Congress delegation meets CEC, seeks action against 'voter fraud' in Karnataka
New Delhi, Nov 23: The Congress on Wednesday petitioned the Election Commission, demanding a detailed investigation into what it described as a "voter information theft fraud" in Karnataka under Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
The party alleged that 27 lakh names had been deleted and 11 lakh voters added in the voters list, especially in Bengaluru, with "political patronage".
A delegation led by AICC general secretary in-charge of the party's affairs in Karnataka Randeep Surjewala and KPCC chief D K Shivakumar met the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissoners and handed over a memorandum.
Surjewala later told reporters that the EC gave them a patient hearing for over an hour and assured of strict action against those behind the voter information theft.
"The EC has taken note of all complaints and assured us that it will carry out a detailed investigation...and anyone found guilty in the scam will be dealt with sternly...," he told reporters after the meeting.
Surjewala said a deputy election commissioner has already been sent to Karnataka to probe the issue and the EC has lodged an FIR.
The EC has told the Congress leaders that action against some officials has been taken and more action is being initiated, he claimed.
"We are confident that this conspiracy to steal voter data of Karnataka people would be investigated thoroughly by the EC and stern steps taken to book the guilty," he said.
Surjewala said the delegation brought to the notice of the CEC and other ECs that a private company had taken voter data by impersonating as government employees.
"Employees of a private company are posing as booth level officers of EC and this proves that a data theft has taken place. This amounts to criminal conspiracy. As many as 27 lakh voters have been deleted and 11 lakh voters added in the voters list. Constituencies have been targeted to add votes in order to affect the election outcomes.
"The EC has assured to clean the voter lists and will not allow any deletion or addition of voters and has already lodged an FIR," the Congress leader said.
Karnataka goes to polls later next year and the Congress is seeking to wrest power back from the BJP.
"Massive addition and deletion in voter list in Bengaluru and Karnataka indicate rigging and fraud. This smacks of an apparent and serious fraud being played out under political patronage," it alleged.
The Congress said the "abnormally high number of additions and deletions" reflects that almost all constituencies of Bengaluru and certain constituencies outside the state capital were targeted.
"It goes without saying that this can only be done by and at the behest of the ruling party, i.e. the BJP. This is a blatant electoral fraud on democracy itself," the party alleged.
It termed it to be a case of "identity theft, theft of private user data, dishonest misappropriation of property, concealment and misuse of stolen property, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy".
"This is also a brazen fraud on our democratic process as votes are being added and subtracted to achieve a political outcome in favour of the ruling party," it said.
"We request an urgent investigation to be initiated by this commission...The ECI must also initiate criminal law and ensure the registeration of an FIR against Shri Basavaraj Bommai, officials and employees of the BBMP and the state government involved in the scam and the officials of the private entities and NGOs who have committed the fraud under political patronage," the memorandum said.
#VoteGate ಹಗರಣ ಸಂಬಂಧ ಇಂದು AICC ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಕಾರ್ಯದರ್ಶಿ ಶ್ರೀ @RSSurjewala ಅವರೊಂದಿಗೆ ದಿಲ್ಲಿಯ EC ಕಚೇರಿಗೆ ದೂರು ನೀಡಲಾಯಿತು. ಮಾತು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ವಂಚಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ BJP ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಜನರ ಮತದಾನದ ಹಕ್ಕನ್ನು ಕಸಿಯುವ ಹೀನ ಕೃತ್ಯ ಎಸಗಿದೆ. ಹೋರಾಟವು ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಕಾರ್ಯಕರ್ತರ ರಕ್ತದಲ್ಲಿ ಹರಿಯುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಯಾವುದೇ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೂ "ತಗ್ಗೋದೇ ಇಲ್ಲ".
— DK Shivakumar (@DKShivakumar) November 23, 2022
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
