The final electoral roll following the SIR exercise in Karnataka has been released on October 27, 2026. I argue that this electoral roll, has established, with evidence, that SIR is a “massive conspiracy” orchestrated by the Modi Government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disenfranchise Dalits, oppressed communities and minorities in Karnataka and across India, depriving them of their voting rights and citizenship. Karnataka’s final post-SIR roll also makes abundantly clear and echoes the demand that this gross injustice of mass disenfranchisement will not be arrested unless the SIR process is completely abandoned/rejected.
Giving a six-part breakdown, the author argues that the final, post-SIR electoral roll has ensured the deletion of not just 99.3 lakh voters as has been admitted, this includes 75 lakhs of voters in the “shifted” and “absent” category; hence 99.3 lakhs plus another possible 27 lakhs by a gross under-representation of the elector-population ratio (EPR); roughly this means that the deletions swell to an approximate 1.26 crore voter deletions in total that is a staggering 18 per cent of the state’s electorate
Six major issues exposed Karnataka’s Final Electoral Roll:
1. One Crore Voters Deleted!
According to the final electoral roll, nearly one crore voters (99.3 lakh) have been excluded in Karnataka. Compared with the deletion figures of India’s 24 major states, this is the highest number of deletions in the country. Except for the small state of Arunachal Pradesh, where 22% of voters were ultimately deleted, Karnataka has witnessed the highest percentage of exclusion, with 18% of its voters removed from the electoral rolls.
2. How Many “Illegal Immigrants/Foreign Voters” finally detected?
This was the biggest pretext advanced by the Election Commission and the Modi Government to justify conducting SIR. Their argument, hysterically made at political rallies, was that “lakhs … of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were infiltrating India”, posing a serious threat to national security. Through the hurriedly launched SIR process –that has been widely exposed as being both unlawful and unconstitutional– these infiltrators would purportedly be identified, their names deleted from the electoral rolls, and they would be “expelled” from the country. The argument advanced was that, therefore, SIR was necessary for national security, and so on.
As part of this propaganda, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar claimed that Karnataka, particularly Bengaluru, had 10-25 lakh Bangladeshi infiltrators and that SIR was necessary to identify them! [1]At the initial stages, even Congress leader and then Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar lent his voice to this campaign. If these claims were valid, how many “Bangladeshi infiltrators” were actually detected in Karnataka after the completion of SIR? Ironically, the official details released by the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka contain absolutely no information on this matter, which was supposedly so crucial to national security. Read the final categorisation here.[2]
In addition, according to most newspaper reports published today, October 28 (the day after the final post-SIR list was published), the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anbu Kumar, responding orally to a question, categorically stated that the number of foreign nationals detected was fewer than one thousand.
According to the front-page report in Prajavani, a total of 771 foreign nationals were identified in Karnataka, of whom 685 were Nepalis! In Bengaluru North district alone, 580 foreign nationals were identified, of whom 542 were Nepalis. Apart from Nepalis, the other foreign nationals detected were primarily citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia and other Western countries.
Then how many infiltrators from Bangladesh and Pakistan were actually detected?
According to documents obtained from informed sources, only one Bangladeshi national and one Pakistani national were detected, both in Uttara Kannada district. This makes two things abundantly clear. First, the malicious propaganda of the Sangh Parivar was false.
Second, the Modi Government had devised the conspiracy of SIR under the pretext of identifying foreign infiltrators, while its real objective was to deprive Dalits, oppressed communities and the indigenous people of this country who do not vote for the BJP of their voting rights.
There are two more important reasons for arriving at this conclusion.
In its judgment on SIR delivered on May 27, the Supreme Court directed states where the SIR process had been completed to submit lists of suspected foreign nationals identified during the exercise to the “Competent Authority” under the Ministry of Home Affairs within four weeks. Not merely four weeks, but five months have now passed since that judgment. Even before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment, SIR had already been completed in 13 states.
Shouldn’t these states, therefore, have submitted their respective lists of identified foreign infiltrators to the Competent Authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs by the end of June?
In August itself, CHRI Director Venkatesh and RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj filed applications under the Right to Information Act seeking this information from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Election Commission. In the MHA reply in October, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that it had neither information about the “Competent Authority” nor any list of suspected foreign nationals. The Election Commission, on its part, replied that it had no report showing how many suspected foreign nationals had been identified through SIR in different states.[3]
Doesn’t this establish that both the propaganda about foreign infiltrators and SIR itself were part of a maliciously designed project of the Sangh Parivar? For this reason too, SIR must be completely abolished. Those responsible for it must face severe punishment.
3. Higher Deletions in Constituencies with Large Backward-Class, Muslim, Dalit and Adivasi Populations
In Bengaluru, every second voter has been excluded. Outside Bengaluru, Assembly constituencies in districts such as Mysuru, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi and Bidar, which have substantial Muslim, Backward Class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe populations, have witnessed deletions higher than the state average. In these constituencies, 20–30% of voters have been removed from the electoral rolls.
Across Karnataka, more than 10% of voters have been deleted in 135 Assembly constituencies. In approximately 32 constituencies, deletions exceed 30%.
