With multiple discrepancies emerging as the pre-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) mapping progresses, political groups and activists monitoring the exercise, who have cross-checked the records with Booth Level Officers (BLOs), have estimated that around 12% of Karnataka’s voters could face deletion during the revision process. 

The estimate is based on documents reviewed as well as trends observed in other States where the exercise has been carried out, said members of Jagrutha Karnataka. The average deletion rate nationally has been around 10-12%, with Kerala being a notable exception. 

The electoral rolls are also set to be frozen shortly. The Election Commission will freeze the E-Roll, the digital version of the official voter list, on June 16. Before the freeze takes effect, all pending applications under Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8 will be processed. These forms are used for the inclusion of new voters, registration of overseas (NRI) voters, objections to entries in the electoral roll, and correction or updating of voter details, respectively. Once the roll is frozen, it will serve as the base voter database for the next stage of the revision exercise. 

While permanently shifted voter IDs are expected to account for a significant share of the deletions, activists say the exercise has also highlighted difficulties in mapping women voters whose details changed after marriage. The issue is particularly visible among women who moved to or from neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where linking records across locations has proved challenging. 

Concerns were also raised over the category of “logical discrepancies“. Citing the example of West Bengal, where more electors were reportedly deleted under the logical discrepancies category than under the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate/deleted (ASDD) category, the association argued that the category could lead to arbitrary scrutiny. It said there is no clear definition of what constitutes a logical discrepancy, allowing the category to be interpreted broadly and expanded to cover a wide range of cases.  

Adding further, the association said that in one recent case in Tumakuru district, a BLO has reportedly linked 138 women to their fathers-in-law while completing a large number of mappings within a short period. Similar instances have also been reported in Bengaluru. 

However, a father-in-law is not among the prescribed options for such mapping. The association argued that such cases, along with instances where voters have not submitted documents or where names and spellings vary across records, are likely to attract scrutiny under logical discrepancies during the verification process. 

Within the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), Chief Commissioner and District Election Officer M. Maheshwar Rao recently said that 28% of electors could not be mapped during the exercise. While he clarified that non-mapping does not automatically lead to deletion, he said that such voters would need to furnish documents to establish their identity. 

Members of Jagrutha Karnataka said that the problem extends beyond duplicate entries. Given the scale of migration over the past three decades, they said many people, especially migrant workers from many districts, particularly north Karnataka, either lack the required documents or have different names and spellings across various records, making the mapping exercise more complicated. 

In many cases, BLOs said that when they sought clarification from officials regarding cases where voters were not getting mapped to 2002 rolls or their parents in cases of progeny mapping, they were advised to refer to instructional videos and finish with the exercise. 

Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, V. Anbu Kumar, however, dismissed the concerns, arguing that no such estimate can be made until draft electoral roll is published.