The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urged the Election Commission to extend the deadline for submitting claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by three weeks, warning that many eligible voters could otherwise miss the opportunity to be included in the voter list.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Hyderabad on Wednesday, BJP State general secretary Vemula Ashok sought an extension of the deadline from September 16 to October 7. He also requested that the period for issuing notices and disposing of claims and objections be extended from October 15 to November 6.

The party said that of the 92.88 lakh notices generated for voters whose records contained discrepancies or lacked mapping with the 2002 electoral rolls, only 31.74 lakh notices had been delivered so far. Of these, hearings had been conducted in only 1.94 lakh cases at the Assistant Electoral Officer level, it claimed.

The BJP alleged that more than 45 lakh voters had been categorised as ‘absent, shifted, dead or duplicate’ and marked as permanently shifted, leading to the deletion of their names from the draft electoral rolls despite many of them continuing to reside in the same localities.

Citing a polling station in the Karwan Assembly constituency as an example, the party claimed several voters had been wrongly classified. It further alleged that voters in the GHMC area and other municipal corporations were receiving notices seeking details from the 2002 electoral rolls despite their records already being mapped. The BJP urged the Election Commission to address these issues and provide additional time to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the electoral rolls.