SIR: Voters in Karnataka report being marked ‘shifted’ despite living at same address

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Your active subscription(s)

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Products you've access to

Additional Subscription Benefits

Need help with your subscription?

As the Special Intensive Revision progresses, several families in Bengaluru have reported that even though the household continues to live at the same address, in many cases one family member has been marked as ‘shifted’ on the enumeration form

Updated - July 26, 2026 08:15 am IST - Bengaluru

Several voters said that their BLOs said they did not know why they had been marked as shifted and were only following the records made available to them. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) progresses, several families in Bengaluru have reported that even though the household continues to live at the same address, in many cases one family member has been marked as “shifted” on the enumeration form, while the remaining members have received forms without any such remark.

In multiple cases reported by voters and independently confirmed by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to The Hindu, many voters have been identified as “shifted” despite receiving the enumeration forms at their current, updated addresses.

A voter from Yeshwanthpur Assembly constituency said the family initially received only three forms instead of four. When they contacted their BLO, they were told that the fourth family member had been assigned to another BLO.

A few days later, the same BLO called and asked the family to collect the fourth form from a government school. Unlike the other three forms, this one carried the remark that the voter had “shifted”. When the family pointed out that they had not moved and that their address had been updated in the electoral records since 2020, the BLO reportedly said it could be because of a “different polling station”. “We have all our documents updated and have not shifted. Now we don’t know how to prove that we haven’t shifted,” a family member said.

Several voters said that their BLOs said they did not know why they had been marked as shifted and were only following the records made available to them. A few BLOs said they had been instructed to mark voters as shifted if the address in 2002 differed from the address recorded in 2025.

Many other BLOs said that it could have been the case owing to delimitation. “When polling station boundaries are redrawn, entire streets or even apartment blocks can be shifted to a new polling station with a different BLO. If a voter’s record has already been transferred but the previous BLO looks for them using an outdated list, or if the new BLO is unable to locate a particular house while conducting door-to-door verification in an unfamiliar area, the voter may end up being marked as shifted,” a BLO said, adding that in such cases Form-8 can be submitted.

Being marked as “shifted” has serious consequences. If a voter is shown as shifted during the SIR despite continuing to live at the same address, their name could face deletion from the final electoral rolls unless the discrepancy is resolved.

In another such case, a woman who received a notice said her BLO told her she had been marked as shifted because she had moved from her parents’ house to her husband’s. However, the voter said she had been living with her husband at the same address even in 2002.

While BLOs have been asking such voters to submit Form 8, many question why they should have to undergo the correction process when their addresses are already updated and they have never shifted.

Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbu Kumar, however, said that people are marked “shifted” only when they are not available at the given address, adding that no such cases have been reported to him so far.

Published - July 26, 2026 07:00 am IST

Karnataka / Bengaluru / Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.