Assembly polls: Telangana has 3.17 crore eligible voters now, up by 17 lakh from January

Releasing the final electoral roll for all the 119 Assembly constituencies after the completion of the second special summary revision of the electoral roll, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said there were 1,58,71,493 male voters, 1,58,43,339 female voters and 2,557 transgender voters.

“In a fitting tribute to the spirit of inclusiveness behind the electoral process, the gender ratio of the electoral roll has improved from 992 on 5th January to 998. The gender ratio in the 18 to 19 age group has improved from 707 to 743. There are 4,43,943 voters who are above 80 years of age and 5,06,493 PwD (persons with disabilities). The number of third-gender persons has increased to 2,557,” a statement from the CEO’s office said.

Even as Opposition parties have alleged discrepancies in the electoral list, the CEO clarified that a lot of work had gone into detecting and correcting entries. “Multiple rounds of house-to-house surveys and verifications have been taken up and 14,24,694 corrections of entries have been done in the electoral roll this year compared to the average 2-3 lakh corrections being done annually in the past,” the statement said.

About another complaint raised by political parties, the office said that it took up an exercise to verify all voters in households that have more than six voters. “Addresses of 4,15,824 voters (mostly apartments/portions in the same building having the same door numbers) were corrected. 3,94,968 voters migrated within an assembly constituency from one polling station to another and 64,661 voters migrated from one assembly constituency to another, duly allotting the correct polling station. Similarly, house number corrections were carried out for 73,364 voters who were identified in ERONet as having null or zero or special characters house numbers,” it added.

Though the final roll has been published, the exercise of updating the electoral roll will continue. All eligible people (those who have completed 18 years of age as on 1 October 2023 and who are otherwise eligible) who could not make an application for enrolment earlier are again requested to apply for inclusion in the roll, the CEO’s statement said.

Voters can check their enrolment details like their polling station on the website http://www.voters.eci.gov.in or through the Voter Helpline app. In case of any errors, they can apply for corrections using form 8 online, on the app or through the booth-level officer.

The CEO’s office has urged all eligible citizens who have not applied yet to file their application in form 6 for new enrolment or form 8 for shifting within or outside an Assembly constituency. These applications can be filed up to 10 days before the last date of filing nominations. All applications can be filed through http://www.voters.eci.gov.in or the Voter Helpline app or by contacting the booth-level officer. In case of any complaints, citizens may contact the Election Commission’s voter helpline, 1950.