Several prominent Karnataka residents, including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Zerodha founders Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, actor Shivaraj Kumar and scientist C.N.R. Rao, have appeared in discrepancy categories during the state’s ongoing voter-roll Special Intensive Revision, according to a report by Vijay Karnataka published on September 9.
Election officials have said the entries reflect technical and data-matching discrepancies during the comparison of current voter records with older electoral-roll data. The appearance of a name in a discrepancy list, or the generation of a notice, does not by itself mean that the person’s voting rights have been cancelled.
The review has identified discrepancies in the records of around 67 lakh voters across Karnataka, the report said. Notices have been generated for approximately 43.81 lakh voters whose details require correction or verification. A further 23.45 lakh records have been placed in a “No-Mapping” category because they could not be linked to earlier electoral-roll records.
Nilekani’s record and those of the Kamath brothers were identified under categories linked to difficulties in matching current details with the 2002 electoral roll. Nilekani and the Kamath brothers were reported as “Unmapped with Last SIR”, indicating that their current records could not be fully linked to the earlier database. The records of Nithin and Nikhil Kamath also showed a “Parent Name Mismatch”, prompting notices for verification.
The report said actor Shivaraj Kumar was listed as “Shivamogga Rajkumar M.S.”, with his father’s name recorded as “Muthuraj”, the birth name of actor Dr Rajkumar. His record was consequently included in the unmapped category. The report added that actor Prakash Raj’s name was correctly recorded.
The records of Bharat Ratna awardee C.N.R. Rao and Padma Shri awardee Harekal Hajabba were also reported to have shown discrepancies during the matching process. Election officials reportedly said that Rao had not been issued a notice and that steps were being taken to include his name in the final electoral roll.
The discrepancies have been attributed to technical differences in data entry and record mapping rather than a decision to remove voters from the rolls. Officials have said that some errors are being corrected at the administrative level. Voters whose names appear in the affected categories have been asked to submit the necessary documents to their Booth Level Officers by October 22 so their records can be reviewed and corrected.
