Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Faces Public Anger Over Voter List Revision

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharsan Reddy faced heavy public criticism online after claiming that official rules were strictly followed during the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. In a post on X, Mr. Reddy stated that enumeration forms went out to all voters, collected back properly, and used to prepare draft voter lists after house visits and proper checks by Booth Level Officers. He also noted that special camps took place on October 15 and 16 to help include all eligible voters and remove ineligible names.

Public Backlash

Many social media users strongly denied the CEO's claims, stating that Booth Level Officers never visited homes and that enumeration forms were never collected. Users like Sharath Raj said forms were handed out but never picked up, officials refused to take forms at offices, and phone lines remained unreachable before voter names got deleted. Software developer Sameer Mathad called the whole process a sham and stated he is filing a case because a local leader got his forms instead of a Booth Level Officer. Other citizens, including activist Syed Irfan and users named Sitaram Dhulipala, Saiekrishna, Rajesh, P.Jyothiswaroop, and Deva Raj, accused the office of lying, noted that voters from single homes got split across different polling booths, and threatened to take the matter to court.

Context

Electoral roll revisions are routine administrative exercises conducted by election authorities to clean up voter lists by removing duplicate entries or the names of voters who have shifted or passed away. Public disputes during such revisions usually center around whether field staff properly verified details on the ground before making changes to voter databases.