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Karnataka Chief Minister (CM) DK Shivakumar on Thursday alleged that a major conspiracy is going on to fraudulently delete legitimate voters, especially targeting minority, Dalit, and Backwards Class communities from the electoral rolls.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Shivakumar praised the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, saying that he is doing a great job, with no personal or shared benefit. It is the responsibility of every opposition leader to protect the voters, he added. "Rahul Gandhi is doing a great job, not for himself. It's not for the Congress party. The right to vote is the right to live. What has happened across the entire country has already been exposed by the members of the Election Commission. It's the country's biggest conspiracy," he said. He claimed that tens of thousands of computerised Form 7 applications were systematically pre-printed at BJP headquarters, populated with precise voter information, and distributed to local cadres. "In my state, they tried to delete more than a lakh voters. Their application form seven was printed somewhere in the BJP headquarters. All computerised. The BJP local leader doesn't know. Only minority Dalit backward class voters have been named," he said. Further, he claimed, "Now after we filed a complaint, they immediately approached many of the BLOs and took back the forms. They have taken back the forms. I am having a load of one bag full of this. Lakhs of such type of forms they have submitted. Is this not a crime?" Earlier on Tuesday, Bengaluru Police registered an FIR against two BJP Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and others for allegedly submitting fraudulent Form-7 applications to delete 5,698 voters from the Jayanagar Assembly constituency. The case was filed on Monday night at Jayanagar police station on a complaint by Karnataka Mahila Congress President Sowmya Reddy. According to the FIR, the malpractice occurred between June 16 and October 5 during the summary revision of rolls. Reddy alleged BJP BLAs Ramakrishna and Yogesh, along with others, filed Form-7s falsely claiming voters had shifted, targeting minority communities and voters seen as unfavourable to the BJP. The complaint states the accused misused the identity details of residents Ramesh and his wife Roopa to file objections without consent, and submitted applications with forged signatures to BLO Lokesh at Jayanagar 4th Block. Police have booked them under Sections 61(2)(b), 217(b), 319(2), 336(2), 340(2) r/w 3(5) of BNS, 2023, and investigation is underway. (ANI)
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