Karnataka’s electoral rolls have recorded more women than men for the first time, with the latest figures showing 2.28 crore female electors against 2.25 crore male electors across the state. The difference stands at nearly 3.7 lakh ahead of the final roll’s scheduled publication on October 27.
The figures, released by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, are based on the electoral roll position as of October 16. The state has 4.5 crore electors in total, including 2,860 third-gender voters.
The shift has emerged during the final stage of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The deadline for disposing of claims and objections is October 22, after which the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 27.
Historical Election Commission of India data analysed for Karnataka Assembly election years shows that men had outnumbered women in every year from 1962 through 2023 for which separate gender-wise figures were available. The 1957 report recorded the total electorate but did not provide separate male and female numbers, making 1962 the earliest year in the available series for a gender comparison.
The female majority is not uniform across Karnataka’s districts and electoral areas. Women outnumber men in 25 of the 34 districts listed in the latest release. Mysuru has the largest female lead, at 49,416, followed by BBMP North, where women are ahead by 48,394.
Men continue to outnumber women in nine districts. The largest male lead is in Bidar, at 42,269, followed by Vijayapura, where the difference is 30,353.
The CEO’s office said the final numbers could change as applications received during the revision are processed. CEO Anbu Kumar V said authorities had made efforts to ensure that eligible voters were enrolled. “We’ve made every effort to ensure no eligible voter misses an opportunity to get onto the rolls. We got 10 lakh new Form 6 applications, out of which more than 7.8 lakh were before Sept 23. All those applications need to be cleared; once all the applications are cleared, we’ll get a clear picture,” he said.
As of October 16, hearings had been completed in 43,63,459 of the 43,82,824 notices generated and delivered across Karnataka, representing 99.6% of the total. Hearings were pending in 19,365 cases. Gulbarga had the highest number of pending hearings, at 8,224, with 92.21% completed. Bengaluru Urban had 1,016 pending hearings and Belgaum had 1,495.
Between June 16 and October 15, the CEO’s office received 24,46,803 forms connected to electoral roll claims, objections and updates. These included 10,07,392 Form 6 applications for inclusion, 4,777 Form 6A applications, 1,55,109 Form 7 applications and 12,79,525 Form 8 applications.
Prof CM Lakshmana of the Population Research Centre at the Institute for Social and Economic Change said the trend was surprising and that more granular data would be needed to assess it. The final electoral roll on October 27 is expected to establish the confirmed gender composition after the claims-and-objections process is completed.
