Karnataka poll panel to begin Greater Bengaluru Authority voter list revision from November 1

Bengaluru: The State Election Commission (SEC) has decided to proceed with the preparation of electoral rolls in the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) area from November 1, irrespective of whether the Election Commission of India (ECI) postpones its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Karnataka or not.

While the Supreme Court has mandated the SEC to prepare the voter list for GBA from November 1, and has mandated the state government to submit the reservation list by November 30, the ECI is expected to soon conduct its SIR of the voter list in Karnataka.

If the two exercises clash, they will be hit as the booth level officers (BLOs) for both will be mostly the same.

On September 23, State Election Commissioner G S Sangreshi wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and asked him to postpone the SIR in Karnataka. However, he has not yet received any response.

The Congress government has authorised the SEC with preparation and revision of electoral rolls for local body polls, including GBA. Before this decision, the electoral rolls for local body polls and the Assembly/Lok Sabha elections were the same.

“The Supreme Court has directed us to prepare the voter list (for GBA) from November 1,” Sangreshi told DH.

“And we need to provide an update by November 3. So, we have to proceed even if we don’t get a response (from ECI). Unlike us, the ECI doesn’t have such a mandate to conduct the SIR immediately,” he added.

Sangreshi pointed out that the Supreme Court’s order was binding on the state government to provide manpower to the SEC to conduct the roll revision.

“If they (state government) don’t give manpower, we will approach the Supreme Court,”Sangreshi said.

“If some bureaucrats cite the SIR exercise by the ECI as an excuse to avoid this, we will write about it to the Supreme Court. Officers who fail to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court will have to face contempt proceedings. They cannot escape,” he added.

Sangreshi explained that there are around 9,000 booths, which will need the same number of BLOs. However, he felt the SEC would greatly benefit if the state government appointed twice the number of BLOs (18,000).

Last month, the Cabinet decided to switch to ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines (EVM) for all local body polls.

The impending GBA polls will also be held using ballot papers.