Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 15 (ANI): Actor-filmmaker Prakash Raj on Friday raised questions over the voter-list revision process by the Election Commission, claiming that his voter status was changed to "permanently shifted" and that he was subsequently asked to submit Form 6 to restore his name.
Raj said Election Commission officials contacted him after he raised the issue and informed him that the status would be corrected. He said the status was later changed from "permanently shifted" to "shifted", while officials told him that his name had not been deleted and that he could submit Form 6.
However, he questioned the need to submit Form 6, saying that doing so would amount to accepting that his name had been deleted.
"I said, 'Why do I need Form 6? If I sign and give you Form 6, that means I accept that you've deleted it,'" Raj said.
The actor claimed that he instead submitted Form 8, but alleged that it was not accepted. Raj said the Election Commission's position is that he should submit Form 6, but he would not do so.
"I am not going to fill up Form 6. I will start from the bottom," he said.
He said the Election Commission had decided to send a Booth Level Officer (BLO) to his old residence after he had raised the issue.
"....Why would you send the BLO?" he asked , alleging that the development raised questions about the process.
"It shows there is daal mein kuch kaala hai, bhai," Raj said.
He said he had approached the Election Commission through the media and would wait for a response before deciding on further action.
"We will wait one or two days. If they don't, then we will start protests. Then the whole state, the country will come together. Because today, accountability is the question," Raj said.
On allegations regarding multiple voter IDs, Raj said the issue dated back to 2018 and claimed that he had earlier informed the Election Commission that he had a voter ID in Chennai, where he had lived for around 20 years.
The actor said he subsequently submitted Form 7 to delete his Chennai voter registration after applying for a voter ID at another location. He claimed that the Election Commission later investigated the matter and informed him that the other entries were fake.
He further claimed that correspondence he had submitted before the court showed that the Election Commission had instructed in 2019 that only one vote belonging to him should remain on record.
"The tragedy is I have lost my only vote now," Raj alleged.
Raj also criticised the process of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying he had opposed it from the beginning and questioned the manner in which voter verification was being carried out.
He said there was now sufficient time to raise concerns and fight against what he described as problems in the process.
"I am not interested in discovering whether state government has to do it, central government has to do it. The Election Commission works under the central government. So it is their politics, their agenda," the actore said.
Earlier, in a video post on X , Prakash Raj launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission's SIR process, alleging that specific voters were being targeted."You may choose and deny voting rights of few citizens who may not elect you back to thrown... but can you stop us from eventually bringing you down from your thrown," he wrote.
Prakash Raj alleged that the revision exercise was not aimed at cleaning the voter list but at disenfranchising voters who are critical of the ruling establishment.
"Outing rights"- a reference to the right to vote and participate in elections- "are being snatched through SIR," he claimed, while asserting that citizens would respond democratically.
Opposition parties and activists have raised concerns that SIR could result in wrongful deletions, particularly affecting migrant workers, students and marginalized communities.
The Election Commission has maintained that the exercise is routine and intended to ensure a clean and accurate electoral roll. (ANI)
Prakash Raj raises questions over SIR process, asks "why do I need Form 6"
