Mudigere

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by Central Election Commission is facing serious allegations of mass voter deletions across the country. Critics say the exercise has targeted voters from religious minorities, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.

So far, around 13 crore voters have been removed from the rolls. That is a big number, and it has raised alarm among opposition parties and civil society groups.

Delhi numbers tell a worrying story. Out of 1.45 crore pre-SIR electors in the Capital, 47.56 lakh were left out of the draft roll. Among the 97.5 lakh who remained, more than 31 lakh have received notices. Nearly 13.8 lakh were flagged just because their details could not be matched with the 2002 roll. Others were caught by automated checks on names, parents or ages.

Allegations from Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has made serious allegations about Form-7 misuse. He claims BJP activists submitted pre-printed forms with names, phone numbers and EPIC numbers from Delhi to target genuine voters in Bableshwar, Bhalki, Narasimharaja (Mysuru), Mudigere (Chikkamagaluru) and Ballari urban and rural. According to him, 65,000 forms bore no signature at all.

Similar claims have emerged from West Bengal, where 27 lakh voters are said to have been removed. Data centralisation at ECInet in Delhi and denial of access to ground-level Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have only deepened suspicion.

I think the scale of these allegations cannot be ignored. If true, this goes beyond a routine clean-up. It amounts to nothing short of voter list manipulation. Election Commission owes the country a clear and honest explanation.