As several states contend with anomalies thrown up by special intensive revisions and courts hear related cases, the Karnataka government has taken the Election Commission head-on. Last week, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar led a sit-in at Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar’s office, demanding action against officers and political operatives filing Form 7 in bulk to seek removal of a large number of members of the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Other Backward Classes who form the Congress’s electoral base. There are allegations that a BJP BLA in Ballari sought to have 7,561 voters removed from the rolls, with similar cases reported in other parts of the state. The CEO later ordered district election officers to initiate legal action against false declarations. The police registered FIRs against BJP workers over-filing removal applications, setting off a political row.
In a way, the Karnataka voter is in a better position than those in many other states as no voter has been deleted yet from the roll, with the CEO confirming that officers will conduct hearings before deciding on Form 7 applications. In all, over 43 lakh notices were issued and 91,278 applications received until October 4.
Ever since it began, the SIR process has been fraught with fear and suspicion, with voters categorised under ‘logical discrepancies’, ‘no mapping’ and ‘anomalies’. Over the past week, some of these issues were sorted under pressure from street protesters, court hearings and opposition parties upping the ante.