Bengaluru, 19 September (H.S.) :Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president B.K. Hariprasad has alleged serious discrepancies in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka and urged the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to clarify all concerns before proceeding to the next stage.

In a letter to the CEO, the Congress leader alleged that the SIR 2026 exercise was marked by several shortcomings, including inadequate data reconciliation, inconsistencies and arbitrary procedures. He sought firm assurances from the election authorities that the issues would be examined and resolved.

Hariprasad questioned apparent discrepancies in the voter figures released as part of the revision. He pointed out that the exercise had reportedly begun with 5,54,22,344 voters - the same number recorded in the final electoral roll published in 2025.

The KPCC has sought clarification on whether any names were added, deleted or modified in the electoral rolls before the SIR process formally began on June 30.

According to Hariprasad, the figures relating to absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and other voters, classified under ASDDO, do not correspond with the number of voters shown as deleted from the 2025 electoral rolls in several Assembly constituencies.

He said the ASDDO figures had increased in some constituencies while declining in others, without adequate explanations being provided for the variations. These discrepancies had reportedly been categorised as unexplained voters.

Hariprasad demanded that the data be reviewed separately for every Assembly constituency to establish how the figures had changed and whether the revision had been conducted uniformly across the state.

While acknowledging that isolated discrepancies could have resulted from technical problems, he said the cumulative variations raised serious questions about the transparency, consistency and auditability of the entire SIR process.

The Congress leader urged the electoral authorities to reconcile the figures and publicly explain the methodology adopted before moving forward with the revision.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman