Shivamogga: Launching a fierce attack on the BJP, Congress functionaries warned that those who exploited the name of Lord Ram for political gain are now attempting to manipulate voter lists through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. These allegations were made during a public awareness campaign organised by the Shivamogga District Congress Committee at Shivappa Nayaka Circle on Monday.Expressing serious concerns over the implementation of the SIR process, Congress senior functionary Kimmane Ratnakar said that mass deletions have already occurred across several states, highlighting that nearly 91 lakh people were left out of the voter lists in West Bengal alone.“Under the guise of identifying infiltrators, ordinary citizens are being systematically targeted,” Ratnakar said, adding a sharp rebuke: “The real infiltrators are within the BJP. The people of this country have already seen through their politics and sent them packing over the misuse of Sri Ram’s name.”He challenged BJP functionaries — who have held power since the 1992 Rath Yatra and frequently claim to be nationalists — to surrender their alleged corrupt assets to the nation.The Congress functionaries criticised the 30-day timeline mandated for submitting identification documents, calling it highly unrealistic for ordinary citizens. Ratnakar explained that even minor spelling discrepancies between a person’s Aadhaar card, PAN card and voter ID could lead to immediate rejection, requiring an entirely separate application process to fix.The brief window poses an immense challenge to daily wage labourers, Dalits, backward classes and minorities, who cannot afford to lose their daily wages to navigate govt offices. Even, specific groups like married women, migrant labourers, forest dwellers and orphans will find it practically impossible to gather the necessary paperwork in just one month. “When the govt machinery takes up to three months just to process an RTC (land record) modification, expecting poor citizens to sort out voter documents in 30 days is absurd,” they remarked.To counter this, the Congress party announced plans to hold awareness meetings at zilla panchayat down to the gram panchayat levels. Party workers have been instructed to visit door to door. Armed with voter lists, booth-level agents (BLAs) will receive specialised training to help citizens properly fill out and correct forms, preventing thousands from losing their fundamental right to vote due to clerical errors or a lack of literacy. The leaders warned that if left unchecked, the resulting voter deletions would heavily impact the upcoming gram panchayat, taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat and municipal elections.
