Civil society groups reject SIR draft rolls in Karnataka, announce ‘Election Commission Chalo’

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Actor and producer Prakash Raj, Noor Shridhar and Veer Sangaiah during a press meet about SIR at the Press Club in Bengaluru on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

Rejecting the draft electoral rolls published following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), civil society organisations in Karnataka on Tuesday announced an “Election Commission Chalo” campaign on September 1 and said they would approach the courts seeking a halt to the process.

The groups also demanded the resignation of the Election Commission of India, including Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the revision exercise was “unscientific and undemocratic”.

Addressing a press conference, actor Prakash Raj, representing the civil society groups, said the campaign would be taken to the districts, and the concerns of voters affected by the revision would be raised before the State government and the Election Commission.

The organisations involved include Eddelu Karnataka, Muslim Muthahade Mahaz, Namma Mata Namma Hakku Vedike, Active Bangalore and Nagarika Mata Kavalu Samithi.

Mr. Raj said press conferences would be held in every district from Wednesday to mobilise voters affected by the SIR. “On September 1, we will start an Election Commission Chalo protest with the people of Karnataka who have been affected - the distressed voters,” he said.

The groups said they would appear before the Election Commission during the protest with voters whom they described as “living witnesses” to demonstrate what they alleged were shortcomings in the revision process.

The organisations questioned the deletion of voters classified as absent or shifted, arguing that such voters should have been given an opportunity to establish their continued eligibility rather than being required to enrol afresh.

They alleged that voters who had moved from rented accommodation or shifted to another town had been deleted instead of being given an opportunity to transfer their votes to their new addresses.

The groups also questioned the classification of voters under the “Others” category, which they said included people who had received enumeration forms but had not submitted them.

They said they had no fundamental objection to deletions under the “Dead” and “Duplicate” categories, although they alleged that errors existed in these categories as well.

Mr. Raj alleged that the SIR exercise had been undertaken without adequate preparation, trained election officials or proper communication with voters .He also questioned the scale and timeline of the exercise.

“We have two years before the next Assembly election. You cannot complete this exercise involving more than five crore voters in one month. You should have announced it six months in advance,” he said.