The ERO, when contacted, denied having spoken to the BLOs and said his name was misused without his knowledge and authorisation. The same report referred to deletion requests affecting Muslim voters in Balki constituency even after the deadline for objection had expired on 23 September. The Form-10 report shows 1,131 applications were received between 24 and 29 September, of which 1,123 were bulk filings.
Karnataka Congress on 1 October called for scrapping the SIR in Karnataka and a criminal inquiry into bulk filings of Form 7. The paty demanded that FIRs be lodged against those who generated, filed or coordinated fraudulent Form 7s. “Trace the individuals and political actors behind the filings. Restore every eligible voter wrongly targeted or deleted,” the party said in a statement.
While it took the chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, Priyank Kharge and other members of the cabinet to barge into the CEO’s office for the CEO to reluctantly issue a statement that EROs should take action against illegal use of Form 7, there is no suggestion of an inquiry into the role of the BJP and its agents.
In view of the mounting evidence, the least the Election Commission can do is to break its silence and clarify its position. If internal inquiries revealed no BJP links, it should say so and put doubts at rest.
