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Escalating a major constitutional standoff, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has demanded the immediate scrapping of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, citing deep institutional cracks within the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the potential disenfranchisement of over a crore voters. The political atmosphere in Karnataka intensified following reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded dissent over several major decisions of the poll panel. Seizing on these internal fissures, Chief Minister Shivakumar called for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, asserting that the integrity of the country’s apex electoral body stands compromised.
CM Shivakumar said, “When there is a clear and documented disagreement within the three-member Commission itself, decisions cannot simply be imposed from the top,” adding, “The current central leadership has lost the moral authority to oversee this process. We demand that the CEC step down and this flawed SIR exercise be scrapped entirely to start afresh.”The scale of the SIR exercise in Karnataka has triggered alarm bells within the ruling administration. Out of the state’s 5.54 crore electors, a staggering 1.08 crore have been flagged under the “Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, and Others” (ASDDO) category. Furthermore, official data from the Chief Electoral Officer’s office indicates that 43.82 lakh notices have been generated over mapping anomalies, with 41.63 million (41.63 lakh) already delivered to citizens.
Shivakumar warned that the rushed timeline heavily penalises vulnerable populations, including migrant workers, the elderly, and daily wage earners who cannot navigate complex verification deadlines at short notice. The CM said, “This is not about the political fortunes of any single party; it is a fundamental battle to protect the franchise of every eligible citizen of Karnataka,” pointing out that “Placing over a crore citizens under the scanner and forcing compressed deadlines upon them is nothing short of a systemic attempt to purge legitimate voters.”
The Karnataka Cabinet is actively weighing both administrative and aggressive legal countermeasures to halt the deletion of voters. The state government had previously raised concerns with the ECI, and the Karnataka High Court noted in July that similar issues regarding electoral rolls were already pending before the Supreme Court.
Revenue and Law officials are currently reviewing options to approach the apex court directly before the final publication of the modified electoral roll to prevent mass exclusions. “We are exploring all legal and administrative avenues to ensure no genuine voter is left behind,” remarked Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil, adding, “The Cabinet is seriously considering approaching the Supreme Court.
The sheer volume of these notices raises severe questions about transparency, and we believe the final roll must be scrutinised by the judiciary before it is made official.”While the Election Commission of India has rejected allegations of internal division, maintaining that its final orders remain legally unanimous, Karnataka has turned into a primary battleground over federal electoral oversight.