Karnataka oppn delegation meets CM Siddaramaiah, urges halt to ‘undemocratic’ voter revision process

A section of leaders opposed to SIR met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday and urged the government to take urgent steps to protect the voting rights of the state's electorate from the ongoing process. They termed the Special Intensive Revision an ''undemocratic and unscientific'' process that ''pushes out'' voters. Retired IAS officer S G Devasahayam, political analysts Parakala Prabhakar and Nikhil Dey, former minister B T Lalitha Naik, and Thomas Franco of the voting rights movement attended the discussion, among several others. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and Ministers Priyank Kharge and Santosh Lad, among others, were present at the meeting. ''The Election Commission of India has lost all credibility due to the manner in which it introduced the SIR in June 2025 and how it has been implemented. It has failed to perform its duties under Article 324 of the Constitution. It is being accused of political bias,'' according to a release by the alliance. ''Many people are also deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court. The activists said it has failed to protect the voting rights of citizens and their constitutional rights,'' it said. Stating that the SIR process cannot continue in its current form and must be stopped immediately, they said the process undertaken so far should be thoroughly reviewed. The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on the constitutional validity of the SIR should be completed first. Furthermore, they said, ''the government should demand that the rules be reformed and implemented in a way that guarantees every citizen's right to vote, makes voter enrolment easy, and ensures transparency at every stage.'' Noting that even if the SIR comes into force, the process period should be extended to six months instead of three months, the alliance leaders told the CM that there should be no hasty revision. ''Voter assistance centres should be set up in all gram panchayats and wards to help voters. The government should assist people in obtaining documents for those who do not have proper documentation,'' they said. The delegation demanded that after the draft voters' list is prepared, gram sabha and ward meetings should be held as per the Election Commission's manual. The draft list and subsequent amendments should be placed before the public and finalised only after open scrutiny. Deleted voters should be given a period of six months to file appeals. According to the release, the delegation urged Siddaramaiah that Karnataka should prepare a ''self-sufficient voters' list''. ''The government should take the issue of revising the voters' list seriously. This should be implemented efficiently. The state's voters' list should be revised using a social auditing system,'' they said. ''The state government should formulate a suitable action plan keeping these factors in mind. Karnataka should not only effectively register its resistance but also set a new model for the country,'' they added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)