Telangana SIR 2026: ECI Extends Claims Deadline to October 7, Final Roll on November 9

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the timeline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana, giving voters three additional weeks to file claims and objections against the draft electoral roll. Under the revised schedule, the deadline has been moved from September 16 to October 7, 2026, while the final electoral roll will now be published on November 9, instead of October 19. The disposal of claims and objections has also been extended until November 5.

The extension comes at a crucial stage of the exercise. The draft roll published on August 17 showed that 73,39,235 electors were not included after being categorised as absent, shifted, deceased, duplicate or under other categories. Another 92,87,577 electors have been flagged for further verification because of discrepancies in their records or difficulties in mapping their details.

Telangana began the SIR with 3,38,26,448 electors. Enumeration forms from 2,64,87,213 voters, or 78.30%, were processed and included in the draft roll. Among the 73,39,235 electors not included, 45,18,963 were permanently shifted, 11,25,546 were absent or untraceable, 9,22,229 were deceased, 6,70,203 were already enrolled elsewhere or under multiple enrolments, and 1,02,294 fell under other categories.

Separately, 60,50,918 electors were flagged for logical anomalies, while 32,36,659 could not be mapped to the previous SIR-2002 electoral roll. The 2002 roll is being used as a reference for verification, not as an eligibility cut-off. Therefore, a voter who was not registered in 2002 is not automatically disqualified. A notice similarly does not amount to automatic deletion; affected electors have an opportunity to respond and establish their eligibility.

The exercise involves 119 EROs, 892 AEROs, 3,590 Booth Level Supervisors and 35,985 BLOs, along with 49,018 Booth Level Agents. Urban areas such as Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy face particular challenges because of migration, changing addresses and difficulties in matching older records.

The SIR has also triggered political controversy, with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy raising concerns over possible exclusion of genuine voters. His allegations remain politically contested and are not findings of the ECI.

With the revised deadline now set for October 7, voters whose names are missing from the draft roll or who receive notices should verify their details and respond within the prescribed period. The final test of the exercise will be whether Telangana can remove ineligible or duplicate entries without wrongly excluding eligible voters.