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The Telangana Voter Rights Forum has urged the Election Commission (EC) to launch an intensive multilingual public awareness campaign and extend the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana by at least three months, citing widespread confusion over the voter verification exercise.
At a public meeting organised at Hyderabad's Sundarayya Vignana Kendram on Saturday, July 4, the Forum demanded that the EC conduct awareness campaigns in Telugu, English, and Urdu to explain the mandatory submission of enumeration forms. It also sought dedicated voter helplines and a stronger role for Booth Level Officers (BLOs), including ensuring their daily availability at designated public assistance centres.
The demands come amid the EC's ongoing SIR exercise in Telangana. As part of the drive, BLOs are conducting mandatory door-to-door voter verification and distributing pre-printed enumeration forms to households across the state. The exercise is scheduled to continue until July 24.
Speakers at the meeting, including retired bureaucrats, legal experts, activists, and representatives of workers' unions, raised concerns over the implementation of the exercise, arguing that it could disproportionately affect marginalised communities.
Retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali alleged that the exercise was an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government to disenfranchise vulnerable sections of society.
“The SIR process works against minorities, women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Scheduled Tribes (STs). As things stand, the entire process is dependent on BLOs, who themselves remain unclear about how the exercise is to be carried out,” Murali said.
Echoing concerns over the complexity of the process, retired Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy said he had kept aside his own enumeration form because he was still unsure how to fill it.
“You may wonder how a man incapable of reading this form became a judge. Most judges do not know how to read this either,” he quipped.
Justice Sudershan also criticised Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant’s judgment upholding the SIR exercise. Referring to the Association for Democratic Reforms vs Election Commission of India case, he argued that the judgment misinterpreted the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
“Section 21(3) of the 1950 Act states that ‘… the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit.’ This only means that the EC can conduct a special revision in a constituency or part of a constituency, not across the entire country. The Supreme Court has misread the provision,” he said.
Justice Sudershan further argued that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, does not contain the word “intensive.”
“It only refers to a special revision. An intensive revision includes details such as when you voted, which polling booth you voted at and other such information. Ideally, these should not be the concern of the Election Commission,” he added.
Activists working with marginalised communities also described practical challenges faced by those they represent.
Speaking on behalf of garbage collectors, Hyma said workers across 10 districts in Telangana were largely unaware of the SIR exercise because they leave for work early in the morning and are usually away from home when BLOs visit.
Manjula, a member of the Telangana Domestic Workers Union, said domestic workers feared they could lose access to welfare schemes because of confusion surrounding the exercise.
“Several workers told us that BLOs are yet to visit their homes. Even when they do, many workers do not understand how to fill the enumeration forms,” she said.
Senior Telangana ideologue and MLC M Kodandaram argued that the exercise was fundamentally discriminatory. “This is not a voter hakku (voters’ rights) programme; it is a paurasatva namodu (citizenship registration) programme,” he said.