More than two weeks into the distribution of enumeration forms as part of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Telangana, fear and confusion still persist in voters’ understanding of the process, their status and results. Swathi Vadlamudi and Syed Mohammed tried to clarify the situation through talks with Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy. Edited excerpts from the interview.
There is a lot of confusion regarding filling the calculation form.
If you look at the calculation form, there are three different steps. The pre-filled information will be at the top. This includes your address, your name, your photo, BLO name and BLO contact number. It is calibrated for each individual voter. The first box below relates to the information a voter would have to provide if he or she was a voter in 2002. You have to fill information from 2002. If you were not a voter in 2002, you have to fill in the second box (next to the first box) details of your parents who were voters in 2002.
If you don’t know your parents’ details from 2002, you can leave both blank and fill in the box below with current details, sign it and return it. In such a situation, your name will be published in the draft roll, and a notice will be issued. You have to provide a sufficient answer by providing any one of the 11 identity documents.
If someone enters wrong details, can he take a photocopy of another form and fill in the correct details?
No, it is better to stick to the form given to them. Paper quality varies. They should first write the details on the photocopy and enter them properly in the form after verification.
What will happen if name mismatch?
If there is any discrepancy between the names then and now they will give notice. My name is C.Sudarshan Reddy. In 2002, it was with the initial ‘C’. Now, I have expanded this to EPIC cards. I will receive notices to which I will have to respond with relevant documents.
Many people are worried about changing house, but not about voting. what are the options?
He knows his previous address. I advise them to go there and try to collect, fill and submit the calculation form. Another option is to write it shifted. They can apply again afresh, or fill Form 8 for change of address in the month of August. Your name will not appear in the draft roll. But to appear in the final roll you can give your Form 8 or Form 6.
Will the requirements for a new application be different now than before?
The elector has to fill Form 6 along with a declaration form and any one of the 12 listed documents.
What if the elector does not have any of the listed documents? Like older people who never went to school and don’t have a birth certificate?
You have any other ID card. Apart from Aadhaar, some other document will have to be given. Ration card belongs to the state government. This can be shown during the notice period. In some sporadic cases, quasi-judicial authorities may consider.
Has there been any progress on the demand of some political parties that ration card, driver’s license and permanent residence proof should be considered valid documents?
During the notice period, the Electoral Registration Officer has to take a decision.
The West Bengal experience has created a lot of fear about the notices given under SIR and how they can be linked to citizenship. Any words of confidence you can give voters?
Each ERO is a quasi-judicial authority, which will go into the details of the elector to whom the notice has been issued. He has to find ways to see that the electorate is in, not shut him out. Unless there is a major discrepancy which cannot be addressed in any way, such people cannot be included.
Will ERO be authorized to take its decision without issuing notice?
Notice is to be issued by ERO.
How many discrepancies/discrepancies are expected?
About 88 lakh anomalies have been found during pre-SIR mapping in our state, for which notice will be given, provided that all these 88 lakh people have filled the enumeration form. Anomalies were noted as they were mapped with 2002 data. A total of 2.45 crore people were mapped in our state and a software was run on them, which identified 10 types of anomalies. After the exercise, the discrepancies are expected to be one crore or more. The maximum share of discrepancies is in urban areas. EROs are adequately equipped to handle this.
Can you please help us understand what are these 10 types of discrepancies that exist among us?
There is a list.
1. Difference between children is less than 9 months
2. Age difference between parents and children is less than 15 years
3. Age difference between children and parents more than 50 years
4. Age difference between elector and grandparents less than 40 years
5. Different origin names between current nomination and last SIR
6. Mapped with different relative types between current enrollment and last roll (father/mother).
7. Mapped with father in current roll and husband in last SIR
8. Final SIR in case of separate father and self in the present nomination
9. Incorrect age difference between current and last SIR for self
10. Zero Document
11. Only base
Why has the SIR process been changed now compared to the previous process?
The Election Commission keeps changing the process for various purposes such as removing duplicate, similar entries or dead entries. They keep changing the guidelines. As per the guidelines, the process of calculation was different at that time (2002). How this was done in 2002, we do not know. But now the software is being used on a large scale.
When the process to map voters with the 2002 roll exists, wouldn’t it be easier to distribute the forms to all households rather than finding voters from the 2025 roll? This would have helped the transferred voters.
The procedure has to be followed. All the voters till now will be given the counting form. A separate category will be created for those who are not yet voters. They have to go with Form Six and get themselves (registered). The transferred voters will already be present in that voter list. But his name is somewhere else. The elector himself has not made any efforts for transfer.
Regarding the use of the software, researchers in Bengal found that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the names due to transliteration.
Same thing happened in our case also. Later attention was paid to it. Earlier, about two months or three months ago, the discrepancy was 89% of the total, but now it has come down to 37%. At that time this was not paid attention to in Bengal. Discrepancies will come to light during the notice period. There are no duplicate name anomalies. They are demographically similar entries.
Will the software automatically remove a voter if it finds another voter with the same name and relative’s name? In Telangana it is quite possible for two persons to have the same name and the same father’s name.
Software breaks down and needs to be checked. For example, two months ago, the ECI gave us a list of 4.88 lakh as demographically similar entries for our state, which was scrutinized and weeded out. Duplicates removed. Every three months or every six months, they run the software to identify demographically similar entries, and during this process, whatever is identified is sent to us. The checking is done at the level of ERO, which cross-checks where the voter wants to cast his vote. The name will be removed from one place after proper investigation.
You talked about punitive action
If the Election Commission had asked us to take action, many voters would have been penalized. There was no such direction. They simply ask us to remove it by checking with the person whose name may inadvertently appear in two places. But now since one form is being filled, if you have two votes in two places then you should fill only one form. If you fill two spaces and it comes to attention, there will be punishment.
