Congress govt illegally gave Chilume Trust poll work: Bommai

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has clarified that Chilume Trust, which is at the centre of a voter data theft scandal, was roped in purely to create awareness on electoral roll revision, and blamed the previous Congress government for misusing the nonprofit.

Bommai sought to clear the air over the controversy in a late Saturday night statement comprising rebuttals to allegations made by the Congress.

“In reality, it was the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in 2017 that illegally tasked Chilume Trust with electoral roll revision and even allowed it to appoint booth-level officers in some places,” Bommai said.

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He specifically cited a September 2017 order issued to the Chilume Trust by the KR Puram tahsildar, authorising the nonprofit to conduct roll revision and appoint BLOs.

Bommai dismissed allegations that a large number of voters were deleted in Congress-ruled constituencies. “Of the five segments with the lowest deletions, three have Congress MLAs,” he said. “In Shivajinagar, for example, only 14,737 voters have been removed as opposed to 45,985 in KR Puram (that has a BJP MLA).”

The CM explained the deletions are based on technology used by the Election Commission to identify voters who are enrolled multiple times with the same photograph as well as reports given by government officers who go door-to-door.

Bommai said Bengaluru has 91.15 lakh voters. “Of the 12.13 lakh suspected voters, only 6.73 lakh have been deleted. This doesn’t mean disenfranchisement. It only means that one person won’t be a voter in multiple places,” Bommai said, rubbishing the Congress’ claim that 27 lakh voters were removed.

The permission given to Chilume Trust was cancelled on November 2 and the chief electoral officer was informed two days later, Bommai said. He added that a complaint on the misuse of BLO cards was received on November 10 and FIR against one Lokesh was filed on November 15. The Chilume Trust was booked on November 17, Bommai said, adding that “prompt action has been taken”.

Bommai’s signed statement, however, is silent on why Chilume Trust was roped in by his government and on claims that citizens data collected by the nonprofit was uploaded on a private app.