Forms missing, holiday break: Hyderabad’s SIR off to rocky start

Hyderabad: The first day of Telangana’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exposed a sharp divide between the state capital and the rest of the state on Thursday, June 25. 

While Booth Level Officers (BLO) across Telangana distributed nine lakh enumeration forms on the opening day, Hyderabad struggled with a shortage of English-language forms, stalled distribution across several constituencies, and BLOs who spent the better part of the day waiting at Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) offices for material that never came.

The SIR requires BLOs to visit every household in their designated area and verify voter details. The Election Commission of India has set July 1 as the deadline for completing form distribution. That timeline is already looking difficult.

A city left waiting

Voters in Bahadurpura, Yakutpura, Musheerabad and Jubilee Hills did not receive enumeration forms on the first day at all. In Chandrayangutta, distribution did not begin until 4 pm. Officials, acknowledging the delays, assured that the affected constituencies would receive their forms from Friday, June 26.

The assurance materialised, at least partly. In Jubilee Hills, BLO G Prasad confirmed receiving the forms on Friday morning, with little time to spare. “We received the enumeration forms half an hour ago,” he told Siasat.com. “All BLOs will be going door to door for the distribution.”

In Malakpet, BLO Gulnaaz Sultana said she received 1,022 enumeration forms on Friday and had already begun distributing them. “I have distributed a few and will go door to door in the afternoon once the forms are arranged in order,” she told Siasat.com.

What exactly held things up on day one? Some BLOs said they simply waited at GHMC offices for forms to arrive. They never did.

The contrast with the rest of the state was evident. Across Telangana, the distribution of enumeration forms on the first day was markedly more orderly, with most voters receiving forms in Telugu. Some BLOs did report being unable to reach all voters in their designated constituencies, but the disruption was limited compared to Hyderabad’s experience.

Holidays threaten July 1 deadline

The Election Commission’s target of completing distribution by July 1 faces a more structural problem beyond the first-day confusion, which is the national holiday for 10th Muharram on Friday and the National Pulse Polio Day on June 28, effectively removing two working day from an already compressed schedule.

Adding to the pressure, several ASHA workers have been assigned BLO duties for the SIR. With the polio drive imminent, their attention is divided and the authorities have made their priorities clear. 

Sailaja, an ASHA worker serving as BLO for the Borabanda area, said her team had been instructed to prioritise administering polio drops to children first. “We will resume form distribution from June 29,” she told Siasat.com.

Online route gains traction

For many voters, the physical form is not the preferred option. Most voters find the online registration process more convenient than filling in the details on physical forms, a preference that has extended to Indians living abroad.

Farooq Hussain, an Indian expatriate who returned from Saudi Arabia, explained the conditions for online mapping. If a voter’s name appears in the 2002 SIR list, their mobile number is registered with the Election Commission of India and their name on the voter ID matches their Aadhaar card, the process can be completed online without a physical form.

Amtul Aziz, a Hyderabad native currently residing in the United States, told Siasat.com that she and her brother Akheel Ahmed completed and submitted the online form without difficulty.

Congress guilds its own tool

While the official machinery grappled with logistics, the Hyderabad District Congress Committee (DCC) moved to equip its ground-level workers with a dedicated mobile application.

The “BLA App,” designed by engineer Khalid Saifullah, who is also a Congress party member, is aimed at Booth Level Agents (BLA) working parallel to the official BLO structure. The app uses OTP-based login to authenticate registered BLAs and, once logged in, gives them access to a section that automatically flags voter records with matching details such as name, father’s name and house number. 

This shows potential duplicate entries that can then be reported to the Election Commission for verification and deletion.

“The app has been designed to empower grassroots-level Congress workers. Every registered BLA would receive secure access through OTP-based login,” Saifullah told Deccan Chronicle.

The app also carries a voter mapping module that provides booth-wise voter details, enabling field surveys by BLAs and BLOs. A separate survey feature helps volunteers guide voters through the documentation required for the SIR process.

Saifullah was careful to draw a line on the app’s scope. He said only BLAs physically working on the ground can identify duplicate voters and formally report them to the Election Commission. The app facilitates the process, but it does not substitute for field presence.