Karnataka’s Special Intensive Revision of its electoral rolls has led to a dispute over transparency. The draft list published in late August recorded about 4.46 crore electors while excluding roughly 1.07 crore names. Additionally, tens of lakhs of retained voters were identified for follow-up notices because their entries could not be mapped to a fixed address or contained inaccuracies.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer stated that no one could say in advance who would receive a notice until the system generated it. However, figures from the CEO’s office show that every notice was generated by Friday, meaning the list of affected voters is finalized even though it remains undisclosed to the public. This gap has drawn scrutiny from opposition politicians and civil society groups.
The claims-and-objections window is open until September 23, and Karnataka’s final electoral roll is due on October 27. Election officials maintain that the notice figures reflect routine back-end processing and that final eligibility will be decided through ongoing hearings.