Tirupati records State’s highest share of uncollectable voters

Tirupati: Tirupati district has emerged with the highest proportion of ‘uncollectable’ voters in the state during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with 2,87,835 electors – 16.27 percent of its total electorate – remaining untraceable, according to Election Commission data released on Saturday.

The figures were released after the completion of the door-to-door survey under the SIR, which concluded on July 24.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who carried out the house-to-house verification, reported that they could not trace 2,87,835 of the district’s 17,69,438 registered voters at the addresses available in the electoral rolls. The ‘uncollectable’ category includes voters who could not be located at their registered address, as well as those who were found to be deceased, permanently migrated or duplicated in the electoral rolls.

Tirupati was followed by Nellore district, where 14.72 percent0 of voters were placed in the same category.

The latest figures have also revived discussions over allegations made during the 2021 Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election, when opposition parties claimed that fake voters had been added to the electoral rolls. It was alleged that bogus voter identity cards were created and people were brought from different parts of the erstwhile undivided district to cast votes, with many shown as residents of the Tirupati Assembly constituency.

The SIR data shows that the Tirupati Assembly constituency alone has 90,882 uncollectable voters out of its total electorate of 2,95,288, accounting for 30.77 percent of registered voters. Leaders of the ruling coalition welcomed the large-scale identification of such voters, while YSRCP leaders remained silent on the issue.

The Election Commission’s digitisation exercise showed that details of 14,81,603 voters in the district had been digitised. Of them, 6,06,261 voters mapped their records using proof of voting rights from 2002, while 7,13,004 completed the process using details of their parents or grandparents.

However, 1,62,340 voters did not complete the mapping process, accounting for 9.17 percent of the district’s electorate, compared with around 2 percent in most other districts. In neighbouring Chittoor district, only 23,881 voters, or 1.78 percent, remained unmapped. Among the Assembly segments, Tirupati recorded the highest number of uncollectable voters at 90,882, followed by Chandragiri (50,273), Venkatagiri (36,505), Srikalahasti (32,836), Sullurpeta (27,946), Railway Koduru (26,048) and Satyavedu (23,345).

A constituency-wise break-up showed that Tirupati Assembly constituency reported 5,969 deceased voters, 20,527 who were not found at their registered address, 57,256 permanent migrants, 6,349 duplicate entries and 781 classified under other categories.

Chandragiri recorded 7,598 deceased voters, 19,309 not found at the address, 16,738 permanent migrants, 6,246 duplicate entries and 382 others. Venkatagiri reported 12,601 deceased, 7,013 not found, 11,559 permanent migrants, 5,180 duplicate entries and 152 others.

Srikalahasti recorded 9,144 deceased voters, 6,015 not found at the address, 14,281 permanent migrants, 3,357 duplicate entries and 39 others. Sullurpeta reported 10,191 deceased voters, 4,530 not found, 9,435 permanent migrants, 3,785 duplicate entries and five others. Railway Koduru recorded 9,668 deceased voters, 5,140 not found, 6,966 permanent migrants, 4,215 duplicate entries and 59 others, while Satyavedu reported 8,326 deceased voters, 3,731 not found at the address, 8,563 permanent migrants, 2,551 duplicate entries

and 174 others.