Congress seeks SIR deadline extension in Telangana

A Congress delegation led by Hyderabad In-charge Minister Ponnam Prabhakar met Telangana Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudharshan Reddy, urging the Election Commission to extend the deadline for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing slow progress, particularly in Hyderabad.

The delegation included MLCs Addanki Dayakar and Balamoor Venkat, MLAs Sri Ganesh and Naveen Yadav, District Congress Committee president Deepak John, TPCC Election Commission Coordination Committee chairman Rajesh, Motha Rohith and other party leaders.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr. Prabhakar said the voter verification and correction process was moving at a ‘snail’s pace’ across the State, especially in Hyderabad’s 15 Assembly constituencies. He claimed that only about 21% of the voter revision process had been completed in Hyderabad district so far.

With only 10 days left for the exercise, the Congress requested the Election Commission to grant additional time to ensure that all eligible voters were covered.

The Minister said Hyderabad had around 4,500 polling stations, but voter verification in urban areas was not progressing satisfactorily. He alleged that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were not visiting households in several localities and that complaints had been received about voters not being provided the required forms.

He also appealed to Congress workers to actively participate in the voter enrolment and verification drive over the remaining days.