Congress not politicising voter list revision, says CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday asserted that the Congress party is not politicizing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out by the Indian Election Commission (IEC), and said the government’s primary concern is to protect the rights of genuine voters.

Speaking to reporters at Nandagad village in Khanapur taluk, the Chief Minister said the objective of the SIR exercise should be to ensure that no eligible voter is excluded from the electoral rolls. “We are concerned about genuine voters. They should not be removed from the voters’ list under any circumstances,” Siddaramaiah said.

He stressed that the SIR process must be conducted with utmost caution and fairness. Instructions have been issued to Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to carry out the revision carefully and ensure that no injustice is caused to voters during the process, he added.

The Chief Minister maintained that electoral integrity can be protected only if transparency and accountability are ensured at every stage of voter list revision. Reiterating the Congress party’s long-standing demand, Siddaramaiah said elections to urban local bodies, including municipal corporations, should be conducted using ballot papers instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

“This has been our demand, and people are also insisting that elections should be held through ballot papers,” he said, indicating growing public sentiment on the issue. Responding to allegations made by MLA G. Janardhan Reddy that the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues were “looting the state,” Siddaramaiah launched a sharp counterattack.

He said Reddy himself had gone to jail after being accused of looting the state’s resources. “A case is still pending against him in the Supreme Court. He has no moral right to make allegations against us,” the Chief Minister said.

On the Karnataka–Maharashtra border dispute, Siddaramaiah said the petition filed by Maharashtra is scheduled to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on January 21. He added that the state’s legal team is fully prepared to present Karnataka’s stand before the apex court. “We will question whether the issue of deciding state boundaries falls within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court,” he said.

The Chief Minister’s remarks come amid heightened political debate over electoral reforms, governance issues, and inter-state disputes, with the Congress government seeking to project its stance as one rooted in constitutional propriety and public interest.

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