Prakash Raj Announces Movement Against Election Commission Over SIR

Bengaluru: Actor Prakash Raj, representing civil society organisations in Karnataka on Tuesday announced an "Election Commission Chalo" campaign on September 1 in Bengaluru, protesting the SIR of electoral rolls and alleging that the exercise was "flawed" and "unscientific".

They claimed that lakhs of eligible voters had been excluded from the draft electoral rolls and demanded that the exercise be halted.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Prakash Raj, said the Karnataka civil society organisations had decided to launch the campaign against the Special Intensive Revision process, alleging discrepancies in the exercise. The organisations would approach the courts seeking a halt to the entire process.

"So this is a very big battle...," he said.

The organisations and civil society platforms include Eddelu Karnataka, Muslim Muthahade Mahaz, Namma Mata Namma Hakku Vedike, Active Bangalore and Nagarika Mata Kavalu Samithi.

"On the first of the month (September), we will start an Election Commission Chalo protest with the people of Karnataka who have been affected-the distressed voters-from tomorrow itself; there will be press conferences in every district," Raj said.

He said the civil society groups would engage with the Karnataka government and represent the concerns of affected voters before the Election Commission.

Raj alleged that the SIR process had been carried out without adequate preparation, trained election officials or proper communication with voters.

He questioned the deletion of voters categorised as absent or permanently shifted, saying such voters should be given an adequate opportunity to establish their continued eligibility instead of being required to re-enroll through Form 6.

The national award winning actor also criticised the scale and timeline of the exercise in Karnataka.

"We have two years before the next (Assembly) election. You cannot complete this exercise involving more than five crore voters in one month. You should have announced it six months in advance," he said.

The move comes a day after Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar said Karnataka had more than 4.46 crore electors in the draft electoral rolls published on Monday following the SIR process.

According to data shared by the CEO's office, a total of 1,07,96,339 electors, or 19.48 per cent, have been marked as ASDDO.

The ASDDO categories comprise Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others.

Bengaluru Urban district, including the BBMP limits, has 1,03,88,363 electors, of whom 46,82,703 are in the ASDDO list, according to the data.

In a statement shared with the media, the organisations clarified that their allegations were not directed against Anbukkumar, who was tasked with implementing the SIR process, or the Booth Level Officers who worked during the exercise.

"It is directed at the Election Commission of India, which designed this unscientific, unconstitutional and ill-intentioned process and imposed it on the people of the country," it said.

The organisations alleged that the entire process had been conducted in an "unscientific" and "undemocratic" manner.

They said that of the 5.54 crore electors on Karnataka's 2025 electoral roll, 1.08 crore electors had been placed in the ASDDO categories, while 43.8 lakh electors among those remaining on the draft roll had, according to the organisations, been treated as "suspicious voters" and would be issued notices seeking proof of citizenship.

The organisations said they had no fundamental objection to deletions under the 'dead' and 'duplicate' categories, though some errors existed there as well, but raised serious objections to deletions under the 'absent', 'shifted' and 'others' categories.

According to them, 'absent' refers to eligible voters who were away from home for work or other reasons and could not be met by BLOs. 'Others' includes people who received the enumeration form but did not submit it, with the organisations alleging that responsibility for such non-submission had been placed on the voters.

They alleged that under the 'shifted' category, voters who had merely changed rented accommodation or moved to another town had been deleted instead of being given an opportunity to transfer their votes to their new addresses.

"In some of these cases, the vote is still registered at the old address; the person has since moved and even obtained a new card at the new address. Many people now find themselves in a situation of belonging neither here nor there," the organisations said.

They said there was no breakdown showing how many voters had simply lost their voting rights and how many had moved elsewhere and obtained new voter cards.

The groups said they could not accept the process conducted by the ECI, the figures provided by it or the explanations offered for them, and termed the exercise a "flawed, uncivil process".

They demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom they accused of designing the "flawed and malicious process".

The organisations said they would appear before the Election Commission with "living witnesses" during the September 1 protest march to demonstrate how the SIR process had allegedly gone wrong.