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Chief Election Commissioner of India Gyanesh Kumar on Sunday said Telangana would soon demonstrate to the entire country how a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls should be conducted, citing Bihar's recently completed exercise as the benchmark, as per a release by the Chief Electoral Office.
Addressing Booth Level Officers (BLOs), he said they formed the backbone of India's electoral system and that the success of electoral roll purification depended on their diligence and integrity. He noted that the global community closely watched India's elections to understand how the world's largest democracy functioned. Referring to Bihar, Kumar said the massive SIR exercise had been carried out flawlessly, enabling around 75 million voters to participate in the recent Assembly elections. He said the process recorded zero complaints, zero re-polling and zero recounting, and congratulated Bihar's BLOs for setting a high national standard. The Chief Election Commissioner said Telangana, which he described as geographically larger than Canada, would enter a new era of electoral administration once the roll purification exercise was completed. During his interactions with BLOs, Kumar observed that urban voter apathy remained a key reason for lower voter turnout in cities. In contrast, rural voters had consistently shown the way by turning out enthusiastically and standing in long queues. He reiterated that elections in India were conducted strictly in accordance with the law of the land and that all stakeholders were bound to comply with election laws. Kumar also said India had recently assumed the chairship of International IDEA, nearly three decades after becoming a member in 1995, a move he said reflected global recognition of the Election Commission of India as one of the world's most credible and innovative election management bodies. Highlighting the scale of India's democratic exercise, he said the country has more than 900 million electors spread across 28 states and eight Union Territories. Earlier, the Chief Electoral Officer, C Sudarshan Reddy, in his introductory speech, provided key statistics for Telangana, including the total number of voters, the number of districts, and the MLA map of constituencies. The meeting was attended by Additional CEO Vasam Venkateshwara Reddy, GHMC Commissioner RV Karnana, Senior Deputy CEC Pawan Kumar Sharma and Rangareddy district Collector Narayana Reddy. (ANI)
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