BENGALURU: Over 1.08 crore voters will be removed from the electoral rolls once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ends in Karnataka. Another 25 lakh voters could find their names missing if they don’t provide relevant documents to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) in the next phase of the exercise.
As of 7 pm on August 17, 1,08,31,945 electors (19.54% of the total electorate of 5.54 crore) were listed under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) category after the house-to-house enumeration process. It was held from June 30 to August 17. Till date, the state has 5,54,32,314 total electors.
Also, 25,14,247 (or 4.54% of the total) are listed under the “no-mapping” category, as per information from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka.
CEO Karnataka V Anbukkumar said the house-to-house verification exercise ended on August 17 and the final ASDDO list was updated till 11.59 pm. The draft rolls will be published on August 24, 2026. All those listed under ASDDO and those who did not sign and submit their enumeration forms will not be included in the draft rolls.
He added that those listed under “no-mapping” or anomalies categories will be included in the rolls. They will be served notices, asking them to submit one of the 12 listed documents (refer to box) to the ERO for verification.
Of the total ASDDO, 15,28,985 (2.76%) electors were listed under “untraceable” or “absent” category; 65,61,607 (11.84%) under “permanently shifted”; 16,38,839 (2.96%) “dead”; 7,07,792 (1.28%) “duplicate” or “already enrolled”; and 3,94,722 (0.71%) as “others”, or not wanting to sign the forms.
Of the total ASDDO in the state, 43.53% were from Bengaluru’s four districts — Bengaluru Urban (17,26,634 or 42.94%), BBMP North (10,58,104 or 45.36%), BBMP South (10,64,044 or 49.61%, the highest in the state), and BBMP Central (8,66,406 or 45.84%).
Lowest deletions are in Udupi (63,364 or 5.96%), followed by Haveri (1,15,068 or 8.62%).
The next stage of the SIR exercise — filing claims and objections — will be held from August 24 to September 23, 2026.
Those whose names have been removed from the rolls have the option to fill and submit Form-6 (for new registration to be included in the electoral rolls).
8.68 lakh people submit Form-8 for corrections
Those seeking corrections in their information can fill Form-8, an official from the election office said.
Till August 17, 4,28,679 electors had filed Form-6 for inclusion and 8,68,405 had submitted Form-8 for corrections, the CEO office data showed.
The last SIR exercise was conducted in 2002 when there were 3.4 crore voters in the state. Officials at the CEO’s office said they do not have accurate data on deletions in 2002 as there were changes in the election process, digitisation of data had begun and EPIC cards were being introduced.
The official explained that the mapping exercise conducted before the start of the SIR exercise was table top and not an address-verification exercise. It was to check if the names of electors were present in the 2002 rolls and in the last assembly and parliamentary elections.
The last Special Summary Revision (SSR) exercise was done on January 1, 2025. The house address of electors was followed as per this document. The SSR was not done on January 1, 2026 as SIR was to be held this year.
An Election Commission of India official said that under SIR, there has been an average deletion of around 19-20% in different states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.
The data of the draft rolls, deletions and trends are yet to be studied. This will help in understanding the pattern of migration and duplicate voters. This will also help in cleaning the electoral rolls once the SIR exercise across India is completed, the official added.