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Karnataka’s electorate has declined by nearly 18 per cent following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the final electoral roll published on Tuesday showing 4.54 crore voters, down from 5.54 crore before the exercise.
More than 99.3 lakh names have been removed from the rolls, according to data from the Chief Electoral Officer’s office.
At the draft stage, the electorate had fallen to 4.46 crore, with more than 1.07 crore names deleted. The final roll has added a net 8.64 lakh voters compared with the draft roll.
“Of the deletions, 16.39 lakh names were removed on the grounds that the voters were deceased, while more than seven lakh were identified as duplicate entries. Another 3.83 lakh names were deleted under the ‘Others’ category.”
The final electorate comprises more than 2.25 crore male voters, 2.29 crore female voters, and 2,841 third-gender voters. It includes over 6.83 lakh young voters aged 18–19 and more than 3.92 lakh voters aged above 85.
Political analyst Harish Ramaswamy raised concerns about the scale of deletions, the criteria used to remove names, and the transparency of the revision process.
“In any country, over a period of time, there is an addition to the list of voters in a democracy because the population grows and the demography changes. But if you are talking about the deletion of crores of people, I’m really worried. This is my first observation,” he told businessline.
He also questioned the grounds on which names had been removed and raised concerns about the transparency of the exercise, particularly the lack of clarity about the software used in the revision.
“When intellectuals in this country are raising questions, why should the institutions not come out and explain the process clearly?” he said, adding that the bureaucracy was accountable to the public.
Published on October 27, 2026
English (US) ·