Congress seeks EC action against Bommai for alleged voter fraud

Congress urged the EC to initiate criminal law and ensure registration of an FIR against Bommai

The Congress, on Wednesday, knocked the Election Commission’s doors seeking action against Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in a case of “brazen electoral fraud” by which voters’ data was allowed to be collected and stored by a private entity and deletion of 27 lakh people from voters’ list to impact the electoral outcome.

A delegation of Congress leaders, including Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar and Campaign Committee Chairman MB Patil, met Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other Election Commissioners to apprise them about Chilume Trust and Chilume Enterprises collecting voters data in the guise of official representatives.

There is a “brazen electoral fraud committed in Karnataka” with the “active connivance and blessings” of Bommai, officers of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the state government as well as private entities, the memorandum submitted by the delegation, which also included leaders Priyank Kharge, Nazeer Ahmed and Pranav Jha.

“An urgent and immediate investigation should be initiated by the Commission. The Commission must also initiate criminal law and ensure the registration of an FIR against Bommai, officials and employees of the BBMP and the state government involved in the scam and the officials of the private entities and NGOs who have committed the fraud under political patronage,” the memorandum said.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Surjewala alleged that the fraud was committed by a private company “associated and affiliated” with the BJP. “The employees hired by Chilume Trust and Chilume Enterprises have stolen voter data by impersonating government officials. They got fake identity cards printed and this itself proved a huge data theft of voter information,” he said.

The data collected by these entities were uploaded on a private app, Surjewala said while claiming that 27 lakh voters’ names were deleted from the voters’ list while adding another 11 lakh.

“We showed to the Commission how names were deleted from the voters’ list of specific constituencies. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBC, poor voters were targeted in order to impact the voter outcome,” Surjewala said, adding that the Commission has promised them that strict action will be taken against the culprits.

He said the Commission told the delegation that a Deputy Election Commissioner has been assigned to look into the matter and has been sent to Bengaluru for further investigations. “The EC has assured us that they will file an FIR, ensure that the list is clean and action will be taken against all, without any hesitation,” he said.

In its memorandum, the Congress said the BBMP gave permission to Chilume Trust to conduct voter awareness drives in 28 constituencies in Bengaluru “without any advertisement and without undertaking any kind of verification or background check”.