Bengaluru: With 17 days left for the enumeration phase to complete, lakhs of voters have submitted their forms without details of 2002 rolls. Chief electoral officer Anbukumar told media Wednesday that 17.2 lakh voters from the 2025 rolls have not found the 2002 data, which comprises 3.1% of the forms received. These will be processed and notices will be issued to them after the draft list of Aug 17, he said.Election officials said the claims and objections phase between Aug 17 and Oct 15 will involve triaging flagged forms and not every voter issued a notice will have to personally appear before the electoral registration officer with documents.Anbukumar also clarified that voters who have permanently shifted from the addresses where the enumeration forms were delivered cannot submit those forms. Such voters will have to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll by filing Form 6, either online or offline, after the draft rolls are published on Aug 17.As of July 22, officials said 99.8% of the 5.5 crore printed enumeration forms had been distributed, leaving around 61,000 voters yet to receive them. However, only 66.3% of the forms have been filled, returned to booth level officers and digitised, leaving nearly 1.4 crore voters yet to submit their signed forms.Bengaluru trailsThe Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) area continued to trail the rest of the state, with only 30% of forms digitised despite 99.7% distribution among its little over 1 crore voters. Anbukumar attributed the slower progress partly to the large number of ASDDO (absent, shifted, dead, duplicated and others) cases in Bengaluru. The city accounts for 23.9 lakh such cases, or 22.8% of its electorate. The ASDDO verification process recently came under scrutiny after Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya alleged that 13,000 voters in Bommanahalli had been marked as permanently shifted without field verification.Anbukumar said a report had been sought from district officials and maintained that mahazars had been prepared for all 44.8 lakh ASDDO cases across the state. The verification process requires booth-level officers (BLOs) to record the reason a voter has not returned the signed form and obtain confirmation from neighbours, booth level agents (BLAs) or supervisors.The CEO also said officials were examining complaints from Varthur and Mahadevapura, where some data was missing from the 2002 electoral rolls. He urged political parties to closely scrutinise the ASDDO list for errors. “Quality check is vital in this phase,” he said.Political parties’ BLA-2 representatives are authorised to collect filled enumeration forms from voters and submit them to BLOs. Special drives will continue Saturday and Sunday to improve the pace of digitisation. On permanent residence certificates, Anbukumar said documents listed on the reverse of the enumeration form, including PRCs, would be considered during the claims and objections stage. “It is the ERO (electoral registration officer) who will examine these documents,” he said. Officials said more assistant electoral registration officers are expected to be deployed before the claims and objections process begins.12 BLOs deadAnbukKumar said during the SIR process, 12 BLOs died due to heart attack, diseases and accidents. To carry on with the process, he said, new BLOs were put in their place with the latters’ names and numbers changed in handwritten manner on the electoral forms.GFXProgress of revision so farForm distribution yet to reach 100%-Vijayapura — 98.9%-Chikkamagaluru — 99.4%– Bengaluru Urban — 99.5%– BBMP North — 99.7%– BBMP Central, Kalaburagi — 99.9%Top 5 in digitisation-Haveri — 84.8%-Chikkaballapur — 84.8%-Uttara Kannada — 82.9%-Hassan — 81.7%-Chikkamagaluru — 80.8%Bottom 5 in digitisation-BBMP South — 26.0%-BBMP Central — 27.8%-BBMP North — 30.0%-Bengaluru Urban — 33.3%-Mysuru — 59.3%Source: CEO, ECI
