Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar staged a sit-in outside Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V Anbukkumar's office on Thursday, demanding an FIR over alleged "electoral fraud" during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls. The chief minister was accompanied by his Cabinet colleagues and MLAs as part of the protest,
The chief minister said he would not leave the place until an inquiry was ordered and an FIR registered. Shivakumar had held a meeting with Anbukkumar for about two-and-a-half hours before announcing the sit-in demonstration.
"I will remain here until I get the satisfaction that, under the law, I can protect the people through our fight," Shivakumar told reporters. Asked about the CEO's response, he said, "You should ask him."
The chief minister said the CEO understood what he had said.
Shivakumar also put on hold Thursday's Cabinet meeting to stage the sit-in demonstration at the Karnataka CEO's office.
Calling the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) a "big fraud", Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar earlier in the day alleged that there were "conspiracies" going on to delete a large number of votes by individuals who are filing multiple applications to erase names from the electoral roll in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, he accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of involved in this conspiracy to delete "minorities, Dalits and ST voters" from the electoral roll. He claimed it was impossible that "illegal" vote deletion was happening without Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar's knowledge.
"There is a big conspiracy by BJP and Janata Dal leaders," Shivakumar said, alleging that bulk Form 7 applications were being filed to delete eligible voters and claiming that "more than 45 lakh" voters were facing discrepancies in the electoral roll.
He said pre-printed Form-7 applications containing voters' names, addresses and EPIC numbers had allegedly been submitted in bulk in several constituencies, including Vijayapura, Bhalki, Belagavi, Mysuru, Mudigere and Bengaluru.
"In all the booths, in more than 70 per cent of the booths, we have already identified that various BJP leaders and party leaders have been taking Form-7," he alleged.
Shivakumar claimed that individuals had submitted dozens or even hundreds of applications each, citing examples of persons who allegedly filed 84, 92, 241 and 423 forms.
He alleged that the applications were being used to target "minorities, backward classes, Dalits, Scheduled Castes and tribal votes".
The chief minister said bulk filing of Form-7 applications took place on September 22, 23 and 24, and questioned how details such as voters' EPIC numbers and addresses had reached those submitting the applications.
"How did this data come. Who gave this data. Who is doing this. This is a big question," he said.