SIR’s digital wall: 1 lakh try in Karnataka, only 0.2% get through

Minor identity mismatches derail online voter enrolment

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s voter roll revision has run into an unexpected roadblock—not on the ground, but online. The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) portal, central to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, has struggled to keep pace, with its rigid interface, resulting in an abysmally low registration rate even among tech-savvy applicants.Out of more than one lakh online registration attempts logged across the state, only a tiny fraction (0.2%) have successfully sailed through the portal. Officials reveal that the primary bottleneck is a strict data-matching logic that flags discrepancies between data on Aadhaar cards and voter identity profiles.When voters attempt to navigate the portal, the automated system cross-checks records and flags common variations in administrative data as “logical discrepancies.”

This instantly halts the application.Several married women abandoned the digital route after discovering that surname changes following marriage triggered rejections, choosing instead to rely on elderly parents back home to submit physical forms. Others were tripped up by minor spelling variations in English or the absence of middle names on voter IDs—discrepancies long accepted across govt records but now enough to halt the online application.

When TOI spoke to voters who attempted to register online, many pointed to one recurring hurdle: mismatches between the spellings of their names on their voter IDs and Aadhaar cards.For 43-year-old Bengaluru resident Preetha M, the problem was her surname, which changed after marriage. Rather than risk her application being rejected, she chose to rely on her elderly parents back home to submit the forms offline.For Sandeep NM, it was a missing initial. His voter ID omitted the “N” from his middle name. Although the portal recognised his voter ID, linked mobile number and allowed him to proceed through multiple stages—including entering personal details, uploading a photograph and verifying his Aadhaar through an OTP—the name mismatch eventually stalled the application.The hurdle begins at the very first step of linking a mobile number to the voter ID (EPIC) card.

To update or fix an unlinked number, the application prompts users to fill out Form 8. However, the ECI website explicitly mandates that names on both identity documents must match perfectly.Even applicants who clear the initial mobile-linking hurdle are often stopped at the final validation stage. In one case, a voter found that a single initial was missing from his pre-filled details on the portal. Although his phone number was verified, his Aadhaar authenticated through an OTP, and he completed the application, the system abruptly flagged it.

An error message stated that the name on the EPIC card did not match the Aadhaar record, directing him to contact the booth-level officer (BLO).Fearing a protracted claims and objections process, a large number of voters are abandoning the website. They are actively opting for the offline process, choosing to proceed with the existing minor errors manually to bypass the automated system blocks.Acknowledging the friction, ECI officials stated that applicants facing online system rejections should immediately opt for the offline alternative to ensure their registration is processed by the BLO.BJP-JD(S) moves ECI in Delhi over SIR irregularitiesA delegation of BJP and JD(S), led by Union ministers HD Kumaraswamy and Pralhad Joshi, Monday submitted a complaint to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi, alleging large-scale misuse of the SIR of electoral rolls in Karnataka by the state govt.On Monday, the delegation had submitted a similar complaint to the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer in Bengaluru.The delegation reiterated that the state administration, including some district officials, was being used to manipulate electoral rolls and retain bogus votes.Kumaraswamy said the delegation had presented detailed evidence of irregularities and urged the ECI to intervene immediately. “The CEC has assured us that the complaint will be examined thoroughly. The commission has already deputed observers to Karnataka and has responded positively to our demand for stronger oversight of the SIR exercise,” he added.He alleged that the state govt was conducting revisions through group verification drives at community halls, mosques and other locations, leading to serious procedural lapses over the past week. The NDA delegation sought cancellation of the current exercise and demanded that a fair and transparent revision be conducted.The delegation claimed that some ministers from the Congress govt had themselves admitted in public statements that over 25 lakh Bangladeshi nationals were living illegally in Bengaluru.

Despite such admissions, Kumaraswamy claimed, the Congress was trying to mislead the public. He alleged that many Bangladeshi nationals had obtained fake Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards, and said the NDA had urged the ECI to identify such illegal voters and remove their names from the rolls.Union ministers V Somanna and Shobha Karandlaje, opposition leader R Ashoka, legislative council opposition leader Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, JD(S) floor leader CB Suresh Babu, and MPs M Mallesh Babu and Kota Srinivas Poojary were part of the delegation.