The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka on Tuesday published the final electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), officially removing 99,32,185 (nearly 99.32 lakh) names from the state’s
voter list. The rigorous cleanup exercise shrunk the state’s total electorate from 5,54,32,314 registered voters down to 4,55,00,011 voters. While the draft electoral roll stage had initially excluded over 1.07 crore names, subsequent additions of 8.64 lakh voters during the claims and objections window brought the final net deletion to just under the 1 crore mark.
NUMBERSPEAK
- Total Electorate: 4,55,00,011 voters
- Women Voters: 2.29 crore (outnumbering men)
- Men Voters: 2.25 crore
- Third Gender Voters: 2,841
- Young Voters (Aged 18–19): Over 6.83 lakh
- Senior Voters (Aged 85+): More than 3.92 lakh
WHY WERE THE NAMES DELETED?
The vast majority of the deletions occurred during the door-to-door verification phase under specific categories:
Shifted or Not Found: 80.62 lakh names were removed because the voters had changed their residence or could not be traced at their registered addresses.
Deceased Voters: 16.39 lakh names were struck off on the grounds that the voters had passed away.
Duplicate Entries: Over 7 lakh names were identified as redundant or duplicate registrations.
Others: 3.83 lakh names were removed under an unspecified “Others” category, which election officials stated included individuals who refused to sign verification documents.
HOW TO CHECK YOUR NAME AND RE-REGISTER?
Election authorities are urging all citizens to verify their status immediately.
- Visit the official Election Commission Electoral Search Portal.
- Select the “Search by EPIC” tab.
- Enter your Voter ID (EPIC) number, select Karnataka, fill out the captcha, and click search.
IF YOUR NAME IS MISSING
Do not panic. The Chief Electoral Officer’s office has announced that an enrolment drive will be launched post-SIR to reinstate genuine voters. Eligible citizens whose names were wrongly deleted can download the necessary forms and re-apply using Form 6 on the Voters’ Service Portal or by coordinating with local Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
POLITICAL ROW
The sheer scale of the deletions has sparked a heated political row in Karnataka. The Congress has raised serious concerns regarding the potential mass exclusion of minorities, the poor, and marginalised communities. They have demanded investigations into alleged “Vote Chori” (vote theft) after instances surfaced where thousands of Form 7 deletion applications were submitted automatically or via third parties without proper verification.
With agency inputs
