The Congress party in Mysuru has cried foul over the reported refusal by officials to accept hard copies of applications for voter enrollment.
Addressing a press conference in Mysuru on Tuesday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson M. Lakshmana lamented that the officials were only accepting online applications for voter enrollment.
He claimed that the officials in the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) zonal or taluk offices in the district were not accepting hard copies of applications in the forms stipulated by the Election Commission of India for voter enrollment and instead asking applicants to complete the process online.
Though accepting applications for voter enrollment online was a good development, the authorities cannot discontinue the system of accepting hard copies of the application forms in their offices.
“What about people residing in villages, rural areas and slums in cities, who are daily wagers. They are not computer-literate. Can they apply online in English? Only educated people can apply online,” he said, while questioning if the authorities were enrolling only people with a “BJP-mindset”.
He sought to ask the Deputy Commissioners of Mysuru and Kodagu, who were also the district election officers, if there was a direction from either the Centre or the Election Commission to accept applications for voter enrollment only online.
He said it was the duty of the District Election Officer to ensure that all persons, who had completed 18 years on January this year, were enrolled in the voters’ list. Instead of asking the applicants to submit the applications online, he said the officials should go house-to-house to complete the enrollment as the officials will have data on the persons completing 18 years and becoming eligible for enrollment.
By refusing to accept hard copies of the applications, Mr. Lakshmana said the authorities were restricting the enrollment to only the “elite”. “What about the poor?”, he asked. The restrictions will limit the enrollment, which in turn will lead to poor voter turnout, he said.
Mysuru City Congress Committee president R. Murthy will shortly write a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar in this regard and hoped the Election Commission of India will take up the matter seriously.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lakshmana sought to know from the JD(S) leadership if it was eying Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency, which was represented by BJP MP Pratap Simmha.
After dismissing former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s allegation that Mr. Siddaramaiah was behind the arrest of Mr. Simmha’s brother Vikram Simha in a case of illegal felling of trees as “baseless”, Mr. Lakshmana referred to media reports in a section of the media and sought a clarification from the JD(S) and Mr. Simmha if the regional party was hoping to bag Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency, which is dominated by Vokkaligas, along with Hassan, Mandya and Tumakuru as part of the seat-sharing arrangement for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
