Bengaluru, September 18, 2026: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has raised concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, alleging discrepancies in voter enumeration, mapping and the classification of voters as shifted, deceased or unmapped.
In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, KPCC Media and Communication Department chairman and MLC Ramesh Babu sought a statewide verification of the electoral-roll data and called for greater transparency in the revision process.
Congress cites Yeshvanthapura polling part
The Congress highlighted Part No. 512 of Assembly Constituency No. 153 in Yeshvanthapura as an example of what it described as a significant discrepancy.
According to figures cited by the KPCC, the polling part had 1,016 registered voters. The party said 654 enumeration forms had been received. Of the voters covered in the data cited by Congress, 339 were classified as permanently shifted, 19 as deceased and 265 as unmapped with previous SIR records.
Based on these figures, Congress said only 389 voters remained validated, representing approximately 38 per cent of the total electorate in that polling part. The party has sought name-wise verification of the remaining voters and an official explanation for the classifications.
The classifications cited by the Congress do not, by themselves, establish that eligible voters have been permanently removed from the electoral roll. The revision process includes verification, claims and objections before the final electoral roll is published.
KPCC seeks statewide verification
The Congress has argued that the Yeshvanthapura example should be examined alongside concerns it says have been reported from other parts of Karnataka.
Among the issues raised by the party are cases where enumeration forms were allegedly not collected or received, voters were classified as unmapped, and individuals were allegedly categorised as shifted or deceased without adequate verification.
The KPCC has therefore requested polling-station-wise verification of SIR data across Karnataka. It has also sought re-examination of voters listed under the shifted, deceased and unmapped categories.
The party has called for greater access to electoral information, an effective grievance-redressal mechanism and sufficient time for voters to correct errors in the draft rolls. It has also sought accountability for administrative lapses identified during the revision process.
Background to Karnataka’s SIR exercise
The Special Intensive Revision is a comprehensive exercise to verify and update electoral rolls. Karnataka’s current SIR process has resulted in the publication of a draft electoral roll.
The draft roll published in August contained approximately 4.47 crore electors, compared with about 5.54 crore electors in the electoral roll when it was frozen on June 16, 2026. More than 1.07 crore electors from the earlier roll were placed under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate or Others (ASDDO) category during the enumeration process.
The Chief Electoral Officer’s office has also stated that notices are being issued to voters whose mapping information was not provided or did not match the previous database. Reports indicate that approximately 43 lakh notices have been issued in Karnataka as part of the verification process.
The draft electoral roll is not the final list. Voters have an opportunity to submit claims and objections, and the electoral authorities will undertake further verification before publication of the final roll.
Concerns over ‘unmapped’ voters
The classification of voters as “unmapped” has become one of the issues receiving attention during Karnataka’s SIR exercise.
The term generally relates to cases where a voter’s current electoral-roll information could not be matched with the relevant previous electoral-roll data. The Chief Electoral Officer has said that notices are issued where mapping information is unavailable or does not match the earlier database.
Some Bengaluru voters have separately reported receiving notices over issues involving mapping, spelling differences and variations in personal details, even when their names appeared in the draft electoral roll. These reports have contributed to questions about how voters can verify and correct their information during the ongoing process.
What happens next
The claims and objections stage provides an opportunity for voters to raise concerns about their inclusion or details in the draft electoral roll. Election authorities are expected to examine such submissions before the final list is prepared.
Karnataka’s election authorities have made SIR-related materials available through district election offices, including draft electoral rolls, lists of persons issued notices, claims and objections information, ASDDO lists and voter-facilitation information.
The Congress has asked the Election Commission to conduct a comprehensive verification of the data cited in its complaint. As of September 18, the figures relating to the Yeshvanthapura polling part remain claims made by the KPCC and require verification by the competent election authorities.
The broader SIR process remains ongoing, and the final electoral roll will reflect any corrections, additions or other changes made after the verification and claims-and-objections process.
Source: Indian Express; Citizen Herald; Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka.
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