Female voters exceed males in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Female voters have surpassed male electors in Telangana, where Assembly elections are scheduled to be held on November 30.

The electoral gender ratio, which was 998 last month and 992 on January 5 this year, has now improved to 1000.2.

As per the electoral roll finalised by the Chief Electoral Officer, the state has 3,26,18,205 voters, comprising 1,62,98,418 males and 1,63,01,705 females.

This is the first time that the number of female voters has exceeded male voters in the state.

A total of 2,676 voters belong to the third gender.

To make the elections inclusive, the Election Commission focussed on third gender by conducting enrolment camps for them in all districts. Meetings were also held with association of third gender persons. The number of persons willing to identify as third gender increased from 1,952 on January 5, 2023 to 2,556 on October 4, 2023, and to 2,676 as on November 10, 2023.

The number of voters in the 18-19 age group is 9,99,667, which is 3.06 per cent of total electors. This is also the highest ever number in this age group.

The gender ratio in this age group has improved from 707 to 753.

There has been a net increase of 8.75 per cent in the number of voters since January 2023. There are 4,40,371 voters who are above 80 years of age and 5,06,921 PwD (persons with disability) voters.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj, the state has 15,406 service electors and 2,944 overseas electors. He said 9.48 lakh dead, duplicate, and shifted voters were deleted in 2023. Similarly, corrections in entries were carried out for 8.94 lakh voters in 2023.

In the process of finalisation of electoral rolls for Assembly elections, form 6 (new voter enrolment) and form 8 (shifting of electors) applications received up to October 31 and form 7 (deletion) and form 8 (correction of details) applications received up to October 8 have been disposed of.

Consequently 35.73 lakh additions, 9.48 lakh deletions, and 16.29 lakh shifting and modification were carried out in the electoral roll.

The CEO made it clear no further applications can be processed for assembly elections 2023. The distribution of voter Information slips (VIS) will commence shortly. He requested the citizens to check the details of their polling station by logging into electoralsearch.eci.gov.in or through Voter Helpline App (VHA).

Meanwhile, the process of collection of Postal Ballot applications (Form 12Ds) from absentee voters like senior citizens, PwD and essential services voters was completed on November 8. So far 31,551 Form 12Ds have been received.

Highest number of applications (757) were received from Siddipet Assembly constituency and least (5) from Makthal Assembly constituency.