Bengaluru, Saturday – Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar charged the Election Commission with colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party to steal votes, calling for the President to dissolve the poll panel and halt the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Speaking at a Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee protest in Freedom Park, the chief minister described the commission as a “puppet” of the BJP that was targeting poor voters and critics of the state administration. He demanded the arrest of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the cancellation of elections he said were conducted illegally.
Shivakumar highlighted a discrepancy in Karnataka’s voter list: out of a population of roughly seven crore, 5.54 crore are registered voters, yet the SIR exercise reduced that figure to 4.46 crore and issued notices to 30–40 lakh people. He warned that the right to vote was being eroded and pledged that the Congress would fight the issue in every village.
The chief minister also referenced the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, noting that Congress candidate Mansoor Khan lost by a margin of 31,000 votes according to the Election Commission. He questioned BJP leaders about a claimed reduction of 12 lakh votes through the SIR process, alleging that three lakh votes vanished in Mahadevapura and that 12 lakh votes were misused.
Shivakumar urged the Union government to convene Parliament for an early discussion, stating that the obsession with power would not last forever. He announced that local body elections scheduled for November–December would use ballot papers and reiterated Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi's campaign against alleged vote theft in Karnataka.
Image: mangalorean.com
📰 Source: Mangalorean News