Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer’s office has rejected 1,581 applications from people seeking to join the voter rolls for the upcoming graduate MLC elections, according to figures shared through 5 pm on Saturday. Another 4,96,112 applications are still sitting in the verification queue, and officials have not said when that backlog will clear.

The rejections fall into two groups. The first is applicants who did not complete their degrees within the required window. The second is people who submitted fake certificates in an attempt to get onto the list. Officials say both categories are being turned away, and that the forms are being examined closely before any decision is made.

The date that decides everything. The Election Commission of India rules set November 1, 2026 as the qualifying date for these graduate constituencies. To vote, a person must have earned a degree or an equivalent qualification at least three years before that date, which means by October 31, 2023. Anyone who finished their degree after that cutoff is being rejected, even if they applied in the belief that they qualified.

Two constituencies, nearly five lakh files still open

The figures break down by constituency. In the Mahbubnagar-Ranga Reddy-Hyderabad seat, 2,29,937 applications have come in. So far, 4,695 have been approved and 129 rejected, while 2,25,133 remain under review. In the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda seat, 2,93,821 applications were received. Officials have approved 21,390 and rejected 1,452, leaving 2,70,979 pending.

Both seats sit entirely within Telangana, which means the outcome of this review will shape the graduate voter roll for the state’s own MLC contest. Thousands of residents who believed they had a voice in the election now face the possibility of being left off the list altogether. For many of them, the rejection notice will arrive without a clear path to fix a mistake, because the rules tie eligibility to a single date.

Where the proof counts. The officials’ statement offered one way out for some applicants. Their words, translated, were clear on the point that matters most to people with a late-2023 degree:

If candidates show proof that their degree results were declared by October 31, 2023, their applications will remain valid, even if the dates on their degree memo, provisional certificate or convocation certificate fall after October.

That leaves a gap that many applicants may not know how to close. A result declared on time can still be overshadowed by a certificate issued later, and the burden of producing the right document falls on the applicant. The officials did not detail how the review will treat applicants who cannot find that proof quickly.

The software question. Officials say the Chief Electoral Officer’s office is using advanced software to catch fake certificates and filter them out. That tool, they say, makes it easier to spot forged documents at scale. But the same statement gives no public breakdown of how many rejections involved forgery and how many involved late degrees. Without that split, voters and candidates have little way to judge whether the system is working as intended.

That gap is at the heart of the transparency concern. A review that moves through more than four lakh files is only as credible as the reasons it gives for each decision. Right now, the public has the totals, the cutoff date and the assurance that the process is strict. It does not have a clear view of how individual cases are being weighed.

What happens next. Officials have said the remaining forms will be checked thoroughly in the coming days. Only applicants who meet the eligibility rules will be placed on the graduate voter list. The pace of that work will decide how many people make it onto the rolls before the election. For the lakhs still waiting, the next few days will determine whether their applications are approved or turned away.