SIR: Over 54% of Bengaluru’s electoral under ASDDO or unmapped, State-wide figure crosses 1.06 crore

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Published - July 28, 2026 09:00 pm IST - Bengaluru

The largest category within ASDDO is permanently shifted, with 26.34 lakh voters classified under it, followed by absent, with 7.15 lakh voters. | Photo Credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.

At least 54% of Bengaluru’s electoral roll is either unmapped (voters could not be linked to the 2002 electoral rolls or could not locate a relative’s electoral record for progeny mapping), or has been categorised under ASDDO (Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others).

This is despite digitisation of enumeration forms not having crossed 44% as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28.

All these voters are expected to receive notices or get deleted (dead, duplicate entries) once the draft electoral roll is published on August 17. The figure is expected to swell further, with even forms carrying 2002 electoral roll details being flagged for logical discrepancies, while thousands of others are riddled with incorrect entries, mismatches and data errors.

The largest category within ASDDO is permanently shifted, with 26.34 lakh voters classified under it, followed by absent, with 7.15 lakh voters. Moreover, more than 28.40 lakh voters have been classified as unmapped. Of the total figure, over 18.85 lakh voters are from Bengaluru alone.

In several Assembly constituencies, such as Bommanahalli, which has 390 polling stations, over 850 out of 1,500 people fall under the ASDDO category, as per Booth Level Officers (BLOs). In areas such as Yelahanka and Mahadevapura, entire polling stations are missing from the digitised 2002 electoral records, making it impossible for many voters to be mapped.

BLOs said this is primarily due to the absence of supplementary electoral rolls. They also said many voters have changed their residence within the city, want to now shift their votes to their native place within the State, or are enrolled both in Bengaluru and their native constituency.

Many historical supplementary rolls have not been digitised or are not traceable on public portals. “When BLOs cannot find the physical or digital record of these supplementary rolls, they are unable to map the voter. As a result, even valid voters may end up being classified under the ASDDO category,” BLOs said.

Following complaints, supplementary rolls for a few wards under Uttarahalli and Yelahanka were made available. However, supplementary rolls for several other areas are still unavailable.

Moreover, if a voter has shifted residence but has not updated the address in the electoral records, they are marked as permanently shifted after BLOs make three visits to the registered address. BLOs said this is one of the reasons for the high number of voters in the permanently shifted category within Bengaluru.

State-wide figures crosses 1 crore

State-wide figures, as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, show that 78.37 lakh voters have been categorised under ASDDO, while 28.40 lakh voters remain unmapped, taking the combined number of voters who are likely to receive notices to 1.06 crore.

Published - July 28, 2026 09:00 pm IST

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