Many constituencies in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) have shown a sharp decline in voter population as per the Special Summary Revision rolls published recently.
Qutbullapur Assembly constituency has lost a stunning 1,32,860 voters over the last four years. While 6,01,204 were registered voters in 2014, the numbers declined to 4,68,344 as per the Assembly constituency-wise count published on October 12, 2018 by the Election Commission of India.
Other Assembly constituencies where the number of voters have declined sharply are Goshamahal, L.B. Nagar, Kukatpally, Uppal and Malkajgiri. Four of these are considered as having pockets of residents who have Andhra connection.
In contrast, four constituencies that are part of the old city have shown a marginal spike in the voter count. Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta, Karwan, Rajendrangar Assembly constituencies have shown a rise in the number of voters with the highest being in Yakutpura where the voter numbers surged by 38,625, an increase of 13.61%. Medchal has also shown a 12.25% spike in voter numbers.
The total number of voters in 29 constituencies in the HMDA limits dropped from 94,35,461 to 9,097,008. A decrease of 3,38,453 translating into a 3.59% drop.
The opposition parties have been raising a hue and cry over the deletion of voters in the State with wild numbers ranging from 18 lakh to 30 lakh being bandied about.
But the significant drop in the number of voters in Hyderabad can prove to be a decisive factor in the coming elections. Consider this: In Qutbullapur, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate, K.P. Vivekanand, won by a margin of 1,14,363 votes, while the number of voters have declined by 1,32,860. In Kukatpally, Madhavaram Krishna Rao of TDP won by a margin of 99,874. Again a margin of victory that is lower than the number of voters deleted at 1,31,519.
The decline in voter population flies in the face of the boomtown image that the city gets from economists as well as politicians.
It also goes against the 2011 Census figures that pegged the decadal growth of the country at 17.64%.
