SIR: Enumeration phase ends, over 1.08 crore voters flagged

With the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the State ending on Monday, over 1.08 crore voters remain under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead, and Others (ASDDO) category and will not figure in the draft electoral roll scheduled to be published on August 24.

The overall ASDDO figure has fallen from 1.11 crore on August 5, a day after the list was made public, to over 1.08 crore on Monday, the last day of the enumeration phase. However, the decline has not been uniform throughout categories. While those classified as “already enrolled/duplicate” have risen from 6.89 lakh to 7.07 lakh during the same period.

A number of voters who approached officials after finding their names in the ASDDO list remarked that, in some cases, Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) appeared to have shifted their names from one category to another rather than removing them from the list, the number of voters marked “dead” has increased from 16.30 lakh to 16.38 lakh. According to Many voters and civil society groups, many names continued to remain under ASDDO despite requests for correction.

In Bengaluru, a number of constituencies continue to have more than half of their voters under ASDDO, including Dasarahalli, Vijayanagar, BTM Layout, Bommanahalli, and C.V. Raman Nagar. The problem is not restricted to Bengaluru. Kalaburagi, Mysuru, and Raichur have also continued to report high proportions of voters under ASDDO.

In Kalaburagi’s Chittapur constituency, represented by Home Minister Priyank Kharge, 22.13% of voters are under ASDDO, despite the constituency having recorded a 99.73% mapping rate before the enumeration phase. Nearly 20% of the ASDDO figure is concentrated in just 26 booths.

Drop mostly in Bengaluru

The almost 3-lakh drop in the overall ASDDO figure between August 5 and August 17 has come largely from Bengaluru, with little change in the numbers reported from other districts. Several Booth-Level Agents (BLAs) stated this was because numerous voters in other districts were unaware that their names had been placed under the ASDDO category or were unfamiliar with the SIR process itself.

After the draft roll is published on August 24, voters will have time to file claims and objections until September 23. Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will then issue notices where required and conduct the process of disposing of the claims and objections until October 22.