration forms.