4. The “Great Lie” of Re-Enrolment Through Form 6
The Election Commission had repeatedly boasted that it would conduct special campaigns during the claims and objections period to enable eligible voters whose names were missing from the draft electoral roll to get themselves re-enrolled. But the final electoral roll makes it clear that all these claims were false and that the campaigns were virtually ineffective. As many as 1.08 crore voters had been excluded from the draft electoral roll. Thereafter, a two-month period was provided for submitting claims. The Election Commission also claimed that it had conducted two special enrolment campaigns. Yet, in the final electoral roll, 99.32 lakh voters remain excluded. This means that only around eight lakh voters were added. Even this figure includes newly eligible voters who had attained the age of 18.
The Election Commission has not provided a separate breakdown showing how many voters who were deleted from the draft roll were subsequently re-enrolled through Form 6. Therefore, the claim that re-enrolment of excluded voters through Form 6 has been successful is a monumental falsehood.
5. The Election Commission has no programme to re-enrol 75 Lakh eligible voters excluded from the Final Electoral Roll!
According to the final electoral roll, among the 99.32 lakh excluded voters, 16.41 lakh have been classified as deceased and 7.1 lakh as duplicate entries. Even the number classified as deceased is exaggerated. Karnataka’s average annual number of deaths is around four lakhs. The number of voters classified as deceased is four times that figure! Moreover, several instances have been reported in which living persons were falsely recorded as dead. Even if we give the Election Commission the benefit of the doubt and accept that these people were genuinely ineligible for inclusion in the electoral rolls, what remains?
According to the final electoral roll itself, approximately 65.4 lakh voters have been classified as Permanently Shifted, while another 19 lakhs were recorded as Absent when Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited their residences. In other words, these two categories—Absent and Permanently Shifted—together account for around 75 lakh voters.
Even according to the Election Commission’s own classification, all these people are eligible voters. They are not dead. They are not duplicate entries. They are not foreigners. The responsibility for including these voters in the electoral rolls rests with the Election Commission, not with the people who have been excluded.
Instead, the Election Commission is acting unconstitutionally by asking these voters to fill out Form 6 and apply for re-enrolment, thereby shifting the responsibility for inclusion onto the very victims of SIR. Worse still, the Form 6 requires a false declaration from every excluded voter stating that they are “first-time” voters or voters that have never voted before!
Under Articles 324–326 of the Constitution, the Duty to Include Eligible Voters Rests with the Election Commission, Not with the Voters! A large majority of these excluded voters are migrant workers, illiterate people and those who are completely unaware of the SIR process itself. That is precisely why, although 1.08 crore voters were excluded from the draft electoral roll, only a few lakhs were able to come forward and seek re-enrolment during the claims period.
The figures in the final electoral roll themselves prove this. Even at yesterday’s press conference, the Election Commission did not announce any programme to trace and re-enrol these 75 lakh eligible voters. Nor is the Commission capable of accomplishing this through the present process. Therefore, the SIR process, which excludes eligible voters, must be abolished in its entirety.
The earlier SSR (Special Summary Revision) system must be restored.
6. Finally, why Has Karnataka’s Elector-Population Ratio (EPR) Declined?
Generally, the proportion of adults aged 18 and above in a state or country, and the proportion of registered voters in its population, provide an indication of how effectively eligible voters are being enrolled. The higher this ratio, the healthier the voter-registration process is. For example, if a state has a population of 100 people, of whom 70 are aged 18 or above, the proportion of registered voters should also be somewhere around 70%.
In India, the average Elector-Population Ratio is around 65%, whereas in Karnataka it stood at 70.1% in 2025.[4] However now, post SIR, Karnataka’s EPR has fallen from 70.1% to 66%. When compared with the estimated population of 6.87 crore provided by the Election Commission itself, this represents the disappearance of approximately 4% of the state’s voters!
In other words, through this decline alone, the Election Commission has made 27 lakh voters vanish! If it is true that India’s population is increasing year after year, then the number of adults should also increase every year. Consequently, the number of registered voters should increase from year to year rather than decline.
But SIR seems to insist that even when the population increases, and even when the adult population increases, the number of registered voters must decline! For this reason, too, SIR is profoundly unscientific and must be abolished immediately.
SIR is ill-conceived, motivated, unscientific and undemocratic!
For all these five reasons, Karnataka’s final SIR electoral roll proves that SIR itself is a conspiratorial, unscientific and undemocratic exercise. Such a process “cannot be reformed”.
Hence these demands must remain:
–SIR must be scrapped immediately
– All those responsible for the Karnataka exercise including CED Gyanesh Kumar must be punished
–There must be a public debate on the Judiciary’s role as Constitutional Courts, including the Supreme Court, are accountable to the people of India
-The entire electoral process including the preparation and revision of electoral rolls must be democratised!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQnSBVGZy-k;
[2]https://ceo.karnataka.gov.in/uploads/PDF%20FINAL%20AC%20WISE%2027_1793094730.pdf
[3] https://thewire.in/rights/rti-reveals-in-sir-purging-of-ineligibles-from-the-voter-lists-might-be-a-bogey
[4] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/elector-population-ratio-in-the-electoral-roll-points-to-decline-in-birth-rate-and-migration/article69701946.ece
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author’s personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabrangindia.
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