BENGALURU: RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge and Aland MLA BR Patil on Friday said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged attempt to delete 6,018 names from the voters’ list in Aland constituency ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
“The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka did not provide any information to a team from CID, which launched an investigation into the case, despite its several requests to him. The CM will take a call in a day or two on setting up the SIT. We will take the case to its logical end,” they asserted at a joint press conference in the backdrop of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s media conference in New Delhi on Thursday.
“Had the attempt to delete 6,018 names from the voters’ list had not been foiled, I would have lost the election. The BJP and the Election Commission of India (ECI) were involved in this attempt,” Patil alleged.
Priyank said on February 20, 2023, he wrote to the commission. The then Kalaburagi assistant commissioner, Mamata, filed an FIR the next day. The case was registered based on a complaint by Patil that an attempt was on to delete 6,670 names from the voters’ list in Aland. After a preliminary investigation, the returning officer ascertained that Patil’s claim was true.
Priyank alleged that the CEO ignored the requests by the investigation team to provide information.