Karnataka's Electoral Roll Shrinks by Nearly One Crore Voters Following SIR Exercise

Karnataka's final electoral roll under SIR shows a net decrease of over 99 lakh voters, dropping from 5.54 crore to 4.55 crore. The revision aimed to create a "pure, clean electorate" by removing 1.07 crore names initially, including 16.4 lakh due to reported deaths and 7 lakh duplicates. Around 80.62 lakh voters were deleted for being untraceable at their addresses. Despite adding 8.64 lakh voters in the final list, deletions outweighed additions. Over 61,000 deletion requests were filed without reasons by officials. The process faces criticism as a "backdoor NRC", risking disenfranchisement of vulnerable groups.