Patil Hits Back At Hariprasad Over Voter Deletion Allegation

Belagavi: Belagavi South MLA Abhay Patil on Friday denied KPCC president BK Hariprasad’s allegation that he had written to the election officer seeking deletion of the names of more than 2,500 voters belonging to the minority community from the electoral rolls.

Patil said he had only sought verification of objections raised by Booth Level Assistants (BLA)-2 during scrutiny of the draft electoral rolls published after the SIR, and had not sought deletion of names belonging to any particular community.

Patil said suspicious voters had been found in polling booths in the constituency and that the draft rolls also contained names of deceased persons. He said the presence of 50 voters listed at a single house during the verification of the draft rolls also needed to be examined.

He said he had submitted a consolidated report of objections raised by BLA-2s and had asked the election officer to verify the names.

“As a Booth Level Assistant-1, I wrote to the election officer seeking verification of all voters. But without properly going through my letter, the election officer replied that mass objections could not be submitted. I had only submitted the consolidated report of objections raised by Booth Level Assistants-2,” he said.

He said Hariprasad had “interpreted” his letter in his own way. “Hariprasad has given his own interpretation to the letter I wrote,” he said.

Patil alleged that Hariprasad wanted to become a minister but was instead made KPCC president. “He wants to be in the news. Since yesterday, after he made these allegations, his name has been everywhere. That is why he is making allegations against me. Hariprasad should read the letter properly before making allegations,” he added.

“Would a four-time MLA like me be foolish enough to say that the names of members of a particular community should be deleted?” he questioned.