A large number of voter deaths are being identified across the 15 Assembly constituencies of Hyderabad post the publication of the final electoral rolls.
Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are doing door-to-door enumeration of super senior citizens, are finding that a majority of voters have deceased.
This election, senior citizens above 80 years of age are exempted from coming to the polling booth to cast their vote. Instead, they are being allowed postal ballot, for which they need to fill out the details before hand.
BLO designates have been asked to go to the doorstep of all such senior citizens, and find out if they would prefer postal ballot.
“I have been given 12 door numbers to visit, where senior citizens reside. Of them, only three are surviving, and the rest have expired,” shared B. Kanna, a BLO from Charminar constituency.
ASD list
All the deceased voters are being reported back to the electoral registration officers for their names to be put under ASD (Absentee-Shifted-Dead) list. “Those in the ASD list will not be removed from the final electoral rolls. If any from the list comes to vote, we will allow them to exercise their franchise. The changes to the rolls will be effected only during special summary revision next year,” an official informed, while admitting that a large number of deaths are being identified post publication of the list.
Not much exercise has been done since the pandemic phase to update the electoral rolls. Since the publication of electoral rolls, more than 26,000 people have been identified as deceased across the 15 constituencies. Of these, close to 22,000 have been accepted.
“As per the usual procedure, we effect the deletion of names of the deceased voters based on the death certificates issued by the GHMC, and data obtained from the graveyards and funeral homes across the city,” the official said.
Assuming significance in this context is the contention by Congress contestant Mohammed Feroz Khan who approached the High Court seeking deletion of bogus voters, dead persons, duplicate and shifted voters of Nampally constituency from the rolls. His petition put the total votes liable for deletion in his constituency alone at 1.13 lakh.
The number of deceased voters is expected to be huge as there had been large number of deaths during the first and second waves of the COVID pandemic. Very few families have voluntarily applied for deletion of names of their deceased kin.
“Even now, families are refusing to show death certificates. We are merely getting their signatures on the relevant forms and returning,” said another BLO, unwilling to be identified.
As per the official records, the deletions between publication of draft and final electoral rolls were mere 1,080. Of these, 862 were from Nampally alone, due to the efforts by Mr. Feroz Khan. Khairatabad has the next biggest number at 149.
A majority of the constituencies recorded single digit under deaths. Three constituencies, namely Amberpet, Goshamahal and Bahadurpura, recorded zero deletions due to death. Chandrayangutta and Secunderabad Cantonment recorded only one.
