SIR in Karnataka: Caution buzzword for Cong, BJP in fiat to cadre

Bengaluru: Anticipating the roll out of the special intensive revision (SIR) of voters’ list in Karnataka, the ruling Congress and BJP, on Tuesday, asked their cadre to monitor the exercise closely.

The exercise is likely to be undertaken in the state next month.

While deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar cautioned Congress workers against SIR, state BJP president B Y Vijayendra reminded that the party welcomed the Election Commission of India’s decision undertake SIR.

Addressing a press meet, Vijayendra drew attention to SIR’s impact in Bihar.

65 lakh fake voters

He said over 65 lakh fake voters had been removed from the electoral rolls and more than 2.5 crore fake voters were deleted in Uttar Pradesh.

“A series of meetings covering all 39 organisational districts of the state have been conducted, and meetings in 35 districts are completed,” he said.

The BJP discussed party organisation across districts and strategies to strengthen the party ahead of zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections.

Shivakumar, addressing party workers at the preparatory meeting ahead of the nationwide ‘NREGA bachao’ campaign, called upon them to “save” the voting rights of people and be “cautious” about deletion of names from voters’ list.

Two voter ID cards

“SIR will decide our future. The party workers should be in constant touch with block level agents (BLAs) to safeguard the fundamental rights of people. In rural areas, some people possess two voter ID cards as they have migrated to cities for work. We must ensure that these duplicate names are deleted,” said Shivakumar.

He reminded that the campaign against ‘vote chori’ had started from Karnataka.

“For no reason should you let your guard down, as we will soon have gram , taluk and zilla panchayat elections and the GBA polls. We have seen what is happening in states like West Bengal,” said the state Congress president.

He congratulated lock and district presidents and office bearers for gathering the highest number of signatures – more than one crore  - during the nationwide ‘vote chori’ campaign.

“MGNREGA was our guarantee of employment. After the five guarantees, the sixth is the guarantee of land records and e-khata being undertaken by (Revenue Minister) Krishna Byre Gowda,” he said.

Mega convention

The party is planning to celebrate the completion of 1,000 days in office of Siddaramaiah’s second tenure as the chief minister on February 13, with a mega convention to showcase the government’s achievements.

Lauding the efforts of the guarantee implementation committees, Shivakumar said, “Every gram panchayat and taluk panchayat must host beneficiaries’ meetings. Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa is planning to provide five kg of free rice and five kg of other food items  per head to BPL families. We will make the announcement on February 13.”