Nearly half of those who figured in electoral rolls of 2024 now under ASDDO

A comparison of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) data with the 2024 Lok Sabha election figures suggest an unusual pattern in Bengaluru — the number of electors placed under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) category under the SIR is now almost as large as the number of people who actually turned out to vote just two years ago across three Lok Sabha constituencies that fall under Bengaluru Urban limits. 

Unique case of south

The comparison is most significant in the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency. While 53.34% of the electorate voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, 50.5% of the present electorate has now been placed under the ASDDO category. This suggests that the constituency now has fewer voters outside the ASDDO category than the number of votes cast in the 2024 election.  

In absolute numbers, more than 12.49 lakh votes were cast in 2024, while more than 11.93 lakh electors are now under ASDDO.

Though the comparison does not establish that those now under ASDDO are the same electors who voted in 2024, yet, the numbers throw up a striking anomaly — only 49.5% of the present electorate (11,69,775 electors) remains outside ASDDO, even though over 12.49 lakh votes were cast in the constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In absolute terms, 79,567 more votes were cast in 2024 than the number of electors presently remaining outside ASDDO.  

Voters marked under ASDDO face deletion from the electoral roll unless they establish that they have been wrongly categorised.  

Bengaluru Central also presents a similar picture. Around 54.08% of the electorate voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, accounting for about 13.16 lakh votes. The latest SIR data shows 46.99% of the present electorate, or around 11.56 lakh electors, under ASDDO.  This means around 13.04 lakh voters currently remain outside the ASDDO category, compared with about 13.16 lakh votes cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha election — a difference of only around 12,000.

Bengaluru North shows a similar, though less extreme, pattern. The constituency recorded a voter turnout of 54.5% in the 2024 polls, when around 17.52 lakh votes were cast. Under the ongoing SIR, 45.84% of the present electorate, or around 14.94 lakh electors, have been placed under ASDDO.

This leaves around 17.65 lakh voters outside the ASDDO category, only around 13,000 more than the 17.52 lakh votes cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Bengaluru South and Central, therefore, present the most considerable anomalies among the three constituencies, with the number of electors remaining outside ASDDO falling below the number of votes actually cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In Bengaluru North, the remaining electorate is still higher than the 2024 vote count, but only by a relatively narrow margin.

Taken together, however, the trend is even more striking. Across Bengaluru South, Central and North, around 42.39 lakh electors now remain outside ASDDO, lower than the 43.18 lakh votes cast across the three constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Suspected duplicate

Officials maintained that the figures are not unusual and attributed the high ASDDO numbers to suspected duplicate voters.   

“Most of these voters have voter IDs in other States or districts. But unless they admit that they have another voter ID elsewhere, we cannot classify them as duplicate. So, they are being marked as permanently shifted, which is why the number of shifted voters is high,” a senior official said.  

However, the official did not explain how the authorities identify that a person has another voter ID if they are not classifying them as duplicates. Nor did the official explain why, if they possess such information, they are not acting on it.