SIR voter lists face gaps in Hyderabad, says DCC chief Syed Khalid Saifullah

Hyderabad: SIR voter lists in Hyderabad faced gaps, DCC president Syed Khalid Saifullah said on Friday. He cited missing addresses and unavailable voter data.

Saifullah visited ward sabhas at polling booth locations across Hyderabad. He also met Booth Level Agents, Congress workers and election officials.

He said political parties needed complete information to support field-level verification. However, he alleged that officials had not provided crucial lists and details.

Saifullah said the Absent, Shifted and Dead (ASD) lists lacked house numbers and adequate address details. Therefore, BLAs faced difficulties while locating voters for verification.

“How does the Election Commission expect BLAs to visit households when the ASD list itself does not contain house numbers?” Saifullah asked.

He said BLAs needed proper addresses to locate voters and verify their status. The problem, he added, was serious in densely populated areas.

According to Saifullah, officials had also not shared anomaly and unmapped voter lists with political parties. He said the CEO had directed BLOs and EROs to share these lists.

“Despite the CEO’s clear directions to BLOs and EROs, we have still not received the anomaly and unmapped lists,” he said.

He said BLAs needed these lists to identify flagged voters. They also needed to explain discrepancies and help genuine voters submit required documents.

Saifullah said concerns persisted despite the ongoing SIR exercise. He cited Yakutpura Assembly constituency as an example.

The Hyderabad DCC had compiled 148 sets of apparent duplicate voter entries in Yakutpura. The party said election authorities needed to verify those records.

The compilation placed electoral records side by side for comparison. Several entries showed similar names, relatives’ names and photographs.

However, the records also showed differences in EPIC numbers, polling parts, addresses, ages and other details.

SIR voter lists and duplicate entries draw scrutiny

Saifullah said the apparent duplicate cases required detailed verification. He also warned against deleting genuine voters based only on database matches.

“If such apparent duplicate entries continue to remain even after SIR, serious questions arise about the effectiveness of the exercise,” he said.

He said authorities should verify and correct every suspected duplicate case. At the same time, genuine voters should remain on the rolls.

According to Saifullah, electoral roll revision should remove ineligible and duplicate entries after proper verification. It should also protect every eligible citizen’s right to vote.

He demanded that the Election Commission immediately provide complete anomaly and unmapped lists to political parties. He also sought house numbers and adequate addresses in ASD lists.

In addition, he called for detailed checks of apparent duplicate entries found after the SIR exercise.

Saifullah also questioned transparency in the electoral roll revision process. He said withholding key data while discrepancies remained could raise doubts about the exercise.

“The manner in which crucial electoral data is being withheld while serious discrepancies continue in the electoral rolls creates an impression,” he said.

He alleged that the Election Commission appeared to be acting like a BJP frontal organisation. He urged the poll panel to address such doubts through transparency and action.

Saifullah said the Congress concerns related to the integrity and credibility of electoral roll revision. He said authorities should not treat them as routine political objections.

“The objective must be clear: remove bogus and duplicate voters after proper verification, but protect every genuine citizen’s constitutional right to vote,” he said.

He added that neither an ineligible voter’s inclusion nor an eligible voter’s deletion could be justified.