The Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing a high voltage contest this time with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi seeking re-election against BJP’s Madhavi Latha. A high-octane campaign has already been underway in the constituency. Amid this, the district election commission has announced measures to ensure the purity of the electoral roll and taking all measures to ensure free and fair elections. The District Election Officer of Hyderabad said that it has removed over five lakh voters’ names while adding around five lakh new names.

“Since January 2023, as regards deletion of dead, duplicate and shifted voters, in Hyderabad district’s 15 assembly constituencies, a total of 47,141 dead voters, 4,39.801 shifted voters and 54,259 duplicate voters have been removed from the electoral roll. That is to say, a total of 5,41,201 voters were removed from the electoral rolls duly following the instructions of ECI,” said the District Election Officer.

The poll officer said that around five lakh new voters were added to the electoral rolls. “As part of the intense SVEEP drive and voter awareness programmes, many eligible persons were also enrolled in the voter list. In Hyderabad, a total of 5,01,604 voters have been added to the electoral roll from January 2023 to present,” said the poll officer.

The officer further said, “During the purification of electoral rolls, it was observed that many voters had non-standard house numbers on the electoral roll. A drive was taken up to identify such voters and corrections were made. In Hyderabad district, a total of 1,81,405 such voters have been identified and corrections have been made to their house numbers.”

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Owaisi had retained the seat by bagging 5,17,471 votes while then BJP candidate Dr. Bhagavanth Rao stood second with 2,35,285 votes.