Congress workers protest BJP and CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged SIR irregularities in Bengaluru on Monday
Bengaluru: Governing Congress and opposition BJP continued to spar over FIRs being filed against those accused of submitting false Form 7 applications during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with home minister Priyank Kharge Monday defending police action and senior BJP functionaries accusing the govt of targeting their workers. Priyank said submitting false information through Form 7 was a criminal offence punishable with one year’s imprisonment and a fine.
He alleged BJP workers were behind several such applications and described the alleged exercise as a “centralised conspiracy against certain sections of society”. “Let them (BJP and JD(S) members) clarify to chief electoral officer (CEO) why BJP workers are accepting wrongdoing and giving written submissions to EROs and tahsildars in Ballari, Bableshwar, Bhalki and Chikkamagaluru that they are withdrawing thousands of Form 7s they submitted,” Priyank said. He said the opposition is free to file a complaint with CEO against Congress, and it could be properly investigated. “But several BJP workers have admitted that the Form 7s and documents submitted by them were false and that they made a mistake; let this also be discussed with CEO,” he said. On FIRs, Priyank said police were acting on individual complaints. “If someone wrongly files a Form 7 stating that I’m dead, should we not book him/her for a false claim?”NDA functionaries, meanwhile, will meet Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot Tuesday over the issue. LoP R Ashoka said, “BJP and JD(S) party workers are being arrested and made to sit in police stations for hours.
He also asked NDA functionaries to explain why party workers had submitted thousands of forms and how they obtained pre-printed forms. “There are similar patterns even in Hyderabad, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. It is a centralised criminal conspiracy against certain sections of society. Is this a special intensive revision or Sangh intensive revision? Is RSS or BJP printing forms? Police stations across Karnataka have turned into Congress offices. We will urge Governor to dismiss this govt. Union minister HD Kumaraswamy and all our party functionaries will be present.”