Karnataka minister Satish Jarkiholi has sparked a controversy of massive proportions again by contradicting the official Congress stand on the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists, saying it was conducted properly in Karnataka.
The party, he said, is only opposed to the way SIR was conducted in Bengal, Bihar and other states. With Karnataka being the first state for which senior party leader Rahul Gandhi had flagged “vote theft”, his comments have delighted the BJP.
Contending that Congress leaders are “increasingly contradicting Rahul Gandhi’s anti-SIR stand”, the BJP, in a post on social media platform X, said, “Even Congress leaders recognise the need for a clean voter roll, exposing Rahul Gandhi’s anti-democratic politics”.
His comments also contradict the state Congress stand on the matter. “What is the basis, the foundation of democracy? Because of the way party trained its cadres, in an interview, Jarkiholi said that the SIR exercise in Karnataka was handled properly. Because the BJP does not have a base here, the voter list is itself is a foundation of democracy, and they have deleted almost 1 crore votes in Karnataka, the largest (number of) voters,.
The 4.5-hour programme will be aired from social media accounts of the parties that are part of the bloc.
Asked about the one lakh deleted voters, he said the poll commission has correctly identified and removed duplicate, dead, or shifted voters. Earlier, state Congress chief BK Hariprasad said the SIR exercise was meant “entirely to uproot the democratic process”. It will be preceded by another programme – “People’s Impeachment” of Gyanesh Kumar, that will be held at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s Delhi home.
