C.T. Ravi dares Congress to file cases against BLOs and electoral registration officers for 'vote chori'

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is a completely decentralised process as mandated by the Constitution done by respective State government officials

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC C.T. Ravi on Tuesday, dared the Congress government in Karnataka to book cases against about 59,000 booth level officers (BLO) and their superiors engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls if the party truly believes in its allegation of 'vote chori.'

Terming Congress' demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar as an attempt to shield its successive electoral failures, Mr. Ravi told reporters in Mangaluru that the SIR process was completely decentralised with the CEC at the top and the BLOs at the bottom of affairs. In between there were numerous supervisory officials, all from respective State governments. Nowhere the CEC has a direct role to play in the revision, which was being done for the 9th time after Independence as per the constitutional mandate.

To bring in more transparency into SIR, the Election Commission of India (ECI) amended rules to facilitate booth level agents (BLA) appointed by recognised political parties to aid BLOs in the enumeration process. If the Congress' allegations of 'vote chori' were true, did agents appointed by it too aided the 'chori,' Mr. Ravi mused. Across India, there were about 11 lakh BLOs and about 30 lakh BLAs, he said, questioning whether the Congress suspects all these officials and party workers.

As per the latest statistics, there were 15,17,042 voters marked as absent, 65,45,849 as shifted, 16,39,864 as dead and 3,83,886 as duplicate (ASDD) in Karnataka and the process was done through enumeration forms. Mere filing of Form No. 7 would not delete a voter as it was the BLO who has to take the call.

Special campaign

Mr. Ravi said the BJP would undertake 'save democracy, end anarchy and protect constitution' campaign across the country from November 1 to November 30. Road shows, paadayatras, dialogues with students, workshops with intellectuals and public connect programmes would be undertaken during the campaign to dispel the myth being propagated by the Congress and its allies on the SIR.

The Party, Mr. Ravi said, would expose the Congress' efforts in targetting constitutional bodies by false propaganda through this campaign and enlighten the public. It would sensitise public about the efforts by the Congress to sabotage people's mandate through which the National Democratic Alliance has been in power.

Dakshina Kannada MP Captain Brijesh Chowta, MLA Gurme Suresh Shetty, MLC Kishor Kumar Puttur, BJP Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district presidents Satish Kumpala and Kuthyar Naveen Shetty and others were present.