EC suspends poll officials in Karnataka over 'voter fraud'

The Election Commission (EC) directed officials on Friday for a review of the deletions and additions in the voter lists of three assembly seats in Karnataka and ordered the suspension of two poll officials after allegations of 'electoral fraud' in the state.

The poll watchdog also directed the chief electoral officer of the southern state to share a list of all deletions and additions effected in the electoral rolls of the Shivajinagar, Chickpet and Mahadevapura Assembly seats after January 1, 2022 with all the recognised political parties so as to enable them to file claims and objections.

The commission issued directions to immediately suspend additional district election officers S Rangappa (in-charge of the Shivajinagar and Chickpet constituencies) and K Srinivas (in-charge of the Mahadevapura constituency).

The poll panel also ordered a departmental enquiry against them.

The EC said it had received media reports and complaints from political parties regarding an NGO collecting voters' data in Bengaluru city under the garb of voter awareness activities by way of a house-to-house survey in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) area.

It said an administrative enquiry by Bengaluru Regional Commissioner Amlan Biswas had revealed that wrong identity cards, identifying private individuals as booth-level officers, were found in the three constituencies.

The commission also asked Biswas to coordinate and supervise the review of the Special Summary Revision (SSR) work in the BBMP area and empowered him to depute any officer for assisting him in the said task with the approval of the Karnataka chief electoral officer.

The directives by the poll authority came two days after the Congress petitioned it, seeking a detailed investigation into the 'voter information theft fraud' in Karnataka.

The opposition party alleged that 27 lakh names were deleted and 11 lakh voters added to the electoral rolls of the three constituencies and claimed that the employees of a private firm had collected voters' data impersonating as government officials.

The EC also extended the period for filing claims and objections under SSR by 15 days till December 24, according to a statement issued by the poll panel.

The commission also appointed officers from outside the BBMP -- under which the three seats fall -- to oversee the exercise of ensuring the purity of electoral rolls.

Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers Priyanka Mary Francis, R Vishal and Ajay Nagbhushan have been appointed as special officers to the constituencies of Shivajinagar, Chickpet and Mahadevapura respectively.

The roll observers of the BBMP area -- Ujjwal Ghosh (BBMP Central), Ramachandran R (BBMP North), P Rajendra Cholan (BBMP South) and N Manjula (Bengaluru Urban) -- have been directed to oversee the SSR work in their constituencies.

The EC has also directed all officials to ensure no direct or indirect use of illegally collected documents or data.