BENGALURU: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee has written to the CEO, urging the Election Commission of India to extend the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in the state by at least one month, from August 17 to September 17, 2026.
In the representation, submitted by Ramesh Babu, a former MLC and chairman of the KPCC Media and Communication Department, the party said the current pace of booth level officer verification is insufficient given the scale of electors flagged for possible exclusion.
The letter cites figures showing roughly 1.08 crore electors, about 20% of the state’s electorate , placed in the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) category.
The KPCC contrasted this with earlier assurances from the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, who it said had stated before the SIR process that over 92% of mapping had been completed and matched against the 2002 voter list. The party alleged that BLO training remained incomplete, facilitation centres were not functioning as promised and enumeration forms had not effectively reached voters.
The letter argues that many electors, including daily-wage workers, migrants, students, senior citizens and persons with disabilities, may simply be unavailable during BLO visits, and this should not justify their exclusion.
Among its ten specific demands, KPCC has asked ECI to direct repeated BLO visits to unavailable electors, mandate re-verification of all ASDDO cases, set up adequate facilitation centres, ensure special assistance for vulnerable groups, and conduct an independent quality-control review before the draft roll is published.
The party said the extension would not weaken the SIR exercise but would instead strengthen “the credibility, accuracy, transparency and constitutional legitimacy” of the electoral roll, and called for the Commission’s immediate intervention.