Telangana SIR: 37% of new voter applications rejected over declaration form

More than a third of the applications for fresh voter enrolment submitted in Telangana before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls began have been rejected, according to data from the office of the State's Chief Electoral Officer. Officials attribute the rejections mainly to the absence of a declaration form that applicants were not required to submit when they filed.

The SIR is an intensive, house-to-house verification of electoral roll entries, carried out in phases. Between January 1, 2026 and June 14, 2026 — the period before the process started in Telangana — the State received 5,20,331 Form-6 applications for new enrolments. Of these, 3,22,785 had been accepted as new enrolments till October 28, 2026, while 1,92,574 were rejected, a rejection rate of about 37 per cent. Another 4,972 applications are yet to be processed.

The declaration form was introduced as an attachment to Form-6 specifically for the SIR exercise. It sought details of the applicant, or of the applicant's parents or relatives, from the 2002 revision. Those unable to provide such details were required to submit any of 12 listed documents as proof of citizenship. Because the requirement was tied to SIR, applications filed before the process began were submitted without it.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) later clarified that the declaration was not required with Form-6 in States where SIR is not under way. In Telangana, that clarification came after the pre-SIR applications had already been filed and, in many cases, rejected.

Under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, claims for enrolment are to be exhibited at the office of the Electoral Registration Officer and disposed of within a week. This timeline was not followed. Applications filed up to June 14, 2026 are now being processed alongside forms received during the Enumeration Phase, the Claims and Objections Phase, and the post-Claims and Objections phase.

An Electoral Registration Officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said declaration forms are now being delivered door-to-door through Booth Level Officers (BLOs) so that the pending pre-SIR applications can be processed. Officials said rejected applicants will not appear in the final rolls unless they submit a fresh form that is processed by November 7, 2026.

The revision has also placed additional demands on BLOs. Enumeration forms were not distributed door-to-door during the Enumeration Phase, and 73.39 lakh electors were removed from the draft rolls and grouped under the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate categories. During the Notice Phase, BLOs were also assigned duties normally handled by Electoral Registration Officers, including collecting documents and uploading them to the ERONET software, besides delivering notices and gathering responses from voters who had not replied.

Several BLOs were unable to be present at polling stations on October 15 and 16 for a special enrolment camp announced by the Chief Electoral Officer.

The ECI has maintained that the declaration requirement applies only within SIR-affected States, and that its clarification was intended to remove confusion elsewhere. For voters in Telangana whose forms were rejected, the immediate question is whether re-submission and processing can be completed before the November 7 deadline, after which the final rolls take effect.