Karnataka Says Nearly All Voter Hearings Are Finished

Karnataka's chief electoral officer said more than 99 percent of hearings under the special voter-roll revision are done. 19,365 cases are still pending.

On Friday 16 October 2026, the office of Karnataka's chief electoral officer said more than 99 percent of hearings on notices under the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls had been completed. A hearing is the chance a voter gets to answer a notice before their name is kept, corrected or removed. The office said 19,365 hearings are still pending. Kalaburagi has the most, at 8,224. Bengaluru Rural has 1,523. Gadag has the fewest, at 10. The same update said a Form 7 is being generated automatically for every Form 8 that shifts a voter from one place to another. Form 8 is the application to change an address on the roll. Form 7 is the form used to object to a name, including to ask that it be deleted. A change of address now creates a deletion form.

Why it matters

The special revision is the exercise opposition parties have been protesting in Delhi, under the claim that names are being removed unfairly. Karnataka's figure says the hearings are almost done. It does not say how many names were deleted, how many were restored, or how many voters never received the notice. An automatic Form 7 for every change of address is a mechanical step. It can stop one person voting in two places, which is the point of it. It can also delete a name at the old address before the new address is safely on the roll. A voter who moves house, fills Form 8, and then finds they are on neither list has been failed by a process that looks efficient on a dashboard. Kalaburagi's 8,224 pending hearings are the pile still in that risk. Ten pending cases in Gadag are not the same problem. Form 8 asks the roll to follow a voter to a new address. An automatic Form 7 asks the old address to drop that voter. The two forms are meant to move together. If the deletion is processed first, the voter disappears for one election cycle. That is the risk hidden inside a 99 percent figure.

Key facts

• The chief electoral officer's office said more than 99 percent of Special Intensive Revision hearings in Karnataka are complete.

• 19,365 hearings are still pending.

• Kalaburagi has 8,224 pending. Bengaluru Rural has 1,523. Gadag has 10.

• A Form 7, used to object to or delete a name, is generated automatically for every Form 8 change of address.

• The office did not publish how many names were removed or restored.

• The qualifying date for the wider summary revision in many states, including Karnataka, is 1 January 2027.

What's next

The remaining 19,365 hearings are the part a voter can still attend. Kalaburagi, not Bengaluru city, holds almost half of them. The automatic deletion form needs a public count: how many Form 7s were generated, and how many of those voters are already present at the new address. Without that count, 99 percent complete is a measure of meetings held, not of names protected. Voters who have moved should check both the old roll and the new one before the lists are frozen.