Hyderabad: Actor and activist Prakash Raj has raised questions over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana and the process by which voters are registered, verified and included in electoral lists.
Prakash Raj said he had met with a retired judge, professors, activists and other senior citizens to discuss the experiences of people during the SIR exercise.
He claimed that the process had taken names off electoral rolls and questioned whether the exercise was reaching all sections of society.
According to Prakash Raj, the SIR was presented as an exercise to remove names of dead, shifted, duplicate or otherwise ineligible voters. But he argued that the process could affect genuine voters if verification procedures are not properly done.
He cited examples of people who have lived at the same address for decades but were marked absent because they were not at home when a Booth Level Officer visited.
He also referred to daily wage workers who frequently move between locations for employment, saying that their temporary absence should not automatically result in their names being removed from electoral records.
Prakash Raj also raised concerns about communities that might struggle to understand or complete the documentation involved in the exercise.
Referring to Adivasi communities and other vulnerable groups, he questioned whether all eligible voters had received enumeration forms and understood how to stay on the electoral rolls.
VIDEO | Hyderabad: Actor Prakash Raj on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, says, "I've just had a press meet with a retired judge and a lot of elders, professors and activists like Shoaib, first telling what Telangana went through in this process called SIR. How… pic.twitter.com/2wEBgltme1
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 3, 2026
The Telangana SIR has involved house-to-house verification and draft electoral rolls preparation. The Election Commission and state election authorities have maintained that the exercise is for the purpose of ensuring that electoral rolls are filled with eligible voters.
The Election Commission has also provided mechanisms for voters whose names are missing to seek inclusion or correction.
The scale of the verification exercise in Telangana has been significant. The Chief Electoral Officer reported to The Times of India that as of September 29, 92.88 lakh notices had been generated through the process 88.52 lakh had been received while hearings had been held in 61.87 lakh cases. At that stage, 46.88 lakh electors were found eligible for final publication.
The revised schedule for Telangana allows for claims and objections to the draft electoral rolls until October 7, while final electoral rolls are expected to be published on November 9.
The Election Commission’s voter services portal also provides the tools to search names in the SIR rolls and submit documents against notices.
Prakash Raj’s comments have also contributed to the broader public debate about the SIR exercise, particularly how authorities can ensure that eligible citizens are not left out during electoral-roll revision.
Now the issue is verification and accessibility of voters to the final rolls.
