Bangalore voters struggle to establish mandatory family linkage as dozens of polling booths mysteriously vanish from digitized electoral rolls during Special Intensive Revision process.
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SIR Form Online: A significant electoral crisis is unfolding in Bengaluru as dozens of polling booths have mysteriously disappeared from digitized 2002 voter rolls, creating widespread confusion during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. The disappearance is preventing hundreds of residents from establishing the legally required linkage with their relatives on the electoral register.
In Mahadevapura Assembly constituency alone, at least 50 polling booths are missing from the digitized 2002 records, according to voter activist Mani Nisarga. It has been reported by residents from different areas including Nagondanahalli, Gandhipura, Vijayanagara, Whitefield, and Immadihalli that polling booths where their parents voted for decades cannot be found in the 2002 data available through the SIR portal or Booth Level Officer application.
This has led to real trouble for people who have been living in these areas for a long time. Rajappa, a farmer from Hagadur near Whitefield, expressed anger over the matter stating: "We are unable to find that polling station in the list of 2002." His family has always done the voting at Government Higher Primary School in Immadihalli, but the booth does not exist in official documents. The election authority has come up with its version with administrative grounds. After 2008 delimitation, Varthur Assembly, which used to be an independent constituency was abolished and reallocated to Mahadevapura, C.V. Raman Nagar, and Anekal constituencies.
Rationalization resulted in merging, adding, and deleting many polling booths making the tracking of historical polling booths hard. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V Anbukkumar stated that India had around 34,000 polling booths in 2002 whereas now it reached the mark of almost 59,000 polling booths. However, voter activist representations allege deeper technical problems. Syed Bilal Irfan has submitted complaints to electoral officials suggesting a backend database indexing issue affecting 8,878 electors in Varthur alone. He has demanded a statewide audit of the digitized database and manual verification until the problems are resolved, arguing that genuine voters risk exclusion due to technical failures.
The crisis extends beyond Mahadevapura. Former BJP councilor Ashwathnarayan Gowda has petitioned regarding similar issues in Byatarayanapura constituency, claiming nearly 30,000 voters could be affected by missing polling station records and voter data omissions. Election officials have provided temporary remedies. Bangalore voters unable to locate their names in 2002 records can submit signed enumeration forms with current details. Additional approved documents can be submitted after receiving official notice. After draft rolls are published on August 17, those without SIR forms should submit Form-6.
Despite official assurances that complaints would be examined, the situation highlights significant vulnerabilities in India's electoral infrastructure during a critical democratic process. The discrepancies between physical voter memories and digital records raise important questions about data integrity and voter access rights.
Business Honor is of the view that missing polling booths from digitized 2002 rolls represent systemic vulnerabilities in India's electoral infrastructure requiring immediate statewide database audit.
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