Across 64 constituencies, more than 8.80 lakh Muslim voters were removed, the organisation says
BENGALURU — The Karnataka Rajya Muslim Okkoota (KRMO), a prominent umbrella organisation representing Muslim community interests, rights, and socio-political welfare in the state, has demanded an explanation from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the deletion of names from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
It pointed to a higher deletion rate in constituencies represented by Muslim MLAs and a disproportionate share of Muslims among those classified as absent or duplicates and subsequently deleted.
In a statement issued on Monday, the organisation cited an analysis of booth-level data released by the ECI and conducted by political research consultancy Sankalp.
According to the analysis, 27.59% of voters were deleted across the 10 Karnataka Assembly constituencies represented by Muslim MLAs. This was higher than the state’s overall deletion rate of 19.45%.
The 10 constituencies had 9.62 lakh Muslim voters in the 2025 electoral rolls, of whom 2.47 lakh, or roughly 25.64 per cent, were deleted during the revision. Across 64 Muslim-dominated constituencies, more than 8.80 lakh Muslim voters were removed, KRMO said. Citing Sankalp’s findings, the organisation said 2.59 lakh of the 15.15 lakh voters deleted under the “absent” category across Karnataka were Muslims. Similarly, 1.45 lakh of the 7.09 lakh voters removed under the category “already enrolled elsewhere” were Muslims.
The organisation asked whether adequate verification had been conducted before the deletions and pointed out that no publicly available information showed how many times officials had visited the homes of voters classified as absent.
Worst-hit Constituencies
The statement also highlighted deletion figures in constituencies represented by Muslim MLAs:
- Chamarajpet, Bengaluru: 1.08 lakh deletions
- Kalaburagi North: 1.05 lakh deletions
- Narasimharaja, Mysuru: 99,367 deletions
- Shivajinagar, Bengaluru: 81,230 deletions
The Wider Picture: What the Final Roll Shows
The KRMO statement comes against the backdrop of a much larger statewide churn. The SIR enumeration in Karnataka began on June 30, the draft roll was published on August 24, and the final roll was published on October 27, 2026.
The final roll lists 4.55 crore voters, down from 5.54 crore before the revision — a fall of 99.32 lakh, or about 17.9%.
At the draft stage, officials had marked 65.46 lakh voters as permanently shifted, 16.40 lakh as dead, 19.01 lakh as absent, and 7.10 lakh as duplicate or already enrolled. During the claims-and-objections period, 10.08 lakh names were added and 1.88 lakh deleted.
Additional finding: Muslim electorate shrank slightly faster statewide.
A separate Frontline analysis of the same Sankalp research, based on the final roll, puts the statewide religion-wise change in context:
After SIR, the Muslim electorate shrank by 18.84% (13.48 lakh), from 71.56 lakh to 58.08 lakh, while the non-Muslim electorate shrank by 17.79% (86 lakh), from 4.82 crore to 3.96 crore. The Muslim share of the electorate thus fell marginally, from 12.91% to 12.77%.
Electoral rolls do not record religion. Sankalp’s religion-wise figures are therefore estimates, not official ECI religion-wise counts.
The pattern was not uniform:
In Bengaluru (28 seats): Non-Muslim voters fell more sharply — 43.82%, against 33.72% for Muslim voters. Analyst Sandeep Shastri told Frontline that Bengaluru’s roll was historically inflated because many electors live abroad or vote in their hometowns, which may explain high deletions across communities there.
In the remaining 196 seats outside Bengaluru, Muslim voters fell by 15.32%, against 12.18% for non-Muslim voters — the gap KRMO is highlighting.
The Form 7 Controversy
KRMO’s concerns overlap with a separate controversy over Form 7 — the form used to object to a name on the roll or seek its deletion.
Reports cited in the SIR debate say applications seeking removal of more than 4,000 names, most of them belonging to Muslim voters, were submitted in multiple constituencies. In Babaleshwar, 1,373 Form 7 applications were received on September 22.
Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbu Kumar said legal action would be initiated against anyone found filing bulk Form 7 applications. FIRs were also reported in Belagavi and other districts over alleged attempts to get Muslim voters’ names deleted through Form 7.
Separately, officials said the SIR had identified 716 foreign nationals on the rolls — 641 from Nepal, and one each from Pakistan and Bangladesh. That figure is significant because one of the stated objectives of SIR was to remove “foreign infiltrators” from the roll.
Besides seeking an explanation, the KRMO demanded that the SIR exercise be scrapped and the previous electoral rolls be used in future elections.
It also sought a comprehensive judicial inquiry be conducted into the revision; and legal action be taken against officials found responsible for irregularities.
The Unresolved Question
KRMO’s central question — how “absent” and “already enrolled elsewhere” were verified — has not been answered with booth-wise visit records in the public domain. The ECI has maintained that SIR is a routine clean-up of dead, shifted, duplicate and absent voters, while critics argue that BLO discretion, bulk Form 7 objections, and uneven verification have produced a disproportionate impact in Muslim-concentrated and Opposition-leaning areas.
Eligible voters left out of the final list can still apply for inclusion through Form 6, the ECI has said.
