Ex-minister moves HC seeking scrapping of revised voters' list

Former minister S A Ramdas has moved the High Court of Karnataka seeking scrapping of the recently reviewed voters' list in the three Assembly constituencies of Mysuru city and Chamundeshwari constituency - done at the behest of Congress MLA M K Somashekhar.

Ramdas told reporters here on Tuesday that he has sought action against the officials, including the deputy commissioner, Mysuru City Corporation commissioner, and election Tahsildar in the MCC, for reviewing the voters'   list without any directions from the Election Commission.

He said that except for the voluntary applications by the voters seeking a revision, the electoral roll can be revised only on the directions of the Election Commission. All the officials, who have acted on the letter of MLA Somashekhar have transgressed their authority. Even if the deputy commissioner has considered the MLA's letter as a complaint, he has no powers to order for a review of the voters' list.

Stating that   "voters list rigging" was not limited to Mysuru, Ramdas said since the unearthing of the scam in Mysuru, complaints have been coming from all parts of the state. "The Congress is misusing the administrative machinery and is indulged in "rigging" voters' list with a mala fide intention to win the upcoming Assembly polls. Recently, the Election Commission had directed issuance of the revised voters' list to booth-level officials (BLOs) for the people to cross-check their names. However, the BLOs have been issued only the old lists, which were revised for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. As per rules, all political parties should be given booth-wise lists for verification. Several months have passed since the BJP applied for the copies, but the lists have not been issued," he said.

Ramdas said that the district administration has not even bothered to reply to the letter from the EC seeking an explanation about the mass review of the voters' list, following a letter from Somashekhar.

"Voters have filed complaints about the deletion of names in the voters' list with four police stations under the KR Assembly constituency. However, FIRs have not been registered by the police owing to the pressure from the state government. The BJP will meet the affected voters at their doorsteps and ask them to file applications under Right to Information Act, asking on what basis their names have been deleted," he said.

Reacting to the allegation by Somashekhar that voters who have shown a vacant site as their address too have been enrolled in KR constituency, Ramdas said, as demanded by the MLA himself, let the government order for a CBI inquiry into the issue.

District (city) president of BJP Dr B H Manjunath said, the MCC does not even have adequate application forms (Form 6 and Form 6A) to be distributed among the voters seeking revision, after committing such a blunder. "We have been helping the MCC by providing the copies to the BLOs," he said.

District BJP senior vice president M Rajendra and KR Assembly constituency BJP president B V Manjunath were present.