Bengaluru, Oct 12 — BJP State Vice-President Anil Benake has alleged that more than 10,000 bogus voters are registered in the Belagavi North Assembly constituency and accused the state government of using the police to intimidate those seeking the deletion of ineligible names from the electoral rolls.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP state headquarters, Jagannath Bhavan, in Bengaluru on Monday, Benake alleged that party workers were being threatened when they attempted to submit Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of names from the voter list.
“We will not be intimidated. The government is using the police to file cases against three of our members and 20 others. Our applications were snatched away, and we were not allowed to fill out Form 7. An FIR was registered against us, following which we decided to seek anticipatory bail,” he said.
Benake said the BJP's Booth Level Agents (BLAs) would not be deterred by such action. He claimed that party workers had submitted around 10 applications each in several polling booths across different constituencies.
However, he alleged that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were now reluctant to accept applications from BJP workers for fear of facing FIRs.
Referring to the Congress government's protests in Delhi, Benake said the Chief Minister and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president were staging protests even as BJP workers were allegedly being denied the opportunity to flag bogus voters in the state.
He cited polling booth numbers 196 and 197, where the BJP had raised objections over alleged bogus voters, claiming that the applications were not being accepted. In some cases, even after applications were submitted and the required fees paid, the party was not receiving the relevant information, he alleged.
Benake claimed that one house in the constituency had 389 voters registered at the same address, while another had 20 names and a third had 15 names allegedly belonging to bogus voters. He said he had brought the matter to the authorities' attention by providing details of the wards and polling booth numbers concerned.
He further alleged that Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) were threatening to suspend BLOs who accepted Form 7 applications.
Benake said the BJP had sought an inquiry into the names of deceased voters, people who no longer resided at the registered addresses and those whose names appeared in more than one place, with a request to delete ineligible entries from the electoral rolls.
“After the Chief Minister instructed the police to register an FIR, the police began targeting us,” he alleged, adding that the authorities were now refusing to accept objection applications.
Benake said a BJP delegation would meet the Deputy Commissioner on Tuesday to bring the issue to the district administration's attention.
BJP state general secretary P. Rajeev, state spokesperson Surabhi and party leaders Kanti Shetty and Raghavendra were present at the press conference.