Karnataka’s ongoing voter-list revision has identified data discrepancies in records linked to about 67 lakh voters, with notices generated for nearly 43.81 lakh people and another 23.45 lakh records placed in a “no-mapping” category, election officials said. The issue has also affected records associated with public figures including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Zerodha founders Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, actor Shivaraj Kumar and scientist C.N.R. Rao.
The discrepancies emerged during the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of the electoral rolls. Officials said the exercise involved matching current voter data with earlier records, including the 2002 electoral roll. The mismatches do not by themselves mean that a person’s voting rights have been cancelled, the authorities clarified.
Nandan Nilekani and the Kamath brothers were listed under “Unmapped with Last SIR”, a category indicating that their current records could not be fully linked to entries in the earlier voter database. In the case of Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, officials also identified a “Parent Name Mismatch”, meaning that differences in the parent-name field triggered notices for verification.
The record associated with actor Shivaraj Kumar was reportedly listed as “Shivamogga Rajkumar M.S.”, while his father’s name was entered as “Muthuraj”, the original name of actor Dr Rajkumar. This resulted in the record being included in the unmapped category. The report said actor Prakash Raj’s name was found to be correct.
Officials also addressed discrepancies involving Bharat Ratna awardee C.N.R. Rao and Padma Shri recipient Harekal Hajabba. According to the report, no notice was issued to Rao and steps were being taken to include his name in the final electoral roll. The supplied report does not specify the corrective action taken in Hajabba’s case.
The figures indicate the scale of the data-matching exercise. About 43.81 lakh voters have had notices generated over discrepancies in their details, while approximately 23.45 lakh records have been classified as having no mapping with the previous revision. Election officials described the issue as a technical or data-entry problem and said efforts were under way to correct errors at the official level.
Residents whose names appear in the defective or disputed categories have been asked to submit the required documents to their Booth Level Officers by October 22. The verification process is intended to allow officials to correct mismatched details and complete the revision of the electoral roll. The authorities’ clarification that a notice or a listing in the defective category does not automatically remove voting rights remains central to the process.
