Karnataka has witnessed a noteworthy change following the SIR (Representative image)
BENGALURU: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Karnataka concluded on October 27, with the state losing about 99.76 lakh voters from its original electorate of 5.5 crore, bringing the total electorate to 4,54,55,689 (or 4.54 crore). About 86.56 lakh of these voters are in the 20-29 age group, while the number of new voters stands at 6.83 lakh. As of June 16, when the rolls were frozen for the SIR process, the state had about 5.5 crore voters. However, during the subsequent enumeration phase, which resulted in the August 24 draft list, about 19.48% or 1.08 crore voters were removed after being categorised as ASDDO (Absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and others). This category accounted for 65.45 lakh voters, or 11.8% of the ASDDO list. The total number of people who made it to the final list after the notices phase was 43.2 lakh out of 43.82 lakh, with 61,867 voters excluded from the final list following the notices. The state has the largest number of voters between the age of 30 to 39 years of age, accounting for 1.02 cr of the 4.5 cr voters at present. Between June 16 and September 23, 7.87 lakh citizens sought inclusion in the final voter list through Form 6 applications, while 4,530 NRIs sought inclusion through Form 6A. Objections to existing voters and requests for deletion, filed either by voters themselves or their families, amounted to 58,475.
The largest chunk of voters removed from the draft list were those classified as ‘permanently shifted’.