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Prakash Raj announces Sept 1 march over deletions in Karnataka SIR, slams EC: ‘Why put voters in so much trouble?’
Announcing the “Election Commission Chalo” campaign in Bengaluru on September 1, Raj said civil society groups would march against SIR of electoral rolls.
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Actor-filmmaker Prakash Raj on Tuesday announced a protest march in Karnataka over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.
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).
This cane after the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Monday published the Draft Electoral Roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-2026 exercise. CEC Kumar lauded the cooperation of voters in the exercise, which he said had earned SIR earn recognition from other countries as well.
Also Read | Karnataka's draft SIR rolls released, over 27% voters face cut
Raj says groups plan to move courts, Shivakumar seeks extension of timeline
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. “For how many years will a voter of this country, a citizen, have to run after the courts? 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.”
The actor further questioned the process of selection of members of the Election Commission, calling it “undemocratic.”
“With two members from the ruling party and only one from the opposition, where is the democracy in that? 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.
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. “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. He further asked for an extension for voters facing notices for logical discrepancies and absence of a link to the 2002 roll.
The Karnataka CM urged increasing the number of EROs and DEOs to handle the claims, objections and applications and “prevent errors and unfair exclusions.” “Mobility, poverty, lack of documentation or lack of information must not become reasons for disenfranchisement,” he said.
What did CEC Gyanesh Kumar say?
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said the SIR exercise needs “guts.” Speaking about the exercise at the second regional conference on “Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELC 2.0) and ECINET”, organised by the ECI in Lucknow, CEC Kumar said conducting SIR “requires not only guts on the part of the Election Commission but also the cooperation of the voters.”
“That is precisely why, today, others look to the Election Commission of India, learning from it and praising it, wishing they could or resolving that they will do the same in their own countries,” ANI cited him as saying. The CEC said elections in India are held strictly as per the Constitution of India, law and instructions issued by ECI and “conducted transparently under the concurrent audit of political parties, candidates or their representatives at all stages.”
