Bengaluru: Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the state government will order a police investigation against those who abetted “vote theft” and misused Form 7 applications for deletion of voters’ names.
He was speaking at the “Stop vote theft, save the country” protest held by the INDIA bloc at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday, November 5, and later to reporters. “We are fighting not only against the Election Commission but also against the BJP’s conspiracy behind it,” he said. Addressing all booth level officers appointed by the Election Commission, he said there is CCTV evidence of who abetted the misuse and who brought the applications, and that cases will be registered.
Shivakumar alleged that Form 7 was printed at BJP offices and sent to constituency leaders with voters’ names, voter ID numbers and phone numbers, with only the applicant’s name left to be filled in, in a plan to delete 10,000 to 20,000 votes of Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and minorities in each constituency. He said attempts to remove thousands of votes were made in Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and the Bengaluru constituency of Sowmya Reddy, among others, and that a report by party workers who flagged it in advance averted the damage.
He said he went to the Election Commission office with cabinet colleagues over the Form 7 misuse and refused to leave until action was taken, after which the Commission instructed officials not to consider requests received through Form 7, to allow new voters to be added and to take legal action over the misuse. He said that after cases were registered, BJP leaders were approaching the Commission and police officers to protect their workers.
He recalled earlier protests at Freedom Park with Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah over voters’ rights in Mahadevapura, Gandhinagar and other areas, and alleged that the previous BJP government had used the Chilume organisation to give its workers booth level officer powers to delete and add votes. He said a survey team led by Prakash Raj and Noor Sridhar had documented irregularities at polling stations, which prompted government action, and that people still gave Congress 136 seats.
He alleged that the BJP had used the Election Commission to misuse voters’ rights not only in Karnataka but also in Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana and Tamil Nadu, and that the Commission was behaving like a party worker. He cited deletions of 65 lakh votes in Bihar, about one crore in Karnataka and 25 lakh in Haryana, and said the Union government does not accept the failure. He called the treatment of young protesters during the Delhi protest “shameful” and said the opposition leaders were not allowed to meet the Commission.
Responding to the media, Shivakumar said the Congress does not accept the way the SIR is being carried out, that its main demand is that names dropped from the rolls, except those of the dead, be restored, and that the fight will continue until voters who were wronged get justice.
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