Subscribe
During the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Telangana’s electoral rolls, two Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad saw deletions of electors under the ASDD (Absent/Shifted/Dead and Duplicate Electors) categories that were higher than the number of votes polled in the 2023 Assembly elections.
Analysis by the Kolkata-based research organisation, Sabar Institute, showed that Malakpet and Yakutpura, both held by the AIMIM, saw deletions higher than the votes polled. Incidentally, these two constituencies also had the lowest turnout in Hyderabad district in 2023.
All 15 Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad saw ASDD deletions higher than the winning margin of votes in the 2023 polls. Seven of these seats were won by AIMIM, seven by BRS, and one by BJP. Since then, two of the BRS seats – Jubilee Hills and Secunderabad Cantonment – were wrested by Congress in bye-elections. The lone BJP legislator, Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh, resigned from the BJP over N Ramachander Rao’s appointment as the party’s Telangana president.
Malakpet had 1.47 lakh deletions, having polled 1.32 lakh votes in 2023. Yakutpura had polled 1.4 lakh votes but had 1.54 lakh ASDD deletions, a preliminary report on SIR in Hyderabad published by Sabar Institute has found.
Overall in Hyderabad district, 19.41 lakh electors were deleted under ASDD, equivalent to 46% of the 42 lakh electors on the rolls as of January 2023.
The number of ASDD electors deleted is equivalent to 89% of the votes polled in Hyderabad district in 2023, the report said, noting that the comparison is only to measure the scale of the deletions and not to claim that these deleted electors would’ve necessarily voted otherwise.
Hyderabad recorded a voter turnout of 48.09% in the 2023 Assembly polls, consistent with low turnouts over the years, which often hover around 50%. Yakutpura and Malakpet recorded the lowest turnouts of 39.77% and 41.56% respectively.
The Election Commission’s ASDD records only indicate the deleted elector’s age and gender, but not their religion. Sabar Institute, however, derives the religion based on the elector’s name and their parent’s name, matching it with common last names such as Khan, Begum, Ali Ahmad, Unnisa, Fatima, Pasha, Mohammad, Baig etc., said veteran researcher and RTI activist Sabir Ahamed, who leads the Sabar team. He said that their method has seen an accuracy of over 99% so far.
Among the top last names of deleted electors are Begum, Kumar, Khan, Sultana, Ali, Ravu, Reddi, and Lakshmi.
The analysis found that 40.7% of the deleted electors in Hyderabad district had Muslim names. This is comparable to the share of Muslim population in the district, which was 43.45% according to the 2011 Census.
The share of Muslim electors deleted was highest in Bahadurpura (85.9%) followed by other constituencies in Old City that have a high Muslim population. Secunderabad Cantonment had the lowest Muslim share of deletions (12.1%).
The report noted that since there is no population data of constituencies available based on religion, it cannot be verified whether Muslims were deleted at a higher rate than others in any of these constituencies. However, Muslims were observed to be more likely to be listed as absent, dead, or duplicate than permanently shifted, compared to non-Muslims.
Women comprised 47.8% of the deletions.
Overall, only 8.1% of deleted electors were categorised as dead.
Sabar Institute noted in a post on social media platform X that out of the 10 booths in Hyderabad district that saw the most deletions, eight were in Yakutpura alone.
