Over 6.5 lakh voters left out in Belagavi, the biggest electoral district in Karnataka

As many as 6.5 lakh voters have been left out of the electoral rolls in Belagavi district after the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Karnataka by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The district had around 41,53,775 voters in January 2025. The figure has come down to 34,94,913. That leaves out 6,58,862 voters, or around 15.8%, of voters. This is higher than the State average of around 12%, and lower than the deletion percentage of Bengaluru (43%). The 18 Assembly seats of Belagavi have had an average deletion of 36,603 votes each. The district also had 1.58% pre-SIR deletions.

The deletions in Belagavi district include the names of around 1,03,839 Muslim voters. Of these, around 23,901 were in Belgaum Uttar constituency, represented by Asif (Raju) Sait of the Congress, a Muslim leader.

Mr. Sait reported 84,483 deletions in his constituency, 20 times his winning margin of 4,231. His son Aman Sait and others complained to the ECI that some BJP leaders, including former party nominee Ravi Patil, had violated rules of Form 7 applications, including fudging of documents and intimidating officers. Dr. Patil obtained anticipatory bail after an FIR was filed against him by a Congress Booth Level Agent.

Belgaum Uttar had around 64,306 Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO ) deletions, that includes deletion of 19,558 Muslim voters.

Interestingly, the constituency had pre-SIR deletions of 21,611 names, including 4,335 Muslims. It had around 18,612 deletions based on Form 7 objections by third parties that included 4,941 requests for removal of names of Muslim voters.

In Yamkanamardi, the constituency of Satish Jarkiholi, district in-charge minister and KPCC working president, there are a total of 24,235 deletions. Satish Jarkiholi’s winning margin in 2023 was 57,211. But in 2018, when he announced that he would win without campaigning, his margin was 2,850. The total number of Muslims deleted from the constituency was 2,840. Officers excluded 15,407 voters by categorising them as ASDDO. They include 1,812 Muslim voters. There were 9,036 pre-SIR deletions, that include 1,027 voters. A total of 2,469 Form 7 based deletions were reported in Yamakanamardi, including 360 names of Muslim voters.

In Athani, represented by Laxman Savadi, there were 25,866 deletions, including 3,096 Muslims. The winning margin of Mr. Savadi, who quit the BJP in 2023, was 76,122.

There were 20,840 ASDDOs in Athani, including 2,469 Muslims. There were around 5,390 pre-SIR deletions, including 625 Muslims. BLAs submitted several Form 7 applications of which 2,714 were accepted. They included 314 Muslims.

In Belgaum Dakshin constituency, there were 71,232 deletions, the second highest in the district. This is around 5.7 times the victory margin of 12,308 votes of BJP MLA Abhay Patil in 2023. They include 10,831 deletions by SIR officers who accepted many third-party objections under Form 7 filed by the followers of Mr. Patil. These contain 1,438 Muslim names. ECI SIR officers put 58,604 names in the ASDDO list in Belgaum Dakshin, including 6,566 names of Muslims. There were 13,284 pre-SIR deletions, including some 1,733 Muslim names. On October 1, Mr. Patil and other leaders denied violating any ECI rule about third-party objections.

In Belgaum Rural, the constituency of Laxmi Hebbalkar, former minister and Congress leader, the electorate has been reduced by around 40,592. At a media conference in her residence in Belagavi on October 5, Ms. Hebbalkar claimed that ‘not a single vote’ was deleted from her constituency. Her winning margin was around 56,016 in 2023. Her margin was around 51,724 in 2018. She had managed to get around 35,811 votes in 2013, when she lost.

The other large number of deletions in the district were in Gokak and Arabhavi, held by BJP leaders and brothers Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi.

Former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi won two polls on a BJP ticket before being elected as a Congress nominee five times. His winning margin in 2023 was 25,412. The constituency had 47,888 deletions, including 8,884 Muslims. SIR officers put 39,174 voters in the ASDDO list, including 6,852 Muslims. There were 9,143 pre-SIR deletions, including 2,032 Muslims. There were 3,922 Form 7 based deletions, that included 962 Muslim names.

Kittur, Saundatti, and Kagwad constituencies had the least number of deletions. Kittur had 23,149, Saundatti 22,786, and Kagwad 22,204.

Kagwad, the constituency of Congress MLA Raju (Bharamagouda) Kage, had just 1,691 valid Form 7 applications, that included 232 Muslim names.

Saundatti, the seat of Congress MLA Vishwas Vaidya, had 2,406 valid Form 7 applications, including 349 Muslim names.

Kittur, that elected Babasaheb Patil of the Congress, had 1,314 valid Form 7 applications, including 252 Muslim names.

The largest number of form 7 based deletions with Muslim names was in Belgaum Uttar (4,941), Belgaum Dakshin with 1,438, and Kudachi with 1,149.

Mahendra Tammannavar of the Congress won the Kudachi seat with 25,243 votes in 2023. He faces 39,258 exclusions, including 10,667 Muslin names.