Actor and former Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha candidate Prakash on Tuesday claimed that his name had been removed from Karnataka’s electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
In a video shared on social media, Raj said he was among the voters whose names had allegedly been removed from the rolls in Bengaluru.
“I want to share a joke with you. I am one of the 65 lakh voters whose voter right has been deleted from Bangalore constituency after SIR. Nice joke, no?” Raj said.
The actor said he was surprised by the alleged deletion because he was born and raised in the same constituency.
‘I Was Born and Brought Up Here’
Raj said he had lived in the constituency for years and had studied and worked there.“I was born in this constituency, I lived in this constituency, I had my schooling, college, theatre and, for your kind information, I was an MP candidate of this constituency too,” he said.
Raj contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Bengaluru Central as an Independent candidate.
Reacting to the alleged deletion, he said he would find out what documents were required to restore his name to the voter list.
“Let me see what is the process I have to go through. What all documents do I have to show to get back my voter ID? Well, game on,” he said.
Raj Questions Voter Deletions
Raj also questioned whether electoral powers could be used to deny citizens their voting rights.
“You can use your powers to deny a few of the citizens the right to vote who may not elect you. But can you stop us, my dear friend, from our power of bringing you down?” he said.
His comments come amid concerns over the large number of voters classified under the ASDDO category — Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others — during Karnataka’s electoral roll revision.
According to figures cited by the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, 1.09 crore voters, or 19.81% of the state’s 5.54 crore electors, have been classified under ASDDO.
Bengaluru Urban recorded the highest number, with around 17.74 lakh voters falling under the category.
Karnataka SIR Schedule
The Election Commission has set August 17 as the deadline for completing the enumeration phase of the SIR exercise.The draft electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on August 24, while voters will be able to file claims and objections from August 24 to September 23.
The final electoral rolls are expected to be published on October 27.
