BENGALURU: Civil society groups have voiced alarm over what they described as “serious irregularities” in the functioning of the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue in Bihar.
The concerns were raised during a two-day meeting on August 13 and 14, which focused on strategies to address alleged vote manipulation.
Former IAS officer M G Devasahayam said participants have been closely monitoring the Supreme Court proceedings on poll-related irregularities.
The groups criticised what they termed the slow response of opposition parties - including the Congress - despite repeated warnings from civil society since last year about vote manipulation.
They emphasised the need for case-by-case investigations into alleged “spurious injections” of votes in constituencies across the country. The meeting organisers said they plan to hold a media briefing on Saturday to outline their strategy for taking the issue to the public.
Meanwhile, the Congress has raised concerns over electoral irregularities in the Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency. Former MP D K Suresh alleged that anomalies similar to those reported in Mahadevapura had also been detected in Bangalore South and Rajarajeshwari Nagar. These, he said, included bulk voter registrations and unexplained deletions. “These irregularities are serious and need to be looked into,” he said.