Congress leader and minister Satish Jarkiholi on Thursday defended the deletion of 9.93 million names from the electoral roll in Karnataka after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
He said the exercise was conducted correctly and should have been the same in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar, where the Congress has been critical of the process.
The remarks came even as Karnataka Congress chief B K Hariprasad questioned the exclusion of voters classified as absent. Jarkiholi maintained their grievance is against the SIR in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar. Jarkiholi’s remarks came amid protests demanding chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over the alleged SIR irregularities. “Our party has been saying this is a legal and transparent process. The Congress was trying to manufacture a controversy, which is incorrect. Jarkiholi has realised there is no conspiracy in the SIR exercise and some deletions will occur. “Our question is about voters marked as absent. Where did these voters go? This question remains unanswered. The SIR in West Bengal was one of the most contentious in recent years, with the deletion of nearly nine million from the electoral roll. The difference in absolute votes between the BJP, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time, and the Trinamool Congress was similar to the total SIR deletions.
Because they included voters who had died, shifted, or appeared more than once, he said the deletions were justified. The Congress-led Opposition bloc is organising a rally in Delhi on November 1 as part of the protests. Hariprasad said the Congress has no objection to removing the names of deceased voters and duplicate entries, but around 10 million voters have been left out.
“The SIR in Karnataka was done right because of our protests and training. …SIR should have happened in the same manner in other states,” he said. “Yes, these are voters who shifted, died or were duplicates,” he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Jarkiholi’s remarks reinforced its position that the revision was legitimate. This is his message to his own party,” said BJP spokesperson GS Prashant. “Our agitation is against this,” Hariprasad said.
