The Karnataka Election Commission will issue notices to 43.8 lakh voters during the next phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Bengaluru accounts for more than half of recipients, with 24.05 lakh voters across its four electoral districts set to receive notices.
Of these, 20.35 lakh voters have been flagged for “logical discrepancies” in their enumeration forms, while 23.45 lakh could not provide mapping details from the 2002 electoral roll.
The notices will be issued after draft electoral rolls are published on August 24. The claims and objections period will continue until September 23, while their disposal will continue until October 22.
The Chief Electoral Officer’s office has identified nine categories of logical discrepancies. These include implausible age gaps between parents and children, discrepancies in fathers’ names and differences between current and previous electoral records.
Other categories include age gaps between siblings, unusually high numbers of children mapped to a parent, and discrepancies in voters’ own names between the current roll and the previous SIR.
A voter may also be flagged if a parent linked to their record is later marked invalid in the current electoral roll. In such cases, all progeny records mapped to that parent’s previous SIR record will also be treated as anomalous.
The “no mapping” category covers voters who could not provide details from the 2002 SIR or could not establish their linkage to voters included in that exercise.
Notices will be served through Booth Level Officers from August 31. Each notice will specify the date, time and location where the voter must appear for verification.
Voters will be required to submit documents establishing their identity, citizenship and residency. Two documents apart from Aadhaar will be sought, depending on the nature of the discrepancy.
The notices will also contain a scanner allowing voters to upload the required forms online. However, voters will have to appear in person with physical copies of their documents for verification.
Officials said voters would receive two notices. Those who fail to respond could be removed from the electoral roll and would then have to submit Form 6 for inclusion.
The verification process will also involve photographs being taken when notices are served, when voters appear before the Electoral Registration Officer and when documents are submitted.
The CEO’s office said the process would be documented through the BLO application, with voters also required to sign attendance and documentation registers.
As per Election Commission directions, one officer will handle a maximum of 150 notices per day. Officials said all documents submitted under the no-mapping category would be verified by the District Election Officer.
Mandya has recorded 1.30 lakh logical discrepancies, the highest outside Bengaluru, followed by Kolar, Dakshina Kannada and Chikkamagaluru. BBMP South recorded 1.12 lakh discrepancies.
Bengaluru’s four electoral districts account for 6.24 lakh of the 20.35 lakh voters flagged for anomalies. They also account for 17.81 lakh of the 23.45 lakh voters in the no-mapping category.
In BBMP North, 6.13 lakh of the 12.8 lakh voters included in the draft roll are expected to receive notices. This accounts for 47.89% of voters in the draft roll.
In BBMP Central, 4.29 lakh of 10.29 lakh voters are expected to receive notices, accounting for 41.72%. The corresponding figures are 41.07% for Bengaluru Urban and 38.43% for BBMP South.
Among Bengaluru’s 28 Assembly constituencies, CV Raman Nagar, at 60.34%, has the highest proportion of voters expected to receive notices. It is followed by KR Puram at 58.61%, Bengaluru South at 54.57% and Shantinagar at 53.14%.
Govindarajanagar has the lowest proportion, with 29.17% of voters in the draft roll expected to receive notices.
The notices come after the CEO’s office mapped 5.54 crore voters during the SIR exercise. Of these, 1.07 crore were placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Other (ASDDO) category and will not be included in the draft roll.
Of the remaining 4.46 crore voters, 20.35 lakh have been classified under anomalies and 23.45 lakh under no mapping.
The scale of the notices is particularly significant in Bengaluru, where 49.42 lakh of the 1.03 crore voters mapped during the exercise were flagged under the ASDDO category.
The CEO’s office said additional Assistant Electoral Registration Officers had been trained for the exercise. They will visit the homes of voters who receive notices and assist with verification and document-related queries.
The number of polling stations in Karnataka has also increased from 59,050 to 60,925 after 15 stations were merged and 1,826 new stations were added.
Karnataka has the lowest number of notices among the states where the SIR exercise is underway. The Election Commission data shows 3.26 crore notices in Uttar Pradesh, 1.64 crore in Tamil Nadu, 1.51 crore in West Bengal, 1.11 crore in Gujarat, 1.01 crore in Madhya Pradesh and 58.36 lakh in Odisha.