Details of about 29,000 Form 7 applications, submitted primarily to seek the deletion of names from electoral rolls, received in Karnataka until October 8, 2026, amid the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) process, have not been made public on the websites of the State’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) or the Election Commission of India (ECI).
This is despite communications from the CEO and the ECI that details of all Form 7 applications would be made available for public scrutiny.
A press statement from the office of CEO V. Anbu Kumar on October 9 said that 1,10,654 Form 7 applications had been received between June 16, 2026, when the pre-SIR rolls were frozen, and October 8.
The Hindu has found that details of only 81,822 Form 7 applications are available on the ECI website for that period. The remaining 28,832 account for over one-fourth of the number of applications as per the CEO’s statement. Without details of these forms, it is unclear which constituencies they were filed in, by whom and against whom.
The Hindu had earlier reported the bulk filing of Form 7 applications by some individuals against several electors in constituencies such as Babaleshwar and Bhalki. Following a protest by Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his Cabinet colleagues, the Karnataka CEO directed District Election Offices (DEOS) to take action following an inquiry into that matter.
The CEO’s statement on August 24, 2026, when the draft SIR rolls were released, said, “List of claims & objections in Forms-9, 10, 11, 11A & 11B will also be available on the website of CEO Karnataka so that public are able to see the list and lodge objections with concerned ERO.”
As per the process, Form 7 applications received every day in each Assembly constituency should be consolidated into Form 10 — another ECI reporting format — and uploaded on the website. An analysis of all Form-10 details on the portal revealed the gap.
Contradictory figures
Besides the missing forms, the CEO’s own press releases have reported contradictory and starkly different figures on Form 7 applications.
The August 24 release said 67,307 Form 7 applications had been received between June 16 and August 23. But a September 11 statement put the figure for June 16 to September 9 at 34,631 — 32,676 fewer than the previous figure.
Another release said 41,792 Form 7 applications were received between June 16 and September 17 — 25,515 short of the August 23 figure. Even as of September 24, a day after the claims-and-objections period ended, the CEO’s tally of 61,130 was still 6,177 short. Since then, the figures have climbed rapidly to 1,10,654 as of October 8, according to the October 9 statement.
More gaps
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A comparison of the CEO’s figures with those in the portal showed that in some periods, the CEO reported more applications than the portal held, and in others, the reverse could be seen. Between June 16 and August 23, the CEO reported 67,307 Form 7 applications, but the portal held details of only 6,951, leaving 60,356 inaccessible to the public.
Further analysis showed wide gaps at the district level, too. For instance, between June 16 and August 23, the release showed 3,061 Form 7 applications from Bengaluru Rural, but the portal had details of only 49. Shivamogga had 4,105 applications, against just 17 on the portal. Belagavi, with the highest at 7,618, had only 1,776 on the portal.
Asked about the mismatches, Karnataka CEO Mr. Anbu Kumar said the “claims-and-objections period should be counted only from August 24 to September 23”, but did not elaborate. Even within that period, the discrepancy remained, with the portal showing details of 28,097 applications, while the CEO’s cumulative figure fell by 6,177. When The Hindu contacted Mr. Anbu Kumar again, he was unavailable for comment.
Published – October 12, 2026 06:05 am IST
