B R Patil.
Credit: DH File Photo
New Delhi: Congress Aland constituency MLA B R Patil on Thursday claimed that conspiracy was hatched to defeat him by targeted deletion of minority, scheduled caste and backward caste votes during the 2023 state assembly elections.
The MLA claimed that a request under Form-7 of the Election Commission was sent by someone to delete voters. “After this, the returning officer carried out a verification to find out any discrepancy or confusion. The officer ordered a status quo. If the status quo was not maintained and 6,994 votes were deleted then I would have lost the election. This is a big issue,” Patil told reporters.
The MLA had won the assembly elections with a margin of over 10,000 votes in 2023.
He said the request was made to delete “my voters in my constituency and not other voters”.
“The attack was made on my workers and my supporters in the area where I had a stronghold. Most of the targets were minorities, scheduled caste and backward castes – the Congress vote bank,” the MLA said.
Patil said that if a thorough investigation is carried out, more details would come out. “But the investigation is not happening.”
He claimed that there is evidence available since the complainant is the returning officer himself, and based on his complaint, the FIR was registered.
The returning officer is part of the Election Commission. He has to answer to the complaint lodged by him, Patil underlined. “Since the ECI is not replying, it raises doubt that they are also at fault. Who is behind it, whose conspiracy is it? It must be investigated,” the MLA said.