Karnataka voter list shrinks by nearly eighteen percent following revision exercise by Election Commission

BENGALURU — Karnataka’s total electorate shrank by 17.9 per cent, dropping from 5.54 crore to 4.55 crore following a statewide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, according to data and research findings.

The Election Commission of India categorised nearly 1.08 crore electors as absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and others, subsequently deleting them from the draft voter list published on August 24. Because official electoral rolls do not record an individual’s religion, demographic breakdowns of these deletions have been compiled through independent estimates.

Research conducted by the political consultancy Sankalp estimated that the State’s Muslim electorate decreased by 18.84 per cent, translating to a reduction of 13.48 lakh voters from 71.56 lakh down to 58.08 lakh. Meanwhile, the non-Muslim electorate fell by 17.79 per cent, reducing by 86 lakh voters from 4.82 crore to 3.96 crore. Consequently, the Muslim share of the overall electorate shifted slightly from 12.91 per cent to 12.77 per cent.

The geographic distribution of the revisions varied significantly between the capital and the rest of the State. In Bengaluru, non-Muslim voters experienced a sharper proportional reduction than Muslim voters, dropping 43.82 per cent from 89 lakh to 50 lakh. The Muslim electorate in Bengaluru fell by 33.72 per cent, from 13.67 lakh to 9.06 lakh.

Conversely, across the remaining 196 constituencies outside Bengaluru, the Muslim electorate shrank by a greater proportion than the non-Muslim population. In those districts, Muslim voters decreased by 15.32 per cent—from 57.89 lakh to 49.02 lakh—while non-Muslim voters declined by 12.18 per cent, moving from 3.94 crore to 3.46 crore. In the 10 constituencies across Karnataka currently represented by Muslim MLAs, total electors from the community fell from 9.62 lakh prior to the revision to 7.52 lakh.

Separately, sources within the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer reported that 716 foreign nationals were identified on the electoral rolls during the verification process. The figures include 641 individuals from Nepal, alongside single entries from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Eligible voters who discover they are missing from the final rolls retain the option to enrol by submitting Form 6 applications. The Election Commission has removed the SIR declaration form requirement from these new submissions.