BENGALURU: Karnatka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday held a video conference with Congress legislators, MPs, ministers, former legislators and party functionaries to discuss the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, signalling that the party is gearing up for a sustained campaign on the issue.
The meeting was held from the CM’s home office ‘Krishna’, and was attended by AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, former CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM G Parameshwara, ministers KH Muniyappa, Shivalingegowda, Zameer Ahmed Khan, SS Mallikarjun, HC Balakrishna, Puttarangashetty, T Raghumurthy and KS Basavanthappa. KPCC Campaign Committee chairman Vinay Kumar Sorake joined them, along with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, MLAs and defeated Congress candidates.
The discussions centred on ensuring that every eligible voter gets a fair opportunity to remain on the electoral roll. Shivakumar said the party and government would stay vigilant throughout the SIR process to protect each citizen’s right to vote. The Congress has taken up a campaign against alleged irregularities in the SIR, particularly filing of bulk Form-7 applications aimed at certain communities. By bringing together leaders and workers, the party appears to be building a booth-level, grassroots mechanism to monitor roll revision.
On Monday, former Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy, who lost by 16 votes to BJP’s CK Ramamurthy, filed a police complaint alleging that 4,372 voters were removed from the electoral roll, and 5,698 Form-7 applications were filed for deletion in Jayanagar constituency. Earlier, Pulakeshinagar MLA Srinivas AC had made observations about such irregularities, as had Congress RS MP Mansoor Ali Khan on Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency.