Karnataka: 16 districts, mostly backward, have over 12% voters in 'absent, shifted' list

At least 16 districts in Karnataka, apart from Bengaluru, have over 12% of their voters under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) category as of August 2, according to data from the State Election Commission. These districts include Koppal, Gadag, Kolar, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Dharwad, Kodagu, Mysuru, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Bidar, Ballari, Davangere, Shivamogga, and Vijayanagar.

Notably, most of these districts also rank among Karnataka’s lowest on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the Govind Rao Committee report on regional imbalances released earlier this year. The report classified many of them as “most backward” or “more backward”, observing that nearly 60% of the State’s backward taluks are concentrated in north Karnataka. These districts also report high gender disparity and literacy gaps.

The ASDDO percentages vary widely. Kalaburagi tops the list at 21.95%, followed by Mysuru (20.59%), Yadgir (17.86%), Raichur (17.73%), Ballari (17.50%), Dharwad (17.30%), Bidar (15.57%), Vijayapura (14.96%), Kodagu (13.75%), Gadag (13.49%), Bagalkot (13.40%), Kolar (13.24%), Koppal (12.62%), Shivamogga (12.14%), Davangere (12.13%), and Vijayanagar (12.03%).

In contrast, Udupi, one of the highest-ranked districts on the HDI, has the lowest ASDDO at 5.76%, even though both Udupi and Yadgir have similar electorates of over 10.5 lakh voters.

Officials and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) attribute the high ASDDO numbers in backward districts to labour migration, lower educational attainment, weaker access to public services, and documentation gaps. Many voters from these districts work in Bengaluru or other cities but remain registered in their native villages. During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), enumeration forms are delivered to home addresses, and those not present are marked “absent”. Others who had shifted their votes to Bengaluru are not found in their native constituencies, and some do not appear in Bengaluru’s rolls either, BLOs told The Hindu.

Several voters reached out to by The Hindu through unions and citizens’ help desks said they were unaware of the SIR. Many have been migrating for years to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Goa for seasonal work, often as construction labourers, pourakarmikas, or domestic workers. They also reported significant gaps in documentation—many have only Aadhaar and ration cards, and lack proof of residence needed for permanent residence certificates.

A key concern is the process itself. Under the ongoing SIR, voters not present during enumeration are marked “absent”, while those not found at their registered address are marked “shifted”. Unlike the usual revision process, no notices are issued before such classification. Officials rely only on mahazars (site inspection reports). This leaves many individuals unaware that they have been categorised as absent or shifted.

While Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbu Kumar has said that mahazars are conducted and neighbours contacted for confirmation, BLOs in these districts argue that in many instances even neighbours are unavailable or unaware of the voters’ whereabouts because entire communities migrate for work.

In Bengaluru, 34.25 lakh of over 50.34 lakh voters under the ASDDO have been categorised as permanently shifted, with the CEO attributing it largely to migration. A similar pattern is visible in districts from where people migrate. However, officials have not been able to explain where these voters are being accounted for. For instance, in Kalaburagi alone, 5.20 lakh voters are in the ASDDO, of whom 3.95 lakh have been marked as absent or shifted.