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.
In Delhi, where about a third of the electorate was removed, the pace of restoring legitimate claimants has picked up pace with special camps being organised. In contrast, West Bengal’s 27 lakh deleted voters remained disenfranchised. Tribunal judges hearing their pleas reported glitches with the Election Commission’s portal, which did not allow them to issue notices or upload documents. These voters are unlikely to benefit from the Supreme Court’s order for ‘mopping up left-out voters’. In a happy departure, Keralam managed a largely non-controversial SIR despite a substantial migrant population. Telangana is considering a move similar to Karnataka’s to address its own citizens’ grievances.
Hearing the case of a ‘left-out’ family, the Bombay High Court’s Goa bench came down heavily on the EC for excluding eligible voters and questioned the very purpose of the SIR exercise. If indeed the SIR proves to be more of political exercise than a genuine voter count, then every state’s rolls will deserve a thorough review.