Why Bengaluru citizen groups and JD(S) are sounding alarm over SIR verification drive

3 min readBengaluruJul 5, 2026 10:27 AM IST

My Vote, My Right's recent survey on the SIR revealed low awareness of the process among respondents in Bengaluru (File photo).

With the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process officially underway in Karnataka, the Opposition Janata Dal (Secular) and prominent Bengaluru-based citizen groups have raised separate alarms about alleged procedural violations and systemic flaws in the ongoing voter roll verification drive.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka, senior JD(S) leaders, including MLA C B Suresh Babu and Yuva Janata Dal president Nikhil Kumaraswamy, flagged severe irregularities, specifically citing the Ramanagara constituency in the Bengaluru South district.

They alleged that instead of carrying out mandatory door-to-door visits, booth-level officers (BLOs) were observed operating en masse from a centralised Assembly hall on Thursday, distributing and receiving official verification forms directly from voters.

The JD(S) has requested a complete scratch-and-restart house-to-house enumeration process in the affected booth sectors, a high-level administrative investigation into the conduct of the erring BLOs, and close scrutiny of other Assembly segments, including Kunigal, Arkalgud, Pavagada, Mandya, and Indi, where similar irregularities have allegedly taken place. Furthermore, the JD(S) alleged that in Mandya, forms were distributed en masse with only booth-level agents (BLAs) from the ruling Congress present.

BLOs insisting on immediate completion of forms

On Friday, citizen collective My Vote, My Right, an umbrella alliance comprising various civil society groups including the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkarvada), and the National Federation of Indian Women, dispatched its own list of grievances to the state CEO.

As reported by The Indian Express, the collective’s recent survey on the SIR revealed low awareness of the process among respondents in Bengaluru.

In the Friday letter, the group raised concern that BLOs were insisting on immediate completion of forms rather than collecting them from residents during the next visit, as laid out in the SIR booklet issued by the CEO.

Story continues below this ad

Amongst a series of concerns, they also raised the question of what grounds a voter would be classified as “absent”, “shifted”, “duplicate”, or “dead”. The group noted apprehension that a voter might be declared “absent” when they were at work during the daytime, when a BLO might arrive.

The group noted in the letter, “We fear that if these questions remain unanswered, incorrectly filled forms may lead to voters receiving notices seeking additional documents to be submitted. As we have already highlighted, lakhs of voters in Karnataka do not possess any of the 11 documents prescribed by SIR, and this may lead to wrongful exclusions of voters.”