Nearly 1 in 4 names of voters on deletion list in 104 of 119 constituencies

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An age-group-wise analysis of the names on the list shows that 60% of those aged 18 to 25 were marked as having shifted permanently, 15% as untraceable or absent and 22% as enrolled elsewhere.  | Photo Credit: MOHD ARIF

Of the 53.97 lakh names in 104 Assembly constituencies in Telangana, nearly one in four — compared with the number of people who voted in the 2023 Assembly elections — have been marked on the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASD) list. The lion’s share of the names on the list were not marked as deaths, with 85.8% being attributed to other reasons. A little over half of the names are of women, accounting for 50.2% of the list, while 71.3% of the deleted women voters are married. Muslim-named voters account for 6.76 lakh names, or 12.5% of the list, while the percentage of Muslims is 8.9% in these Assembly constituencies, making their share of the list 1.18 times their share of voters.

This is according to an analysis of the Telangana electoral roll ASD list by the SABAR Institute and Constitutional Guardians Forum.

An age-group-wise analysis of the names on the list shows that 60% of those aged 18 to 25 were marked as having shifted permanently, 15% as untraceable or absent and 22% as enrolled elsewhere. Among those aged 26 to 35, 67% were marked as shifted permanently, 18% as untraceable or absent and 12% as enrolled elsewhere. In the 36-45 age group, 66% were marked as shifted permanently, 19% as untraceable or absent and 9% as enrolled elsewhere.

Among those aged 46 to 60, 58% were marked as shifted permanently, 16% as untraceable or absent, 16% as dead and 10% as already enrolled elsewhere. In the 61-80 age group, 39% were marked as shifted permanently, 12% as untraceable or absent and 44% as dead. Among those aged 81 and above, 24% were marked as shifted permanently, 8% as untraceable or absent and 66% as dead.

While the share of deaths rose with age, as many as 1,39,543 people marked as dead were aged between 18 and 45, with 69% of them being men.

The analysis stated, “6.76 lakh deleted names (12.5%) are Muslim names, while Muslims are 8.9% of voters in these seats: 1.18 times their share, about 1,01,240 extra names. 26.7% of Muslim voters are on the deletion list, against 18.5% of other voters. Muslim-named voters are 10% of those marked dead but 18% of those marked untraceable, the reason that depends most on a field officer’s judgement,” the analysis notes.

Seats in which Muslim names were most over-represented include Mudhole, where Muslims account for 14.2% of voters and 31.4% of the names on the list; Sirpur, where Muslims account for 9.8% of voters and 20.2% of the names on the list; Wanaparthy, where Muslims account for 5.1% of voters and 10% of the names on the list; and Kodangal, where Muslims account for 6.4% of voters and 12.2% of the names on the list. The majority, 17.7%, of the names marked for deletion was for being untraceable or absent.

On the other hand, the share of Muslim-named deletions was lower than the Muslim share of voters in LB Nagar, Serilingampally, Quthbullapur, Uppal, Kukatpalle, Patancheru, Rajendranagar and Khammam. The district with the largest number of Muslim-named deletions was Nizamabad, with 65,351 such names against total deletions of 2,11,032, followed by Nirmal with 27,652 Muslim-named deletions out of 1,13,170, Vikarabad with 38,558 out of 2,10,297 and Sangareddy with 48,987 out of 2,97,931.

The analysis clarified that religion is not recorded on the electoral roll and was instead estimated from names in both Telugu and English. A voter was counted as Muslim-named only when both versions agreed. It said the actual number was likely to be slightly higher. The report also cautioned that the pattern itself did not establish that anyone was targeted and that the findings were preliminary.

The largest number of deletions was recorded in Part (booth) number 42 of Maheshwaram constituency, which had 1,549 names, with 66% marked as untraceable. This was followed by Part 30 in Maheshwaram, which had 1,405 names, with 91% marked as shifted. Part 176 in Rajendranagar had 1,247 names, with 74% marked as untraceable. The analysis categorised these among the ‘hotspot booths’, with all of the top 10 booths by number of deletions located in Maheswaram and Rajendranagar constituencies in Rangareddy district.

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