BENGALURU: Ahead of Congress party's planned protest on August 5 over alleged manipulation of electoral rolls in Bengaluru's Mahadevapura constituency, former minister H Nagesh has written to the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka seeking copy of a complaint he says was submitted in April 2023, accusing forged entries in voters' list.
However, the CEO's office has denied receiving any such complaint.
In a letter dated July 31, Nagesh stated, "We had earlier during April 2023 submitted a list containing details of alleged forged entries in the voters' list pertaining to our constituency 174-Mahadevapura. This issue is of grave concern as it affects the transparency and fairness of the electoral process."
He admitted that Congress did not have a copy of the submitted document.
"We have misplaced the list of documents. We do not have a copy of the submitted document for our records. We kindly request you to share a copy of the document which we had submitted," he said.
Responding to this, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Yogeshwar S, in a letter dated August 2, wrote: "With reference to your letter dated 31st July 2025, I am hereby directed to inform you that this office does not have records of any such letter received from you during April 2023 on the issue of electoral rolls with a list containing details of alleged forged entries in the voters list pertaining to 174-Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency, which you have suddenly raised now."
The official added that a certified copy of the electoral roll was made available to all candidates, including Nagesh, during the election, and is also accessible online.
He pointed out that no legal remedy had been pursued by Nagesh under the Representation of the People Act, stating, "Since then, you have not filed any election petition with respect to 174-Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency as per Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, nor any appeal to either the first appellate authority or second appellate authority against entries in the electoral rolls published in 2023 as per Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950."
The Congress party has announced a protest in Bengaluru on Monday against what it calls large-scale electoral fraud.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is expected to take part in the demonstration.
Party leaders allege that thousands of bogus names were added and genuine voters deleted to influence the outcome in Mahadevapura and other constituencies during the 2023 Assembly elections.