The Karnataka Rajya Muslim Okkoota (KRMO) has sought an explanation from the Election Commission of India (ECI) over voter deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging that constituencies represented by Muslim MLAs recorded higher deletion rates and that Muslims accounted for a disproportionate share of voters classified as absent or already enrolled elsewhere.
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 9,62,359 Muslim voters in the 2025 electoral rolls, of whom 2,46,759, or 25.64%, were deleted during the revision. Across 64 Muslim-dominated constituencies, more than 8.80 lakh Muslim voters were removed, KRMO said.
Muslims among voters marked absent or enrolled elsewhere
Citing Sankalp’s findings, the organisation said 2,58,770 of the 15,15,088 voters deleted under the “absent” category across Karnataka were Muslims.
Similarly, 1,43,940 of the 7,08,666 voters removed under the category “already enrolled elsewhere” were Muslims.
KRMO questioned the verification process used to remove voters under these categories. It argued that while deaths can be checked against official records, identifying voters as absent or already enrolled elsewhere depends significantly on assessments by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and other field officials.
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.
Chamarajpet records highest deletions among cited constituencies
The statement also highlighted deletion figures in constituencies represented by Muslim MLAs.
Bengaluru’s Chamarajpet recorded 1,07,722 deletions, followed by Kalaburagi North with 1,05,257. Narasimharaja in Mysuru recorded 99,367 deletions, while Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar saw 81,230 names removed.
KRMO demanded that the Election Commission explain the deletion figures and scrap the SIR exercise. It also called for the previous electoral rolls to be used in future elections and sought a comprehensive judicial inquiry into the revision.
