Karnataka SIR: 64.5 Lakh Voters Potentially Missing from Rolls, Majority of Them Young

Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer published the state's final voter list on October 27, 2026, following the completion of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise that began on June 16. The final roll lists 4.55 crore registered voters, down from 5.54 crore at the start of the process — a reduction of nearly 99.32 lakh names, or roughly 18 percent of the previous electorate.

Among those deletions, the Election Commission categorised 65.45 lakh voters as having permanently shifted residence or being untraceable at their registered addresses. A further 19 lakh were listed as absent, 16.39 lakh as deceased, and 7.09 lakh as duplicates. Officials said a two-month claims, objections and notices phase — which ran from August 24 — had resulted in notices being issued to about 43.8 lakh voters from the draft rolls.

However, an independent analysis published by The Hindu suggests the final rolls may be undercounting the eligible voter population by as many as 64.5 lakh people. The figure is derived by comparing the enrolled electorate against projected population estimates for voting-age residents of the state.

The shortfall is most acute among younger citizens. Of the estimated 64.5 lakh potentially missing voters, approximately 38.41 lakh — about 59.5 percent — belong to the 18–29 age group. First-time voters appear especially affected: the analysis indicates that only around 33.1 percent of Karnataka's estimated 18–19-year-old population for 2026 has been enrolled, meaning fewer than one in three young adults in that cohort appears on the final rolls.

The final list includes 6.83 lakh voters in the 18–19 age group and more than 3.92 lakh voters aged 85 and above. The sex ratio among registered electors stands at 1,017 female voters per 1,000 male voters.

The scale of the deletions has triggered political controversy. Opposition parties and civil society organisations have raised concerns that the exercise may have disenfranchised genuine voters, including migrants, Dalits, Adivasis, women, Muslims and economically marginalised communities who may have been temporarily absent from their registered addresses during field enumeration.

Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar alleged that opposition parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party, engaged in irregular activity during the exercise, including the mass submission of Form 7 deletion requests. He specifically flagged the risk of Muslim voters being wrongfully removed from the rolls, though the Election Commission has not confirmed those claims.

The BJP, in turn, has pushed back against the Congress-led state government's characterisation of the exercise, calling the revision a necessary clean-up of inflated and outdated rolls. The dispute reflects a broader national debate about whether aggressive voter-list purges improve accuracy or suppress participation.

The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR process followed established procedure and that the claims and objections window gave affected voters adequate opportunity to contest deletions. Officials have not yet publicly responded to the specific finding that 64.5 lakh eligible voters may be absent from the final rolls.

Karnataka is a politically consequential state, and any systematic gaps in voter registration — particularly among young adults who represent an increasingly pivotal demographic — will likely remain a live issue ahead of future assembly and local body elections. Advocacy groups are expected to push for supplementary enrolment drives to address the shortfall identified in the analysis.