On Thursday, the Congress party in Karnataka accused the BJP of attempting to delete over one crore eligible voters from the state’s electoral rolls through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. KPCC Media and Communications Department Chairman and MLC Ramesh Babu made this allegation while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru. According to Ramesh Babu, nearly 20 per cent of Karnataka’s 5.40 crore voters are at risk of being removed from the electoral rolls, citing information shared by Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbu Kumar. The Congress party has already submitted several representations to the Election Commission regarding this issue. Ramesh Babu claimed that voters are being deleted on grounds such as being absent, deceased, enrolled in multiple locations, or having changed their address. He also alleged that around one lakh voters in Bengaluru’s K.R. Puram Assembly constituency have been marked as absent without Booth Level Officers visiting households or distributing enumeration forms. The Congress has urged the Election Commission to ensure that no eligible voter is excluded from the electoral rolls. Ramesh Babu questioned the Election Commission’s figures, stating that if 97.7 per cent of enumeration forms have been distributed, then only a small percentage of voters should be treated as absent. He further claimed that the Election Commission had stated that 92 per cent of voter mapping had been completed outside Bengaluru when the SIR exercise began. Ramesh Babu accused senior BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka and Karnataka BJP President B.Y. Vijayendra, of defending the Election Commission’s actions. The Congress party has defended its decision to issue residence certificates to eligible voters, saying it is intended to protect their voting rights.
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📰 Source: Mangalorean News