The Karnataka unit of Congress on Saturday submitted a proper grievance with the state chief electoral officer (CEO) alleging electoral fraud, malpractice, and manipulation of the voters’ checklist.
The delegation led by Chief of Opposition Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar met CEO Manoj Kumar Meena.
The 2 leaders had earlier requested for a overview of the deletion of two.7 million voters from the checklist. They claimed that the voters’ knowledge was “stolen by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Celebration to go well with its benefit”.
“We attraction to your esteemed authority to take cognizance of unlawful acts dedicated by the above-said individuals and direct the involved authorities to file felony complaints together with on the Hon’ble Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, minister Ashwath Narayan and different officers and individuals punishable beneath the 11 provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Illustration of the Individuals Act 1950 and 1951 and different legal guidelines to carry the free and truthful elections within the state of Karnataka,” the grievance learn.
The statements come after NGO Chilume Social Service Society had collected private info from hundreds of voters in Bengaluru by making their discipline brokers “pose” as authorities officers.
The agency went door-to-door to allegedly accumulate private particulars, together with caste, schooling, mom tongue, Aadhaar and different particulars.
The train was completed by utilizing folks figuring out them as booth-level officers (BLO)
Following the assembly on Saturday, Shivakumar alleged that minister Ashwath Narayan and his workforce are behind the voter knowledge theft.
“Now we have to file a grievance to guard the voters’ rights. That is the largest fraud dedicated by BJP ministers of Bengaluru. Minister CN Ashwath Narayan and his workforce are behind this and so they used the info and picked up info illegally, to delete lakhs of votes,” Shivakumar mentioned.
“The officers who permitted the appointment of the 28 sales space degree officers (BLOs) needs to be arrested.Their paperwork needs to be seized. The information are stored at Halasuru Gate police station. There’s a letterhead and a note-counting machine. To whom does the letterhead belong? Why was the counting machine there?” he requested.
Nevertheless, minister Ashwath Narayan accused Congress of constructing baseless accusations utilizing the title of an organisation known as ‘Hombale’. “My brother, too, runs an organisation known as ‘Hombale’, which is a film manufacturing home. The organisation Congress is referring to has nothing to do with my brother’s group. The electoral roll revision is Election Fee’s work; there may be nothing in it for the CM or me.”
Karnataka Congress had earlier demanded chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s resignation for his alleged “involvement” within the controversy. Terming it the “votergate scandal”, Siddaramaiah criticised the CM for terming the allegations “baseless”. “The chief minister is straight concerned on this scandal. He’s the principle offender. It’s a large conspiracy to defeat the rights of the voters. If anybody interferes with the free and truthful method of the election, it’s a punishable offence,” he mentioned.
CM Bommai on Thursday had dismissed the Congress cost of electoral fraud and mentioned he was prepared for inquiry into the matter. “What I really feel is that the Congress has bought bankrupt concepts. It’s a matter between the Election Fee of India, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the NGO (involved),” Bommai had mentioned.
Responding to this, Siddaramaiah mentioned: “Bommai is the in-charge minister for Bengaluru. He’s accountable and answerable to the legislature and the folks of the state. He’s saying 100 lies to bury the reality.”
Siddaramaiah additional requested why these concerned with the NGO Chilume, which is accused of unauthorised voter knowledge assortment, weren’t arrested. “Why hasn’t the BBMP chief commissioner been arrested? Since Bommai retains on saying that he’s not concerned and allegations had been baseless, we have now requested the state election fee to type a judicial fee beneath the supervision of the Karnataka excessive court docket chief justice.
BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath in the meantime denied any knowledge theft by the NGO. “We had acquired complaints relating to impersonation of our officers by employees of the belief who had been gathering voters’ knowledge in September 2022. Primarily based on the grievance, the nodal officer for SVEEP had given a show-cause discover to the belief. We discovered that the belief had impersonated our officers. On November 2, we cancelled their permission.”
“We didn’t get any complaints towards the belief on voter knowledge theft… to date, we have now not bought any proof of knowledge theft. After media experiences on knowledge theft, we filed a police grievance towards the belief since we too have a doubt,”he mentioned.