Actor-filmmaker Prakash Raj on Tuesday announced a protest march in Karnataka over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
“For how many years will a voter of this country, a citizen, have to run after the courts? “With two members from the ruling party and only one from the opposition, where is the democracy in that? The Karnataka CM urged increasing the number of EROs and DEOs to handle the claims, objections and applications and “prevent errors and unfair exclusions.
This cane after the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Monday published the Draft Electoral Roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-2026 exercise. CM Shivakumar, earlier on Tuesday, said 43 lakh people were set to receive notices over logical discrepancies, and sought an extension of timeline for the exercise. He further asked for an extension for voters facing notices for logical discrepancies and absence of a link to the 2002 roll.
Announcing the “Election Commission Chalo” campaign in Bengaluru on September 1, Raj said civil society organisations would march against the SIR of electoral rolls and raised concerns over its alleged flaws, ANI news agency reported. Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar too said the exercise had “thrown up alarming numbers”, with over 1.08 crore voters marked as ASDDO (Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, and Others). CEC Kumar lauded the cooperation of voters in the exercise, which he said had earned SIR earn recognition from other countries as well. Prakash Raj, while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, said that civil society groups also planned to move the courts to seek a stay on the SIR exercise in Karnataka. Why are you putting every voter in this country through so much trouble?” he said. Raj said that Karnataka had another two years left for polls, adding the exercise was “not urgent. Furthermore, the government decided in Parliament to grant judicial immunity to the Election Commission, ensuring that no case can be filed against any officer for the rest of their lives,” he said, according to ANI. “Extend the period for claims and objections, so genuine voters excluded from the draft roll have adequate time to file claims,” Shivakumar said in a post on X. “Mobility, poverty, lack of documentation or lack of information must not become reasons for disenfranchisement,” he said.
