The Missing Minorities In Bengaluru바카라�s Voter Lists

What is usually filled with notices for jobs was, on that day, replaced by a list of names of over 9,000 people who were identified by the Election Commission (EC) as either shifted out or dead in the constituency, following a complaint by BJP activists in October last year, alleging that they were inconsistencies in the electoral rolls of the Shivajinagar assembly constituency.  Javeed바카라�s name was highlighted in bright fluorescent yellow, along with the names of his family members.

In a house that has been lived in for 150 years, Javeed and his family were being served a notice by election officials for apparently shifting out of the constituency. 바카라�I am right here. I have been here for the last 44 years. My whole family is here,바카라� he says, pointing to his niece who was heating up the chulha (wood fire) for making lunch.

바카라�See, she is right here so is my uncle,바카라� says Javeed, pointing to him as he enters their dimly-lit house, and then to his name in the list. He keeps pointing to the members of his family, as if he will not be believed that this has been their home.

Javeed is one among hundreds of voters from minority communities in the constituency whose names were on the list of voters who had apparently shifted out of the constituency or were dead. He had voted in 2018 as well. 바카라�Why do they want to remove our names?바카라� the oldest woman in the house asks Javeed. 바카라�Ye sab government ka kaam hai (this is all the work of the government)바카라� he responds. This is mainly happening to the Muslim community, adds Javeed while he walks through the narrow lanes of Makaan Compound. 바카라�Everyone knows I live and work here. Why snatch our right to vote just because we are from one community?바카라�

A Fractured Timeline

The issue came to the fore in October 2022 after a complaint was filed with the EC by BJP activists alleging that they had identified, through their own survey, a total of 26,000 voters who were either dead or had shifted from the constituency.

Last November, The News Minute (TNM) investigated allegations raised by residents of Makaan Compound, of unknown people claiming to be booth-level officers (BLO) having turned up at their homes and collecting sensitive information on the pretext of updating the electoral rolls. This development came at a time when TNM was already investigating a case of a private NGO, by the name of 바카라�Chilume Trust바카라� that was authorised by the BBMP to 바카라�create awareness바카라� about voter rights and revise electoral rolls.

TNM reported that, in an act of illegality,  Chilume had sub-contracted the exercise and employed hundreds of field agents who were issued fake ID cards as BLOs, allegedly at the behest of high-ranking BBMP officials. These field agents then made residents across Bengaluru share their Aadhaar number, voter ID number, phone number, address, caste and religion, and were also made to 바카라�answer subjective questions about the performance of their elected representatives.바카라� The data was then uploaded to a privately-run app called 바카라�Digital Sameeksha바카라� instead of onto the government-run Garuda app or the Voter Helpline. While the direct involvement of Chilume remains unclear in the particular case of Shivajinagar, what must be noted are the complaints of its residents who were told by the BLOs that their names will be deleted from the rolls even though they were alive or living in their homes.

The final electoral rolls were published in January 2023. But the BJP demanded, once again, that the 26,000 names named in their initial complaint be removed. The party then filed a writ petition in the High Court (HC) on 1 February. Soon, Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka Manoj Kumar Meena reportedly told TNM that election officials had cross-checked all 26,000  names and found 9,159 of them to have either shifted to other addresses or had passed away. Thus began the issuing of notices to voters asking them to appear before the election authorities by a given date and time, or else, their names could be erased from the electoral list. But 50-year-old Kauser, whose name was also highlighted in bright fluorescent yellow and has been living in the area since she was born, was not given a notice. She, too, like Javeed, had voted in the state elections in 2018.

바카라�She has trapped me also into her decades-old house now by marrying me,바카라� her husband interrupts her, mid-conversation. Both of them laugh. 바카라�But they have also removed me from the list,바카라� he says, his expression changing.

The extended family of 42 members did not imagine that they might not be able to vote. 바카라�We didn바카라�t even know. Our neighbour came and told us after they saw the list,바카라� she says, referring to Javeed. Those who are listed as dead are Muslims and those who are alive but still termed dead are also Muslims. 바카라�It바카라�s like they want to kill living Muslims on their papers,바카라� she says, chuckling.

Despite the final electoral roll for the constituency being published on 15 January, an exercise to determine whether or not the over 9,000 people from the Shivajinagar area will be allowed to vote was underway until March. Officials from the state election commission confirmed to Outlook that the process of issuing notices was completed in March.

Questions of Legality

The issuing of notices to the 9,159 voters has been seen as a violation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) laid down by the Election Commission of India on September 13 2021, according to which suo motu deletions cannot be made in the six months prior to the term of an Assembly ending. In the case of Shivajinagar, however, the ECI has justified its actions by citing the 바카라�special circumstances바카라� clause. M.G. Devasahayam, retired IAS officer and a co-petitioner in the Supreme Court said, in a PIL challenging the rule that allowed the deletion of voters without prior intimation, that the rules mandate that anyone/party wanting to file an objection with names in the existing electoral roll must submit a Form 7. However, this wasn바카라�t done in the case of the complaint filed by the BJP, he said.

Shivajinagar has been the Congress party바카라�s stronghold since 2008. In light of this issue, MLA Rizwan Arshad had moved the Karnataka High Court claiming that names of voters cannot be deleted suo motu six months before an election. 바카라�But the process was initiated under BJP바카라�s pressure,바카라� he claimed. 바카라�Authorities have said 22 names won바카라�t be deleted. What about the remaining 9,000? Should all of them go to court?바카라� he had asked at a news conference in February.

However, on April 6, the HC rejected Arshad바카라�s petition against the action of the ECI in taking up further revision of the voters바카라� list even after the publication of the 바카라�final바카라� list. 바카라�Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 itself permits any correction in the entry till the last date of filing the nomination. If the section provides so, the procedure stipulated for implementation under the Rules cannot mean that the electoral roll cannot be tinkered with after it is finally published,바카라� the court said. So far, around thousand voters have responded to the notices, making visits to the election commission office and getting their documents verified. 바카라�The rest are underprivileged and come from poor backgrounds. They are still listed for deletion,바카라� the MLA claimed.

Voter Deletions 바카라� Not a First

This is not the first time this has happened. A study conducted by Abusaleh Shariff, an economist and a demographer in 2018 showed that nearly one quarter of Muslim adults in Karnataka were out of the electoral rolls that year. 바카라�Surely, over 1.2 million Muslim adults in Karnataka would not have been able to vote during the assembly elections which recently concluded in May 2018. About 12% of all other adults in Karnataka would not have been able to vote as well,바카라� the study concluded.

바카라�While preparing the list, election officials would write 바카라�D바카라� for citizens who they were doubtful about. They would write on the side that they were not Indian citizens. It was worse than it is now,바카라� Shariff said.

During the BBMP elections of 2010 and 2015 and the general elections of 2014 too, many complaints were registered about missing names, according to reports.

A Muslim woman who used to work at the Indira Canteen in Shivajinagar says that she was denied rations despite having a voter ID. 바카라�My husband passed away recently so we only have one voter ID in our house which is mine. I was denied ration because my name was also on that list,바카라� she recalls, on the condition of anonymity.

Activists say that the anti-Muslim sentiment continues to echo with the state government scrapping 4 per cent reservation for Muslims and splitting it between the Vokkaligas and Lingayats. 바카라�The government is only behind our cards. We have all the proof and we are hopeful that we will get our right to vote back,바카라� the residents say.

(This appeared in the print as "Vanishing Voters")