A civil society group Wednesday challenged the transparency of the Karnataka State Election Commission’s voter roll mapping exercise, warning that the “opaque” process could lead to the mass disenfranchisement of marginalised communities.

In a letter dated April 1, ‘My Vote, My Right’ raised alarms over a significant data gap between the 4.46 crore voters reportedly mapped and the mere 19.13 lakh voters who have been officially ‘system and BLO (booth-level officer) verified’. Raising questions about progeny mapping, the group has demanded that progeny mapping of persons above 40 years should also be permitted.

“Conducting such a state-wide mapping exercise in such an opaque manner, and refusing to resolve people’s concerns of being excluded from voter rolls, is highly condemnable. Let us reiterate that there are no written instructions or protocols from the Election Commission for conducting mapping,” the letter said.

It demanded that the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer formulate and make public the written instructions, guidelines, and protocols for mapping, and publish them on the CEO website.

Prominent among the issues highlighted was that the roll mapping would exclude a large number of people. “…the requirement of locating the details of parents and grandparents from the 2002 voter rolls will inevitably exclude lakhs of voters from marginalised communities such as Adivasi communities, migrant workers, transgender communities and others,” it said.

The group pointed out that progeny mapping, which links voters’ names to those of their parents or grandparents on the 2002 voter list, was permitted only for voters aged 18 to 39. Voters over 40 cannot locate their parents’ or grandparents’ names; they can only search for their own names on the 2002 rolls. Therefore, the group is requesting that progeny mapping be allowed for individuals aged 40 and older.

The mapping, the group said, was being held as a precursor to the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.