A total of 10.8 million names, approximately 19.5 per cent of the total electors, have been deleted from the draft electoral roll for Karnataka as part of the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR)
exercise. This marks the second-highest deletion of voters from electoral rolls across the big states, following a 21.6 per cent removal in Telangana at the draft stage.
On Monday, August 24, the Election Commission of India (ECI) published Karnataka’s draft electoral roll featuring 44.6 million electors, 10.8 million fewer than the 55.4 million names that appeared on the list before the SIR.
Addressing a presser in Bengaluru, Karnataka chief electoral officer (CEO) V Anbukkumar said the state had 55,432,314 electors in the pre-SIR electoral rolls as on June 16, 2026, and a total of 44,635,975 electors were included in the draft roll after they submitted their enumeration forms.
Of those included, 22,159,240 are male, 22,473,864 female and 2,871 electors are under the ‘other’ category, he said.
Following the completion of the enumeration phase (June 30 to August 17) under the SIR exercise, 10,796,339 electors (or 19.5 per cent) were deleted from the list after booth level officers (BLOs) marked them as Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, and Others (ASDDO), he added.
Under the first phase of the SIR exercise, enumeration forms are distributed to electors, and those who duly complete and submit the forms are included in the draft electoral roll. Later, those omitted from the electoral roll can ask to be included or deleted from the draft. The second stage also involves the verification of electors who are either not linked to the 2002 electoral rolls or have discrepancies in the enumeration forms they submitted.
According to Anbukkumar, 2.3 million voters were found absent on the 2002 electoral roll, coupled with another two million electors with discrepancies. Notices will be issued to 4,381,335 (9.82 per cent) electors, whose forms had discrepancies.
The second phase of SIR began Monday, August 24, and will conclude on September 23.
About SIR
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a major nationwide initiative by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to clean, update, and verify the country’s voter lists.
Unlike ordinary annual updates, SIR involves door-to-door physical verification by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to eliminate duplicate entries, remove deceased or migrated individuals, and register newly eligible voters.
While the SIR officially began in October 2025, the physically rollout of the exercise is being carried out in a phased manner.
