Telangana Congress warns SIR must not become backdoor NRC

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) has urged the state’s Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy to ensure the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls does not become a “backdoor NRC exercise,” and sought special safeguards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, migrant workers and economically vulnerable voters.

In a detailed memorandum, TPCC president and MLC B. Mahesh Kumar Goud called for the SIR to be carried out “fair, transparent, and impartial manner,” warning against a rushed process ahead of future elections. The party asked for a phased, closely monitored exercise with measures to prevent wrongful deletions and to protect marginalised groups.

The memorandum recommended targeted awareness campaigns, training for officials, and where possible the appointment of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from vulnerable communities. It also proposed a relaxation mechanism for people who migrated to Telangana after 2002, suggesting affidavits be accepted as proof of eligibility if the person had voted in at least two local elections.

The TPCC warned the SIR should not be used, directly or indirectly, as a citizenship verification linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Citing Supreme Court guidance, the party said the Election Commission cannot demand proof of citizenship during voter registration and urged authorities to confine the exercise to lawful voter-registration procedures.

The Congress sought stronger safeguards against wrongful deletions, including mandatory written notice before any deletion, a minimum one-month response window, and compulsory physical verification where software flags discrepancies. The party raised concerns about alleged misuse of Form 7 deletion requests and asked that no name be removed without credible evidence and field verification.

To improve transparency, the TPCC requested electoral rolls from 2002 and 2025 in machine-readable formats (OCR, CSV or Excel) for recognised parties, and timely sharing of lists marked Absent, Shifted or Dead (ASD) and proposed deletion lists with political parties and Booth Level Agents. It also urged that SIR records be preserved for at least five years at ERO and DEO offices.

Warning against overburdening officials, the memorandum recommended the SIR be spread over 18–24 months rather than rushed into a two-to-three-month window, and opposed assigning both Census and SIR duties to the same staff. The TPCC flagged alleged irregularities in pre-SIR activities, claiming some BLOs conducted voter mapping from fixed locations with party workers instead of door-to-door checks and that some party workers used BLO logins for verification at odd hours. It demanded action and clear instructions to prevent political interference, and drew attention to delayed BLO honorariums and literacy gaps among some appointees.

Speaking to the media, Mahesh Kumar Goud alleged that SIR-style exercises had been misused in several states to manipulate outcomes, claiming Union ministers Bandi Sanjay Kumar and G. Kishan Reddy benefited from “bogus votes.” He said nationwide revisions added 8.2 crore voters while about 5.9 lakh names were deleted, and accused some states of large-scale irregularities that altered electoral arithmetic.

“The credibility of forthcoming elections depends upon the maintenance of a clean, transparent, and accurate electoral roll,” the memorandum said, urging election authorities to act impartially and protect every citizen’s right to vote.