40% of Excluded Voters in India’s Hyderabad Are Muslims

The names of 19.41 lakh voters have been excluded from the draft electoral roll following the recently conducted Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in 15 assembly constituencies of Hyderabad, according to a preliminary study by the Sabar Institute.

The study, conducted by Sabir Ahmed, Souptik Halder and Ashin Chakraborty, found that 40.7 percent of the excluded voters had Muslim names. The researchers, however, cautioned that the Election Commission does not publish official voter data based on religion. Their classification was based on names.

The study found that 92 percent of the excluded voters were still alive. Among them, 69.3 percent were marked as having permanently changed residence, while 17.7 percent were listed as absent or missing. On average, more than 500 voters were excluded from each polling booth in Hyderabad. At booth 297 in the Yakutpura constituency, the highest number of exclusions was recorded at 1,069. Of them, 535 were women and 527 were found to be alive.

Yakutpura and Malakpet were among the worst-affected constituencies. The number of voters excluded there was higher than the total votes polled in the 2023 assembly elections—112 percent in Malakpet and 110 percent in Yakutpura. Both constituencies are represented by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

The proportion of excluded voters identified as Muslim ranged from 12.1 percent in Secunderabad Cantonment to 85.9 percent in Bahadurpura. Among excluded Muslim voters, 63.8 percent were marked as displaced and 19.8 percent as absent or missing.

Of the 19.41 lakh excluded voters, 9.28 lakh were women, accounting for 47.8 percent. The revision has affected Telangana as a whole. According to the report, around 73.39 lakh voters were excluded from the revised draft roll, or 21.70 percent of the state’s total electorate. The State Election Commission said 9.22 lakh were marked dead, 11.25 lakh missing, 45.18 lakh shifted and 6.70 lakh registered in multiple places.