Prakash Raj to join September 1 civil campaign to flag flaws in SIR

Actress Prakash Raj announced on Tuesday that civil society organisations in Bengaluru will launch an "Election Commission Chalo" campaign on September 1 to highlight alleged issues with the SIR (Suspended Illiteracy Registration) process. The participating groups include Eddelu Karnataka, Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, Namma Mata Namma Vedike, and Active Bengaluru. They plan to approach courts to request a suspension of the SIR exercise.

Raj previously shared a video alleging that he had been marked under the ASDDO category. However, civic officials stated that Raj was actually listed as a voter in the Shanthinagar assembly constituency, where the electoral roll freeze took place on June 16.

Advocate and activist Vinay Sreenivasa pointed out that the large numbers under the Absent, Dead, Duplicate, Shifted, and Others (ADDSO) category suggest that the SIR process was not executed properly. He noted that while some cases in ADDSO may be legitimate, in many instances, genuine voters who had relocated were erroneously deleted and forced to fill out new voter forms instead of submitting Form 8 for residence shifts.

Jagruta Karnataka spokesperson Adam Khan had previously met the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer on Monday following the publication of the draft rolls. He urged the officer to provide a six-week window for filing claims and objections under the ADDSO category. BJP spokesperson S Prakash defended the removal of names, stating that it was due to the best efforts of booth level officers to distribute forms to all voters.

However, he questioned whether the Election Commission could be held accountable for the issues arising from the process.