BJP alleges mass deletion of voters' names from list, writes to EC

Bengaluru, Apr 19: BJP's Karnataka unit on Thursday wrote to the Election Commission (EC) over alleged "mass indiscriminate deletion of voters' names from the voters list" in the state.

The party alleged that some officials are working as agents of the ruling coalition government of JD(S) and Congress.

In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer, the BJP said, "The officials have purposefully and deliberately deleted names without any reason, just to render undue official favour to the ruling coalition party."

Claiming that names have been deleted despite people residing on the same address, the Bharatiya Janata Party in its letter demanded strict action against erring officials, "This is nothing but dereliction of duty by the concerned officials. If strict action is not taken against such biased officials, we can`t expect fair and free election from the Election Commission."

The letter further stated that such deletions were reported to the Election Commission during the Vidhan Sabha elections too but no action was taken.

"Even though during the last Vidhan Sabha election also such deletion has taken place and the same was reported to the Commission, the Election Commission has not taken any stringent action against such officials. This is the only reason which has boosted the concerned biased officials to further work as agents of ruling coalition party to further delete the names of voters," the letter read.

BJP stated that the party will go to court to redress the issue, "We are definitely going to the court to redress the illegality committed by the erring officials. In the places where mass deletion has taken place, repolling by giving an opportunity to the voters whose names have been illegally deleted is inevitable. Therefore, this Commission`s interference is warranted."