BENGALURU: As Karnataka’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls gathers pace, thousands of citizens are scrambling to obtain Permanent Residence Certificates (PRCs), amid growing fears that large-scale voter deletions could disenfranchise eligible electors. But even as the state government urges people to secure the document, applicants are running into persistent technical glitches on the very portals meant to process their requests.
The surge in applications comes against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter political battle over SIR.
Opposition parties and civil society groups have warned that the scale of deletions could significantly alter the state’s electoral landscape.
A civic forum has estimated that as many as 1 crore voters could eventually disappear from the final electoral rolls if the present trend continues.The Congress has cited official SIR data showing that of Karnataka’s 5.54 crore voters mapped before the exercise began on June 30, more than 84 lakh have already been classified under categories such as Absent,Shifted, Dead,Duplicate or Others during Booth Level Officer(BLO) verification.The largest category comprises voters marked as permanently shifted, raising concerns that many genuine electors could face deletion unless they successfully establish their residence.
Congress leaders warn that extensive voter deletions have influenced electoral outcomes in previous exercises elsewhere.They contend that the current SIR, unless implemented with greater safeguards, could have similar political consequences in Karnataka.
The State Government has positioned the Permanent Residence Certificate as a safeguard against such exclusions. Applications can be filed online through Seva Sindhu or offline at Nadakacheri centres, ith tahsildars and deputy tahsildars authorised to issue the certificates. Thousands of facilitation centres have also been established.
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has personally appealed to citizens to obtain the certificate, describing the right to vote as inseparable from the right to access government welfare and services. The Congress has aggressively campaigned for the document.
However, the rush has exposed serious weaknesses in the state’s digital infrastructure.
Applicants across Karnataka have reported repeated failures on both Seva Sindhu and Nadakacheri portals.
Users complain of OTP verification failures, frozen application pages, incomplete submissions and difficulties integrating Aadhaar and other identity records. Many applicants say they have had to make repeated attempts or visit physical centres after online applications failed.
The problems are not entirely new. Seva Sindhu has long struggled with heavy traffic and integration issues across multiple government departments. In fact, the Karnataka Labour Department previously decided to develop its own dedicated portal, citing chronic delays and system overload on Seva Sindhu.
The controversy has further deepened the political divide over the SIR exercise.
KPCC spokesperson M Lakshmana has accused the Centre of using SIR to systematically remove nearly 1 crore voters from Karnataka’s electoral rolls. He alleged that around 50 lakh names had effectively been excluded during the initial mapping process and claimed that similar large-scale deletions had preceded BJP victories in several other states. The State Government has rejected suggestions that the Permanent Residence Certificate amounts to a new citizenship document. Officials insist it is merely a standardised version of the existing residence certificate designed to help genuine residents establish their eligibility for government services and electoral registration.
Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar has maintained that the SIR is being conducted strictly in accordance with election laws. He has said every voter flagged for deletion is supported by documented verification and that adequate opportunities exist for eligible electors to raise objections before the rolls are finalised.
