Election Commission ready to roll out SIR in Karnataka anytime after Sept. 25

Amid the row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is gearing up, after over two decades, to launch an SIR of voter lists in Karnataka, anytime after September 25.

In Karnataka, the SIR was last conducted in 2002, and the notification for the 2025 SIR is expected shortly.

After conducting the SIR exercise to remove dead, migrated, and duplicate voters from the electoral roll, the voting percentage in urban centres like Bengaluru, which is significantly lower compared to the State average, is expected to increase in future elections. While there were approximately 3.5 crore voters in 2002, the ECI estimated the number to increase to around 5.5 crore in 2025.

During the SIR exercise, the updating of electoral rolls, including additions, transfers, and deletions to the electoral rolls through Forms 6, 7, and 8, will be frozen.

With the completion of training for about 58,000 block-level officers (BLOs) by September 23, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, will be ready to undertake the SIR, which is expected to be completed within three months, sources said.

Honorarium doubled

The ECI, which earlier paid ₹6,000 as honorarium to the BLOs for the electoral roll revision, has enhanced it to ₹12,000. In addition, ₹6,000 will be allocated specifically for the SIR exercise, bringing the total to ₹18,000.

“Each BLO will be given a polling booth to cover, and the number of voters in each booth may vary according to the current norm,” said sources. The BLOs to be roped in include school teachers, Anganwadi workers, and State and Central government officials.

Sources said that while each polling booth in Karnataka has different number of voters, some recording as many as 1,500, the number will not be more than 1,200 after January 1, 2026, when the SIR is completed, commission sources said.

“Once the notification is issued, we will know the time frame within which the current electoral roll will be frozen. Currently, there are about 10,000 applications for addition to the electoral rolls before the commission, and officials have been asked to hasten the process so that these applications are not affected by the freeze,” sources said.

The ECI has already interacted with the political parties in the State, seeking their cooperation, and has requested the parties to appoint booth-level workers to assist the exercise. The 2002 electoral roll has been uploaded to the website for the convenience of voters.

The process of preparing for the SIR has been under way at the commission for about a month now, sources said. The State government has also been asked not to transfer any official during the SIR exercise that could affect the process, sources said.