Now Reading: Karnataka CM seeks EC extension for voter roll revision
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Karnataka CM seeks EC extension for voter roll revision
Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has asked the Election Commission of India to extend the deadline for claims, objections and verification of voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls…
Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has asked the Election Commission of India to extend the deadline for claims, objections and verification of voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Shivakumar flagged that nearly 1.08 crore of Karnataka's 5.54 crore electors have been placed under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) category. Following publication of the draft rolls on August 24, around 43.8 lakh electors are expected to receive notices over 'logical discrepancies' or a missing link to the 2002 electoral roll.
Shivakumar said many voters marked 'Absent' may be genuine electors away from home when Booth Level Officers visited, and those who shifted addresses were not given a chance to submit forms during the house-to-house exercise. He warned that voters in the ASDDO categories may not receive notices and could remain unaware their names were deleted. The Chief Minister sought three to four weeks for affected voters to respond and produce documents, and asked for Ward Committee meetings in urban areas and Gram Sabhas in rural areas to identify omissions. He also requested more electoral officers in districts with high ASDDO numbers.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The SIR process, governed by the Election Commission's 2023 Manual of Electoral Roll, is designed to clean up duplicate or dead entries, but the scale of flagged voters in Karnataka is unusually high. Over 1 crore electors marked ASDDO means nearly one in five voters in the state faces potential deletion without individual notice if they do not proactively check. The Chief Minister's request for Gram Sabha and Ward Committee meetings is procedurally allowed under the manual but has not been made mandatory, so district officers often skip them. The Commission's response will set a precedent: if it grants an extension, similar petitions may come from other states with large urban migrant populations. The CEC's decision on the timeline is awaited.
The core issue is whether the EC treats mobility as a reason for deletion or as a normal pattern in urban India.
Source: thehindu.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
