Special Intensive Revision Bengaluru Voter Awareness Survey

A staggering 61 per cent of Bengaluru residents surveyed are completely unaware of the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, according to findings released by the citizen advocacy group My Vote, My Right. The data was collected during the group’s three-day awareness campaign, the "SIR Janajagruti Jaatha," which concluded this Friday. My Vote, My Right operates as an umbrella coalition of progressive civil society organisations in Karnataka, including the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Dalit Sangharsha Samiti – Ambedkarvada, and the National Federation of Indian Women. The coalition previously met with then-Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in early May to urge the state government to officially oppose the nationwide voter roll verification exercise The baseline framework of the SIR requires booth-level mapping to reconcile records with the 2002 electoral roll. If a voter is unmapped or flagged for "logical discrepancies," they must produce specific identity paperwork. Covering major industrial and market hubs across Bengaluru, including Peenya, Shivajinagar, Jayanagar, and KR Market, the campaign surveyed 138 residents, uncovering significant hurdles to compliance: Of these people, 34 per cent possessed Aadhaar cards, but none of the 11 required documents for SIR documentation in cases where a voter is unmapped or flagged for "logical discrepancies". The group flagged a lack of awareness amongst those surveyed that Aadhaar cards could be used only for identification, while ration cards were not among the 11 documents listed for the SIR process. The group also flagged technological literacy as an issue, as only 18 per cent of those surveyed were able to find their names on the 2002 voter list using various methods. Several of the women voters surveyed were also unaware of the various documents required for the process and were relying on other family members, such as their children or husbands. 'Address concerns of citizens' Speaking to The Indian Express, Vinay Kumar of My Vote, My Right said, "Some people in the market associations in Shivajinagar and KR Market were worried about SIR and wanted us to do some workshop sessions for them. Many Muslims are also worried about SIR as they have heard about deletions in other states." He added, "The concern is from the working class of Bengaluru. We met a BMTC bus conductor who had been trying to change his voter address. If he went to Bangalore ONE, they told him to go to the BBMP, and vice versa, and he was not aware of where to go. Many people whose names were not in the list last time and were unable to vote are also worried." He added that several concerned Bengaluru residents had picked up pamphlets from them to distribute near their residences, noting that the biggest issues were either misinformation or lack of information. At the end of the campaign, My Vote My Right has called on the state's Chief Electoral Officer to convene a meeting with civil society groups and state government representatives to ensure that no eligible Karnataka voters will lose their votes. Further, any software used in the process should have a publicly viewable code. It also called on CM D K Shivakumar to issue a circular placing the responsibility for providing SIR-required documents on the local administration, to ensure assistance to voters.