Karnataka will continue with probe into efforts to illegally delete names of genuine voters, says Chief Minister

After taking part in a protest by the AICC in Delhi against the Special Intensive Revision, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said the State would continue with the inquiry into how there were efforts to illegally snatch away the voting rights of people, including minorities and poor people by deleting their names from the electoral rolls.

Speaking to presspersons after the protest in Delhi, Mr. Shivakumar said the Election Commission of India, yielding to the struggle by the Congress and other Opposition parties at the national level, had asked officials to conduct a drive to help include those people whose names had been deleted from the electoral rolls. “Lets see what they will do,” he said.

He declared that the Congress would not stop till justice was provided to those whose names had been deleted illegally from the electoral rolls.

The Chief Minister said lakhs of Form 7 applications, seeking deletion of names, had been withdrawn after cases were filed against those who were misusing such a mechanism to get the names of genuine voters deleted.

He wondered why the BJP leaders were demanding that no case should be filed against those involved if they had not committed any wrong. “If they are not wrong, then why they are scared of cases being filed and why have they approached the Governor in this regard,” he wondered.

The Chief Minister alleged that innocent party workers were being used by the BJP leaders to file FIRs to illegally target others.

Launching a counter-attack on the BJP for accusing the Congress of trying to create chaos in the country using SIR, he alleged that it was the BJP that was trying to create chaos by illegally deleting the names of voters. “They are indulging in a criminal conspiracy of deleting the names as they are not confident of winning the polls,” he said.