BHATKAL: Uttara Kannada District Congress president G.T. Naik has alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being misused across the country, with BJP workers allegedly attempting to have the names of eligible voters deleted from the rolls using Form 7.

Mr. Naik, who visited Bhatkal for the first time after being elected district Congress president, said the Congress would hold protests across the country from October 2 to 8 against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR exercise. A protest would also be organised in Bhatkal as part of the campaign, he said.

Referring to alleged differences within the Election Commission, Mr. Naik said the three-member Commission comprises Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and two other Election Commissioners. He claimed that the two other Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had formally raised objections to various decisions and actions of the Commission at least 14 times over the past 10 months and had also brought their concerns to Mr. Kumar’s notice. Despite this, Mr. Kumar ignored the objections and proceeded with decisions at his own discretion.

Mr. Naik also alleged that the Election Commission was acting in a partisan manner in favour of the BJP and urged it to take appropriate action against the alleged misuse of Form 7. Under the Election Commission’s rules, Form 7 is used to raise an objection to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll or to seek deletion of an existing name. The deletion process involves verification and other prescribed procedures.

Mr. Naik alleged that during the SIR exercise, the names of voters who did not support the BJP were being removed from electoral rolls, with minor spelling errors being cited as a reason. He claimed that Muslims, Christians, Dalits and members of other communities who had traditionally supported the Congress were among those affected.

He expressed concern that the SIR exercise could result in the deletion of the names of around 13 crore eligible voters across the country and nearly one crore voters in Karnataka.

District Congress Mahila Morcha president Sharda Rathod, Balachandra Naik, Venkatesh Naik, Vishnu Devadiga, Imshad Mukhtasar and other Congress members were present at the press conference.