Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 29 (ANI): Karnataka Public Works Minister and Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi on Thursday defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, saying the exercise was conducted properly following the training provided by the Congress.
His remarks come ahead of the party’s November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan against what they allege is “vote chori” in the Election Commission’s electoral roll revision exercise.
Jarkiholi said the Congress had not protested against SIR in Karnataka but had raised concerns over its implementation in other states.
“We didn't protest about SIR in Karnataka, we raised issues about the SIR process in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, etc. Because of all the training we gave, SIR has been done properly in Karnataka, we want it to be done the same way in other states too,” Jarkiholi said.
On the deletion of one crore votes, Jarkiholi said, “Yes, these are people who have died, shifted, or duplications; this should have been done in other places.”
His defence of the process in Karnataka also drew responses from party colleagues.
Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge expressed reservations about Jarkiholi's assessment, citing alleged irregularities involving Form 7 applications used to seek the deletion of names from electoral rolls.
“I'm not sure what information Jarkiholi has. For example, in Chittapur, in a single booth, 40 people were targeted who were from a single community, and that was investigated by the returning officers, and it was found that the pre-printed Form 7 was available in bulk. Nobody knew its origins. The person who had submitted the Form 7 did not know why he had done that, and all they said was, 'It's come from the top.' So that's a very clear indication that this is a conspiracy that has its roots all over the place, and it's centralised. We will get to the bottom of it,” Kharge said.
Kharge further alleged that several people in Vijayapura had been incorrectly declared dead in applications seeking deletion of their names from the electoral rolls.
“I have information on what has happened in Vijayapura. More than 40–50 people had been declared dead, and Form 7s were submitted. They have gone and complained to the DC over there, saying, 'We are not dead; we are alive.' So all these things have happened. So I'm not sure what information Jarkiholi has. I'm basing my statements on things that have happened in Kalaburagi and elsewhere in the state,” he added.
Karnataka Minister Santosh Lad strongly criticised the SIR exercise, describing it as a “fraud” and alleging that it had benefited the BJP in elections.
“SIR is a fraud, and because of that, only the BJP is winning the elections. It is proved beyond a doubt, but they may not expect it... Since they used ballots, they have lost 14 elections out of 28 seats. If I'm not wrong, 16 seats were won by the BJP, and 12 seats were won by the other parties. Congress has not scored, fair enough, but BJP has lost so many seats. In Varanasi, why did they lose then?...” Lad said. (ANI)
“SIR done properly in Karnataka”: Minister Satish Jarkiholi defends revision ahead of Congress's Nov 1 rally against ‘vote chori’
