K’taka: Voters’ list released for 3 constituencies

The Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the period of special summary revision of electoral rolls in these three constituencies by 15 days after an alleged theft of voters’ data came to light, and instructed them to conduct 100% house-to-house visits to verify modifications to the electoral rolls.

The Karnataka election commission, on Sunday, released the final list of voters for the three assembly constituencies, which fall under city civic body limits in Bengaluru - Shivajinagar, Mahadevapura and Chickpet.

The Karnataka election commission, on Sunday, released the final list of voters for the three assembly constituencies in Bengaluru. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the period of special summary revision of electoral rolls in these three constituencies by 15 days after an alleged theft of voters’ data came to light, and instructed them to conduct 100% house-to-house visits to verify modifications to the electoral rolls.

According to the list, there are 980,542 voters, of which 515,983 are male, 464,415 are female and 144 other (third gender) voters.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP) chief commissioner Tushar Girinath and district electoral officers released the list on Sunday.

According to the BBMP, There are 194,937 voters in the Shivajinagar constituency, 213,066 in Chickpet, and 572,539 in the Mahadevapura.

Earlier, the BBMP chief commissioner released the final list of voters of 25 out of the 28 assembly constituencies, excluding Mahadevapura, Shivajinagar and Chickpet Assembly constituencies, on January 5.

The list showed 8.2 million registered voters in the 25 assembly constituencies. Of them, 4,265,140 are male, 3,962,712 female, and 1,523 other voters, Girinath had said.

The BBMP found that the names of approximately 80,386 voters were added to the electoral rolls a month after the alleged voter data theft came to light.

NGO Chilume was accused of collecting personal information about voters, with its members posing as government officials in some cases.

The BBMP had entrusted Chilume with the task of conducting house-to-house surveys to create awareness of the revision of electoral rolls. The firm, however, allegedly went door-to-door to collect personal details, including caste, education, mother tongue, Aadhaar and other details.

Last month, the BBMP blacklisted Chilume amid allegations of voter data theft. Girinath, also the election officer for the city, passed an order blacklisting the entity and prohibiting it from participating in any awareness programmes organised by the civic body and the service and procurement tenders floated by the BBMP.

On November 18, the head of the NGO, Krishnappa Ravikumar, was arrested along with other employees, including director Renuka Prasad, human relations executive Dharmesh and project executive Prajwal.

On November 27, four BBMP officials were arrested on charges of providing fake ID cards to representatives of Chilume. The Halasuru Gate police arrested revenue officers Chandrashekar K (Mahadevapura), Suhail Ahmed (Shivajinagar) and Bheemashankar (Chickpet) and assistant revenue officer Mahesh (RR Nagar).

Girinath said that the electoral population ratio is low, and efforts are on to include everyone on the voter list.

On Sunday, Girinath said there would be a continuous revision of the electoral roll, addition, amendment, transfer and removal from the electoral roll. He added that those who want to enrol on the voters’ list could visit www.ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in and BBMP website www.bbmp.gov.in. “Voters are provided with an opportunity to verify and ensure their details are in place,” he said.