Hyderabad SIR draft deletions exceed winning margins across the city: Report

The SIR draft released by the Election Commission for Hyderabad showed that the number of voters deleted in Malakpet and Yakutpura constituencies outnumbered the total votes cast in the 2023 elections, and the total number of deletions across Hyderabad, which was 19.4 lakh, was equivalent to 89 per cent of the votes polled in the city in the 2023 Assembly elections, of which 40 per cent were Muslim voters.

In Malakpet, the number of electors deleted was equivalent to 112 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency in 2023, while in Yakutpura, the figure stood at 110 per cent, with both constituencies represented by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and recording the lowest voter turnout in Hyderabad district during the 2023 Assembly elections, according to an analysis by the Kolkata-based Sabar Institute.

The Sabar Institute said the scale of the deletions was significant across the city, given that in all 15 Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, the number of electors removed from the draft rolls was greater than the winning margin recorded in the 2023 elections.

According to the report, 69.3 per cent of the deleted names were classified as voters who had “permanently shifted” from their registered addresses and a further 17.5 per cent were marked as untraceable, while 8.1 per cent were recorded as deceased and 5.1 per cent as already enrolled elsewhere.

Muslim voters represented 40.7 per cent of the total deletions; however, the Sabar Institute cautioned that the available data did not establish whether Muslims were removed at a disproportionately higher rate, since religion-wise electoral data at the constituency level is not available.

The report noted that Muslims constitute 30.1 percent of Hyderabad's population, according to the 2011 Census. Among Muslim electors whose names were deleted, 19.8% were classified as untraceable and 63.8% as having permanently shifted. The corresponding figures for non-Muslim electors were 16% and 73%.

Telangana's draft electoral rolls were published on 17 August as part of the third phase of the SIR, an exercise that has prompted concerns over the possible exclusion of genuine voters and its implications for electoral outcomes.