Madikeri: Hundreds of villagers, mainly from tribal and backward communities, gathered at Palemadu in Murnad on Tuesday to raise concerns over potentially losing voting rights during the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voters’ list. In this fight, actor and activist Prakash Raj assured them his support.Volunteers who surveyed more than seven villages identified over 600 voters flagged in the absent, shifted, duplicate, dead or others (ASDDO) list. Reported discrepancies included voters marked as permanently shifted, spelling errors, invalid age differences between parents and children or siblings, and lack of documents among people without permanent homes.Hussain, a Palemadu voter, said his twin sons had received notices because the age difference between them was less than nine months. He questioned, “Should twins have an age difference of over nine months?”Several villagers said they lived in estate line houses and frequently moved between estates. They said the absence of land or permanent shelter made it difficult to furnish the required documents.Adivasi residents said certificates issued by govt established their identity, while daily-wage workers said repeated visits to panchayat offices to rectify SIR discrepancies cost them wages.After hearing their grievances, Prakash Raj said SIR was an unconstitutional process. He alleged that residents working in other states during the revision had been marked as permanently shifted, while others had been incorrectly recorded as dead.He demanded the complete withdrawal of SIR, alleging that BJP was deleting Muslim, Christian and Adivasi voters.He said he had toured several parts of the state over the past 10 days to collect data, which would be submitted to the state govt. He added that the issue would be discussed in Vidhana Soudha and the data presented at a conference in New Delhi on Oct 1, attended by representatives from all states.Prakash demanded the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and a ban on SIR. He also assured the villagers that they would not lose their voting rights.
