Scientist CNR Rao Gets Karnataka Voter Roll Notice Over Extra ‘F’ In Name

Scientist CNR Rao has received a notice in Karnataka’s special intensive revision voter-roll clean-up drive over a reported “self-name mismatch”. In older electoral rolls, his name appears as “Prof CNR Rao”; in the current record, it appears as “Proff CNR Rao” with an extra “f”.

Rao’s office said no notice has reached them so far. “It appears to have been put online on the ECI website. I am not clear about that one; I have not seen it,” a representative from Rao’s office said, referring to the Election Commission of India.

The representative added that the only difference was the extra letter in “Proff”. “According to the office records and email, there is no notice as of now. A physical letter also has not reached us.” As per IANS, he has been called for a hearing in Bengaluru’s Malleshwaram, near the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), to settle the issue.

Rao's Scientific Legacy

Rao is a Bharat Ratna recipient. The notice has drawn attention because he is one of India’s best-known scientists and has had a long career in chemistry.

Born in Bengaluru in 1934, Rao made major contributions to chemistry, particularly in solid-state materials, nanomaterials and structural chemistry. In 1976, he set up the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit at IISc.

From 1984 to 1994, he led IISc as director. He has written more than 1,600 research papers and won many international honours.

Similar Notices Elsewhere

Rao’s case is not isolated. Similar SIR-related notices have reached other noted personalities in states where the exercise was held.

Harekala Hajabba was awarded the Padma Shri in 2020 for work promoting education, and six years later he too received a notice over electoral-record discrepancies. Yesterday, Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer said the notice for activist Harekala Hajabba stemmed from a mismatch in his electoral-roll name and that the matter had been settled.

Hajabba is widely known in Mangaluru for his social work. He also built a school in his village using money earned by selling oranges in Mangaluru, work that brought him the national honour.

Scale Of Revision

The voter roll exercise is large. Officials said last week that more than 43.81 lakh notices had been generated under the SIR exercise and 7.31 lakh had already been delivered to electors.

As of September 4, Karnataka had 4,46,38,124 electors on the rolls, the office said. That total includes 2.21 crore male electors, 2.24 crore female electors and 2,871 transgender electors.

Officials said the notices were sent to electors whose names fell into the “no mapping” and “anomalies” buckets, which are part of the roll-revision process.