Karnataka CM flags major flaws in draft electoral roll, seeks EC intervention

Karnataka chief minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday, 25 August, urged the Election Commission of India to extend the period for claims and objections under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state to “ensure full compliance with the prescribed procedure, give voters adequate time to respond to verification notices, and increase the number of election officers handling applications and objections.”

In his letter to the CEC the CM said a significant number of voters classified as “Absent” could actually be genuine electors who had been unable to submit their enumeration forms because they were away from home for work, health reasons or other legitimate purposes when Booth Level Officers visited. Similarly, several electors who had moved to a different polling station were not given an opportunity to submit enumeration forms at their new residences during house-to-house visits, while their names had been deleted from the electoral roll at their previous addresses, he said.

Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge posted on X voicing his concern and alarm at the draft list published on 24 August. “The SIR in Karnataka has thrown up alarming numbers. Over 1.08 crore voters are marked as ASDDO and about 43 lakh voters are set to receive notices for logical discrepancies,” he posted quoting the chief minister.

Mobility, poverty, lack of documentation or lack of information must not become reasons for disenfranchisement. The objective must be a voter roll that is accurate, trusted and, above all, one that ensures that no genuine voter is left out, the chief minister said in his letter.

The alarms went off after the draft list placed nearly 1.08 crore, almost 1 in 5 voters under the ASDDO (Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others) category. In Bengaluru alone, 46.88 lakh electors are in this category. Another 43.8 lakh are expected to face verification over “logical discrepancies” or absence of linkage to the 2002 roll. That means roughly 1.5 crore voters out of 5.54 crore voters could face deletion unless they manage to establish their eligibility. Karnataka draft list has recorded removal of 19.48 per cent voters, or more than 1.07 crore voters. Bengaluru, which had an electorate of over 1.03 crore voters, has had its rolls shrink to just 56.11 lakh voters in the draft electoral rolls.

The claims and objections period for the draft roll began on 24 August and will continue until 23 September. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on 27 October.

The Karnataka CM, in his letter, urged the CEC to take the following actions:

1.   Extend the period for claims and objections, so genuine voters excluded from the draft roll have adequate time to file claims

2.  Direct the CEO to fully implement the prescribed procedure, including meeting of gram sabhas in rural areas and ward committee meetings in urban areas, with adequate publicity

3.  Extend the time given to voters facing notices for logical discrepancies and absence of a link to the 2002 roll. Each voter should get at least three to four weeks to respond and furnish documents

4. Increase the number of EROs and, if necessary, DEOs to handle the enormous volume of claims, objections and applications and prevent errors and unfair exclusions.

Significantly, barely 10 days before the draft list was published, Bengaluru based civil society organisation Myvotemyrightk.wordpress.com on 13 August posted on its website a reply it received from the ECI on logical discrepancies. The organisation had filed an RTI application seeking to know the definition of ‘logical discrepancy’. The Election Commission of India replied, “The information sought by you is not available in the Commission. It may be available with the Office of the CEO of States/UTs.”

Subsequently, they posted on their website: “The response to the RTI application demonstrates clearly, that the procedure of flagging voters under this category was not just arbitrary, has no legal basis and is undocumented with the ECI itself! This process of forcing voters to jump through additional hoops to establish their eligibility has threatened the right to vote of crores of Indians."

Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer, who too had maintained silence over logical discrepancies, has since then addressed a press conference and listed nine criteria for flagging voters under “anomalies” or “logical discrepancies”.  Karnataka’s draft electoral roll, published on 24 August, has 4,46,80,151 electors of whom 20,35,835 have been categorised as having anomalies or logical discrepancies, while another 23,45,500 have been placed in the not-mapped category. Together, 43,81,335 electors, or 9.82% of the draft electorate, are set to receive notices.

According to the criteria issued by the CEO’s office, an elector can be flagged if the age difference between them and a parent to whom they have been linked is less than 15 years or more than 50 years. A similar anomaly is flagged if the age difference between an elector and three mapped grandparents is less than 40 years. A mismatch in the father’s name between the current electoral roll and the previous SIR roll is also among the criteria. The list also includes cases where two people mapped as children of the same parent have an age gap of less than nine months. Another criterion covers cases where six or more people have been mapped as the children of the same parent, with the system treating this as a possible indication of an incorrect match.

An NDA delegation comprising BJP and JD(S) leaders had also called on the Election Commission in New Delhi in July and submitted a joint memorandum to the CEC.  It alleged “large-scale” procedural violations in the SIR in Karnataka. According to the memorandum, enumeration forms were allegedly being filled in bulk at community halls, anganwadis, convention centres, mosques and other locations instead of following the mandatory door-to-door verification by Booth Level Officers. The delegation also alleged that WhatsApp groups were being used to mobilise people to such locations for the SIR exercise.