Karnataka SIR: Over 2.4 lac voters cleared after ASDDO verification

Bengaluru, Aug 13: More than 2.41 lac voters initially flagged for possible exclusion from Karnataka’s electoral rolls have been cleared after verification, bringing down the number of names under the ASDDO category to 1.08 crore.

The Election Commission’s ASDDO list covers voters classified as absent, shifted, dead, duplicate or under ‘others’. The list had 1,11,16,386 names when it was published on August 5. By August 12, the figure had dropped to 1,08,75,304.

The biggest changes were seen among voters marked as absent and permanently shifted. The ‘Absent’ category fell by 85,267 to 15,48,757, while the ‘Permanently Shifted’ category came down by 95,037 to 65,73,976 after verification and uploading of revised enumeration forms.

The number of voters marked dead, however, increased by 6,796 to 16,36,673. Duplicate voters or those found enrolled elsewhere numbered 7,01,412. In the ‘Others’ category, 80,492 people who had earlier refused to sign their enumeration forms subsequently signed them, taking the total in this category to 4,14,486.

The verification exercise was carried out by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) with the assistance of Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties.

Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka V Anbukkumar said voters should verify their status only through the CEO’s official website. He said those who have been wrongly included in the ASDDO list can approach their BLOs for rollback until August 17.

The next major step will be publication of the draft electoral rolls on August 24. Voters who submitted their enumeration forms will be included in the draft rolls. Those who did not receive forms or were wrongly classified can seek inclusion by submitting Form 6.

Those turning 18 on or before October 1, 2026, are also eligible to apply through Form 6. Eligible voters residing in Karnataka and not enrolled elsewhere in India can submit the form either online or offline.

According to Anbukkumar, more than 12.94 lac applications for inclusion, deletion and corrections have already been received. These include 4,08,798 Form 6 applications, 3,592 Form 6A applications, 31,415 Form 7 applications and 8,50,667 Form 8 applications.

BLOs have been supplied with 30 forms each, while around 10 lakh forms have been printed for distribution within the Greater Bengaluru Area.

Applications received through Forms 6, 7 and 8 up to September 23 will be verified for inclusion in the final electoral rolls, which are scheduled to be published on October 27. Applications received after September 23 will be taken up during the next Special Summary Revision in January 2027.

Between January 1, 2025 and June 16, 2026, when electoral roll updation was frozen for the SIR, the Commission processed 73.03 lakh applications. Of these, 66.22 lac voters were enrolled, while 6.77 lac applications were rejected.

Voters included in the draft electoral rolls can use Form 8 to request corrections or changes in their voter details. This includes changing an address, shifting residence within or outside the Assembly constituency or state, correcting entries, replacing an EPIC and marking a person as having a disability.

Corrections can be sought in the name, gender, date of birth, relation type, relation name, address, mobile number and photograph. A maximum of four particulars can be corrected at a time.