Vijayapura, 9 October

BJP State President BY Vijayendra on Friday said that his party was not defending the Election Commission during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Instead, the BJP was supporting the exercise to cleanse the voter lists.

"The BJP is not trying to defend the Election Commission of India. Our position is that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a process intended to cleanse electoral rolls and remove irregularities," Vijayendra told a press conference.

He questioned why his party should answer allegations against the SIR exercise when the EC was responsible for conducting it, and accused the Congress government in the state of pressuring the police to register FIRs against BJP workers over Form-7 applications seeking deletion of names from electoral rolls.

Vijayendra said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) involved in the revision process worked under the State government and that Form 7 applications submitted by any political party would be accepted if valid and rejected if incorrect.

"If a Form 7 application is submitted by the BJP or by any other political party, the Returning Officer will accept it if it is valid and reject if it is incorrect," he said.

He accused Chief Minister D K Shivakumar of using the issue to target BJP workers and alleged that the Congress was trying to portray the applications as an attempt to delete AHINDA votes.

Vijayendra denied that the BJP had targeted any particular community, saying the party had flagged deceased voters and duplicate entries.

He also alleged that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were being included in electoral rolls in Bengaluru and other Assembly constituencies in Karnataka.

The Shikaripura MLA referred to interim relief reportedly granted by the Karnataka High Court's Dharwad Bench in a case related to the issue and accused the Congress government of attempting to intimidate BJP workers through police cases.