Living voters branded dead in India's Karnataka electoral purge

Also Read:India detains several in Gen Z voter protests. The victims include Malanbi Jamadar, 57; Mahabubi Peerazade Jahagirdar, 35; and Raziya Mehrunnisa Sheikh, 35, a resident of Ward-22, Langar Bazaar. Government teacher Allama Bagwan, along with Abdul Razak Bagwan and Mumtaj Mulla, were also among those reportedly listed for deletion.

Activist Irfan Sheikh said the eight voters whose cases had been identified were alive and that the remaining 1,046 names on the list were also being verified. The controversy has raised fresh questions over the use of bulk applications to remove voters from electoral rolls, particularly in constituencies with sizeable Muslim populations.

Bulk deletion requests. The allegations emerged during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a nationwide exercise being overseen by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Activists claim more than 4,000 bulk Form-7 applications — the form used to request deletion of names from electoral rolls — have been submitted across Karnataka, with a significant number targeting Muslim voters.

In Babaleshwar alone, 1,373 Form-7 applications were reportedly submitted on September 22. Of these, 1,363 applications were allegedly filed by just 10 people. The developments triggered protests outside the Vijayapura Deputy Commissioner’s office, while affected women and activists later held a press conference organised by Jagrutha Karnataka in Bengaluru.

The women demanded criminal cases against Yatnal, accusing him of attempting to facilitate the wrongful removal of legitimate voters from the electoral rolls. Inquiry ordered.

District Electoral Officer K Anand ordered an inquiry after preliminary scrutiny found that some of the death certificates submitted with the deletion requests appeared to belong to people with the same names as the voters or raised questions about their authenticity. The findings have intensified concerns over whether electoral safeguards were followed before deletion requests were submitted or processed.

Under electoral procedures, objections seeking deletion of a voter’s name are subject to verification. The use of allegedly mismatched death certificates has therefore become a central issue in the Vijayapura controversy. Yatnal has defended the electoral revision process and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

He has also publicly alleged that "Muslims are the bogus voters”, a claim that has drawn criticism from activists who say the ongoing exercise risks disproportionately disenfranchising Muslim citizens. The Vijayapura cases have become a flashpoint in the wider debate over the SIR, with activists warning that wrongful deletions could deprive eligible citizens of their constitutional right to vote.

For the affected women, however, the issue is more immediate: they remain alive, but their names were placed on a list that sought to treat them as though they were not.