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HomePolitics‘How to steal an election’: Congress demands Bommai’s arrest over 'voter awareness'...

‘How to steal an election’: Congress demands Bommai’s arrest over ‘voter awareness’ scandal

Congress, citing a news report, alleged BBMP under direct supervision of CM Bommai issued government order allowing NGO to collect personal data in the guise of 'voter awareness'.

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Bengaluru: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Thursday demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, followed by his arrest and a probe into allegations that “people close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top leadership stole (data), and defrauded and cheated” the state’s voters under the aegis of the government.

This was prompted by a report by The News Minute and Kannada news portal Pratidhvani alleging that a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, allegedly impersonated authorities and went door to door in Bengaluru, collecting personal data from households — including dates of birth, Aadhaar numbers and caste details — in the guise of “voter awareness”. The data was then allegedly uploaded to a “voter survey app”.

The Congress, claiming that the NGO’s promoters have ties to senior BJP leaders and ministers, is demanding Bommai’s resignation because the Bengaluru portfolio rests with the chief minister. Former CM Siddaramaiah, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, along with state Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar and other senior leaders, filed a police complaint in this regard Thursday.

Addressing what he termed an “emergency” press conference Thursday, Randeep Singh Surjewala, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Karnataka, initiated the interaction by saying, “All of us are here today to highlight a simple thing: How to steal an election.”

“If you want to learn, then the 40 per cent commission sarkar (government), which has stolen the money of the people of Karnataka, is now attempting to perfect — under Mr Basavaraj Bommai — the art of stealing the right of the electorate to vote,” he added.

These allegations come at a time when the Bommai-led BJP government is already facing allegations of corruption as well as failure to tackle rising communal tensions and crumbling infrastructure in the state, which is set to go to the polls early next year. 

Asked about Surjewala’s press conference, Bommai said Thursday that the Congress was making “laughable” allegations and is “bankrupt of ideas”. Such matters are between the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) — Bengaluru’s civic body — and the NGO that was entrusted with the said duties, he added.

“The NGO which was to do this (voter awareness drive) missed the provisions, is what has come out (in the media). So, I will look at the entire episode — right from approvals from the EC, which were then given to them (NGO) by the BBMP… (the data’s) further misuse or any links… I will order a probe into this,” he told reporters in Bengaluru. 

ThePrint reached both Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute and BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath via telephone, but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated when a response is received.


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Door-to-door surveys, BLO ID cards

According to The News Minute, the Bengaluru-based NGO Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute was registered in 2013 by five individuals, including one Krishnappa Ravikumar. In 2018, Ravikumar and two others also registered a company called Chilume Enterprises Pvt Ltd.

Congress leaders said Thursday that the NGO was permitted to conduct “voter awareness” via a government order dated 20 August 2022. The government order, issued by the BBMP, was cancelled Wednesday.

The NGO, Surjewala said, offered its services to the government free of cost, but paid each of its executives Rs 15,000 to conduct door-to-door drives, first in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, and then across Bengaluru. During these drives, they reportedly collected sensitive information. The Congress has claimed that these field agents were “BJP workers”.  

The field agents were allegedly issued ID cards as part of this “voter awareness” exercise, identifying them as Booth Level Officers (BLO). A person can be appointed BLO — essentially a representative of the Election Commission of India (ECI) — only if the person is a “local government/semi-government official” familiar with electors and a registered voter in the same polling area. 

Once collected, the data was allegedly uploaded onto a ‘voter survey app’, Digital Sameeksha, reportedly linked to Chilume Enterprises Pvt Ltd, which claims to specialise in election management.

The data in question was collected in Bengaluru city, which has not had an elected council since September 2020 owing to recurring delays in holding the civic body polls. The delay has prompted allegations that ruling party is trying to hold off the municipal polls, fearing that adverse results may have a bearing on the assembly election next year.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


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