Bengaluru, July 1: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai has urged officials involved in the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the voter list to act impartially. He emphasized that they should resist any political pressure during the voter verification process.
Bommai stated that it is crucial for officials to ensure that no ineligible individuals are included in the voter list and that no eligible voters are excluded.
In a statement, he noted that the SIR process commenced on Tuesday with the distribution of enumeration forms across the state. He expressed concern over reports suggesting that some officials were being directed to work under pressure from the Karnataka government and the Congress party during the voter list revision.
These reports have raised alarm, and Bommai stressed the importance of safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process. He appealed to all district election officers, deputy commissioners, election officials, Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs), and revenue department officials to perform their duties with complete impartiality.
He also called on the Election Commission to issue strict directives to the vigilance teams established in each district to closely monitor the revision process, ensuring that the voter list is prepared fairly and transparently.
Bommai urged the Election Commission to release a clear public directive reiterating that all officials involved in the voter list revision must operate independently and without political interference.
The BJP leader highlighted that maintaining the credibility of the voter list revision process is essential for protecting voters’ democratic rights and ensuring free and fair elections.
Notably, the Karnataka BJP accused the Congress-led state government of obstructing the ongoing SIR process on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, according to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka, over 1.248 million enumeration forms were distributed to voters on the first day of the SIR exercise, covering 2.25 percent of the state’s 55.4 million registered voters.
On the first day, 291 deceased voters and 116 voters who had changed their residence were identified.
According to the daily press release from the Chief Electoral Officer, officials also identified 116 voters who had permanently changed their residence, 291 deceased voters, and 77 individuals already registered elsewhere. Two cases were categorized differently.
Fieldwork, along with the digitization of completed enumeration forms, has also commenced. On the first day, 47,817 forms were digitized, representing 0.09 percent of the total voters. Additionally, 6,840 voters submitted their enumeration forms online, accounting for 0.01 percent of the total voters.
The SIR began with booth-level officers (BLOs) distributing enumeration forms to eligible voters door-to-door.
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