Karnataka Officials Allege Pressure to Bypass Election Hearing Protocols

Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) in Karnataka report intense pressure to clear thousands of pending Special Intensive Revision (SIR) notices without conducting required hearings. As of October 5, over 780,000 hearings remained pending state-wide, with 424,000 in Bengaluru alone. Officials are reportedly being instructed to accept any submitted documents to avoid the automatic generation of Form 7 deletion applications.

Despite Election Commission directives for Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to visit households, AEROs claim such visits are rare. Instead, staff are allegedly pressured to accept documents at polling stations or submit photographs of neighbors to verify electors, contradicting official mandates regarding document verification and hearing integrity.

Editor's note: The brief effectively summarizes the specific pressures and administrative challenges faced by AERO officials as detailed in the report.