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

Published 26 July 2026 · local

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

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 If a voter’s record has already been transferred but the previous BLO looks for them using an outdated list, or if the new BLO is unable to locate a particular house while conducting door-to-door verification in an unfamiliar area, the voter may end up being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.