Telangana Draft Electoral Rolls Reveal Millions of Deletions and Pending Notices

The draft electoral rolls for Telangana published on August 17, 2026, show that 7,339,235 voters have been deleted from the lists. This reduction represents 21.7 percent of the previous rolls, leaving 26,487,213 electors. Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy announced that an additional 9,287,577 electors will receive notices from Electoral Registration Officers due to logical discrepancies or a failure to establish a link with the 2002 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolls. Of those receiving notices, 6,050,918 are flagged for anomalies and 3,236,659 are unmapped to the 2002 records.

Officials categorized the deleted voters as Absent, Shifted, Deceased, or Duplicate (ASDD). Specifically, 4,518,963 were listed as permanently shifted, 1,125,546 as absent or untraceable, 922,229 as deceased, and 670,203 as duplicates. Another 102,294 were deleted under other categories. The CEO stated that the revision aims to maximize participation rather than indiscriminately delete names. Genuine electors can seek re-inclusion by submitting Form 6 and a declaration form during the claims and objections period from August 17 to September 16.

Data indicates a significant impact on urban areas. In the capital region, including Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal-Malkajgiri, the total number of voters fell from approximately 1.14 crore to 71 lakh. Ten of the 15 assembly constituencies in Hyderabad district recorded a decline of more than 40 percent. Digitization rates also varied by region, with Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri at 94.31 percent and Hyderabad at 58.89 percent.

Reporting on the event varied by political lean. Center-right framing emphasized the official reasons for deletions, such as migration and the use of software to find duplicates, while highlighting the process for genuine voters to return to the rolls. Center-left framing focused on potential systemic failures, noting that urban Booth Level Officers may not have conducted mandated house visits and questioning the accuracy of the software used to identify duplicates.