Karnataka’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls entered its final phase on Monday, with the house-to-house enumeration and submission of Enumeration Forms ending today. The Election Commission had revised the original deadline of August 8 to submit the enumeration forms by nine days due to the high number of voters listed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Other (ASDDO) category. Despite the extension, more than one crore electors have been marked under the ASDDO category ahead of the publication of the draft electoral rolls on August 24. Bengaluru South has the most number of ASDDO voters in the state with 49.61 per cent. Udupi has recorded the least with just 5.96 per cent.
According to the latest data released by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, the state had 5,54,32,314 electors as of June 16. The Election Commission printed and distributed all 5,54,32,314 Enumeration Forms, claiming 100 per cent coverage during the house-to-house exercise that began on June 30.
As of Monday, 4,46,00,369 Enumeration Forms, or 80.46 per cent, had been digitised to be published in the draft roll.
At least 1,08,31,945 forms, accounting for 19.54 per cent, were marked as ASDDO. These include 15,28,985 voters marked untraceable or absent, 65,61,607 who permanently shifted, 16,38,839 who are dead, 7,07,792 voters who are already enrolled and 3,94,722 under the ‘other’ category.
The exercise has also generated a sizeable number of applications for inclusion and correction. Between June 16 and August 16, the election authorities received 4,28,679 Form 6 applications for inclusion of names, 3,710 Form 6A (NRI voters) applications, 31,554 Form 7 (deletion) applications and 8,68,405 Form 8 applications for correction or shifting. In total, 13,32,348 applications were received. Another 7,11,712 Enumeration Forms were submitted online.
The Commission also clarified that sufficient numbers of Form 6, along with declaration forms, have been printed and distributed to BLOs. Eligible citizens can apply for inclusion in the electoral roll through Form 6, including those who will turn 18 on or before October 1, 2026.
The SIR exercise in Karnataka has also become a point of discussion after actor Prakash Raj alleged that his voting rights had been snatched by the impractical SIR exercise. He had earlier been accused on social media of possessing multiple voter IDs around the time of his candidature in Karnataka. He denied the allegation and said he holds only one voter ID.
Speaking at a media interaction in Bengaluru last week, he said, “Ironically, that too is being snatched,” while referring to his name being missing from the verification process. His case has become one of the more visible examples in the ongoing debate over voter verification during the SIR exercise.
With the enumeration phase now ending, the focus shifts to scrutiny of the digitised data and preparation of the draft electoral rolls. The Election Commission said voters marked under ASDDO can approach election officials with the prescribed documents and fill out Form 6 to get their names back on the voters list. The poll panel clarified that being marked as ASDDO does not automatically mean that a voter has been deleted from the electoral roll.
