A Karnataka voter roll controversy has intensified after BJP workers in parts of the state told Prajavani that the party supplied pre-printed Form 7 applications to seek the removal of voters from draft electoral rolls, including applications filed against Muslim voters.
The applications were submitted during the Special Intensive Revision process in assembly constituencies represented by Karnataka ministers Eshwar B. Khandre in Bhalki and M.B. Patil in Babaleshwar, and Congress MLAs Asif Sait in Belagavi North and Mantar Gowda in Madikeri. The workers acknowledged their association with the BJP when questioned by the newspaper.
At the Byadagotta polling station in Madikeri constituency, 63 applications were filed on September 22 and 23 against Muslim voters. One applicant, identified as Lokesh, told Prajavani that polling-station president Nagesh had called a meeting at the party office, distributed applications to several people and asked them to sign and submit them to the booth-level officer. Lokesh said he was also instructed to obtain signatures from others, including his wife and an elderly neighbour.
The booth-level officer at Byadagotta said all 63 voters were eligible and that senior officials had been informed. The officer said instructions were issued to hold the applications. A local applicant identified as Rajani reportedly wrote that the voters could not be found or had permanently shifted, but later acknowledged that the voters had been living in the area for years. The applicant told the newspaper that the applications were filed because the party had instructed them to do so.
In Belagavi North, more than 600 such applications were reportedly filed. Shivam Hulji, who identified himself as a BJP booth-level agent-2, told Prajavani that the party had supplied the applications and that he had signed them and obtained signatures from other workers. Booth-level officers and supervisors for polling stations 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126 and 127 confirmed his status as a BJP booth-level agent. Supervisors for polling stations 120 to 128 said 380 applications had been filed against Muslim voters in their area and that all the voters were found to be eligible. The applications were consequently held back.
In Bhalki, a person identified as Vishnuvardhan Kote submitted more than 30 applications at polling stations 128 and 129. He told the newspaper that he had applied only to remove his father’s name. Officials at both polling stations, however, said he had submitted the applications himself and identified himself as a BJP worker.
The largest number cited in the report came from Babaleshwar, where seven BJP workers submitted more than 1,600 applications. A note issued by the electoral registration officer and accessed by Prajavani said the workers had acknowledged that they filed the applications on the party’s instructions and had written to the district election officer seeking to withdraw them.
The accounts place the role of booth-level officers at the centre of the dispute. These officials are responsible for field-level verification of electoral-roll entries, while electoral registration officers decide how applications are processed. In the cases described by Prajavani, officials said the applications were stopped after verification found that the targeted voters were eligible. The report does not state whether further disciplinary or legal action has been announced by election authorities.
