Over 1 crore voters removed from Karnataka electoral rolls after SIR; final list has 4.54 crore voters

BENGALURU: The final electoral roll of Karnataka has been published following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. According to the list released on Tuesday, the state now has 4.54 crore voters, with more than one crore names removed from the electoral rolls. As per the list released by the Chief Electoral Officer's office, a total of 1,08,76,625 (1.08 crore) voters have been removed. Another 61,687 people were found ineligible to be included in the electoral rolls following hearings.

Karnataka had 5,54,32,314 (5.54 crore) voters before the revision. The number has now dropped to 4.54 crore. The revised list includes 2.25 crore male voters, 2.29 crore female voters and 2,841 transgender voters. There are 6.83 lakh voters in the 18-19 age group.

The SIR exercise began in the state on June 30. This is the first intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Karnataka since 2002. Around 1.07 crore people did not submit their enumeration forms. They were classified as absent, permanently shifted, deceased or duplicate voters.

Hearings were conducted for 43.82 lakh people, following which 61,687 names were removed from the list. The revision process was completed by October 22.

The period for filing claims and objections was from August 24 to September 23. During this period, around 10.08 lakh people submitted complaints, following which 1.88 lakh names were removed. Meanwhile, around eight lakh people were added to the electoral rolls through Form 6. They had earlier been removed because they had shifted residence or could not be traced. Their names were subsequently restored to the list.