Bengaluru: Over 2.8 lakh hearings under the special intensive revision (SIR) of Karnataka’s electoral rolls are pending, with the last round due Monday. Bengaluru Urban and three BBMP districts account for 1.8 lakh of them.According to the chief electoral officer (CEO), 43.8 lakh notices have been generated, and 43.7 lakh delivered (99.8%). Hearings are done in 40.9 lakh cases (93.5%). The 8,570 undelivered notices include 3,522 in Bengaluru. Belgaum has the lowest delivery rate at 96.1%, with 3,252 notices yet to reach voters.BBMP South has the biggest backlog, with 65,335 hearings pending (84.4% done), followed by Bengaluru Urban with 54,943. Gulbarga is the slowest outside Bengaluru with 80.6% completed, followed by Bidar (85.1%) and Bangalore Rural (86%). Koppal has finished all hearings. Bengaluru accounts for 24.1 lakh notices, about 55% of the state total.Claims and objections must be disposed of by Oct 22, and the final roll will be published on Oct 27.Since June 16, as many as 23 lakh forms have been received by Election Commission, led by Form 8 (12.3 lakh) and Form 6 (9.5 lakh). Bengaluru Urban alone received 2.6 lakh. Form 7, used to object to the inclusion or deletion of a name, was filed 1.1 lakh times, most often in Shivamogga (6,987), Dakshina Kannada (6,762) and Bidar (6,101).Amid reports of bulk Form 7 filings that are allegedly not genuine, CEO V Anbukkumar has directed electoral registration officers (EROs) to act against anyone making knowingly false statements in Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8.Election Commission (ECI) has also ordered a special drive to enrol left-out and first-time voters. Booth-level officers will compare the current roll with the pre-SIR one, list missing names and visit homes, covering 20-25 electors a week over about a month. They will help eligible people fill Form 6 and share the lists with party agents and EROs. Camps will be held at booths, night shelters and labour colonies. Anyone not on the roll can apply at any time.
Since June 16, as many as 23 lakh forms have been received by Election Commission, led by Form 8 (12.3 lakh) and Form 6 (9.5 lakh). Bengaluru Urban alone received 2.6 lakh.
Govt mulls SIT probe into Form-7 casesGovt is reportedly considering setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate nine cases registered across the state over alleged attempts to delete voters through bulk Form 7 applications during SIR. CM DK Shivakumar and DCM G Parameshwara held consultations with senior police officials to determine whether the cases were interconnected. Shivakumar accused BJP of conspiring to manipulate electoral rolls, saying an investigation was needed to establish who directed workers to submit the applications and who supplied them.HC grants stay on FIRsThe high court Friday granted interim stay on FIRs registered against BJP booth-level agents (BLAs) over filing bulk Form-7 applications for deletion of voters.Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde passed the order after hearing the petitions filed by Deepak Singh R and GS Vasanthalakshmi.Yeshwantpur police had registered the FIR against Deepak in relation to Form-7 applications seeking deletion of 136 voters in Malleswaram assembly constituency. It followed a complaint filed by Anoop Iyengar, who contested as a Congress candidate in the 2023 election from that constituency. The FIR against Vasanthalakshmi was registered by Vyalikaval police with regard to 778 Form-7 applications filed by her. It was based on another complaint by Iyengar.The petitioners have argued that there is no wrongdoing on their part and added that the officials can still verify the veracity of the genuineness of the voters against whom they submitted applications.Police argued that as against the permissible limit of 50 Form-7s one can file, the petitioners have submitted in excess of the limit with an ulterior motive seeking deletion of a large number of voters.However, Justice Hegde queried as to whether filing Form-7 applications beyond the limit of 50 is considered an offence under the law.The judge pointed out that before deleting a name from the voters’ list, the authorities are required to issue a notice to the voter concerned and added that the complaint appears to be hasty and premature in nature.
