MADIKERI: Kodagu members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) have alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, accusing BJP-supported Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of attempting to wrongfully delete Muslim voters from the electoral roll.
Speaking to the TNIE, SDPI District President Ameen Mohisin announced that the party will stage a protest in Madikeri to demand criminal charges against those responsible, while also demanding the complete withdrawal of the SIR process.
According to Ameen Mohisin, BLAs affiliated with the BJP printed Form-7 applications to place 63 eligible Muslim voters from Booth Number 21 in Byadagotta village onto the ‘Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead or Others’ (ASDDO) list.
He stated that the BLAs submitted these deletion forms without providing required proofs and later admitted in voice recordings that they received the pre-filled forms directly from the BJP office.
He further alleged that the planned deletions were halted when the Booth Level Officer (BLO) recognised that all targeted residents were legitimate voters and subsequently withheld the applications of Form 7. Condemning the SIR process as a direct threat to democratic rights, the SDPI has called for an immediate ban on the revision system.
“In several forms, the BLAs have mentioned that many are duplicate voters without giving proof of the duplicate EPIC card numbers,” Ameen alleged. He added that SDPI has copies of this misdoing and confirmed that a protest will be led today demanding criminal cases against the concerned BLAs. He also demanded that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) be formed to probe the matter and the SIR process be withdrawn completely.