Bengaluru, Nov 22 (Bureau) The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Meena has rejected allegations of deletion of information related to either caste or religion of the voters from electoral roll. “Electoral rolls do not contain any information related to caste/religion of voters, hence the question of deletion of names based on caste/community from the electoral rolls does not arise,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. The Congress had alleged that the BJP government in collusion with Chilume Educational and Rural Development Institute, deleted the names of voters belonging to minorities and downtrodden communities, from the electoral roll. “In view of the reports, clarification is imperative,” Meena said.Names of those voters are deleted who are dead and who moved to other places following due process of law, he said.
And, duplicate entries are deciphered with the help of a software by checking similarities of demographic information and photographs, he added. Draft electoral rolls-2023 were published on November 9, and notice in Form-5 was issued by electoral roll registration officers calling for filing of claims and objections till December 8, he said. He also clarified that the central and state governments have no role in the preparation, maintenance of the electoral roll and conduct of elections. “In case of any allegation or irregularity in electoral matters, the Election Commission of India is the authority to probe it. No government can order any probe into such matters,” Meena said. The police have arrested Chilume Co-Founder and others in connection with the data theft case filed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.