Actor Prakash Raj led a protest march in Mangaluru on Saturday against the SIR and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He said, "Yes, this fight is for a change of the BJP regime." He claimed many voters got deleted from lists and urged citizens to vote out the government soon.
Reiterating that he was for a change of the BJP regime at the Centre, actor Prakash Raj said the change would come about not in the way it was brought about in Bangladesh and Nepal, but in a democratic way by defeating the BJP in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
He was speaking at the end of a protest march in Mangaluru on Saturday demanding the scrapping of the SIR and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
"Yes, this fight is for a change of the BJP regime, a regime that is influenced by the RSS. This is not in the way it was done in Bangladesh or Nepal, but by voting out the BJP government," he said, adding that in two years, voters would be more aware and would vote out the BJP at the Centre.
Accusing Mr. Kumar of helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in cutting down the number of voters through the SIR, Mr. Raj said nearly one crore voters had been deleted from the voter list in Karnataka. A large sum has been spent on this SIR in Karnataka. With an ulterior motive to help the deletion of voters through the SIR, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister recently granted immunity from prosecution to the Chief Election Commissioner, he alleged.
The actor said political parties were not interested in either the addition or deletion of voters to the electoral roll. This fight against the SIR will be won by citizens. In the coming days, a large people's movement will be carried out against the SIR in the coastal and other parts of Karnataka.
Mangaloreans were being fooled like monkeys by some parties by feeding them with communal hatred, he said. Not much was being done to provide the youth of the region with employment, and the region's economic potential was not being harnessed. "If people fail to realise this at the earliest, then you have to pay for it," he cautioned.
Dakshina Kannada CPI(M) District Secretary Muneer Katipalla said the fight would not be just against "vote theft". The fight will continue till a people's government is formed in the State. "We will fight against the RSS polluting the brains of the people of the region," he said.
The protest march started at around 10.30 a.m. from B.R. Ambedkar Circle and culminated at Clock Tower Circle at 11 a.m. Several Congress party members, the SDPI, the Dalita Sangharsha Samiti, and other social organisations and social activists participated in the march.