EC extends electoral roll deadline by nine days amid Bengaluru data issues

The Election Commission has granted an extension for Karnataka's electoral roll revision, moving the deadline from August 8 to August 17. This provides Booth Level Officers (BLOs) an additional nine days to complete their house-to-house verification. Consequently, the publication of the draft electoral roll is now set for August 24, a week later than initially planned.

The revised schedule also pushes the final electoral roll publication from October 19 to October 27. The period for submitting claims and objections will now run from August 24 to September 23, with the notice phase and disposal of objections extended until October 22.

This extension was necessitated by a large number of electors, particularly in Bengaluru, being classified under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, or Others (ASDDO) category. In Bengaluru Urban and BBMP North, Central, and South electoral units, 4.8 million out of 10.4 million electors, or 46.5%, fall into this category. BBMP South shows the highest proportion, with over 50% of its electors marked ASDDO.

These Bengaluru figures are considerably higher than the statewide proportion, where 19.81% of Karnataka's electors are in the ASDDO category. The primary component of the statewide ASDDO figure comprises electors recorded as permanently shifted (6.6 million), followed by deceased (1.6 million), untraceable or absent (1.5 million), already enrolled (696,536), and others (447,920).

The chief electoral officer's office stated that the ASDDO lists have been shared with political parties and are available with BLOs for verification. Digitization of Enumeration Forms has also progressed significantly across the state, with over 80% of forms digitized. The election office has also received numerous applications for voter inclusion, deletion, and corrections.

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The list of ASDDO has been delivered to the political parties and is available with the BLOs also for verification.