Ashok accuses State Election Commission of printing 90 lakh voter cards after SIR notification; The SEC denies the allegations

File photo of R. Ashok, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok accused the State Election Commission (SEC) of violating norms to facilitate irregularities in the proposed GBA polls by printing the identity cards of 90 million voters in Bengaluru at a cost of ₹ 20 million following the announcement of a special intensive review (SIR) by the Election Commission of India.

Mr. Ashok alleged that the Congress government was involved in these irregularities and asked the CBI to investigate the episode.

However, the SEC strongly denied the allegations, stating that the tenders were announced before the SIR notification and that it was acting within its statutory mandate.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Mr. Ashok claimed that the SEC had printed 90,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible that the total number of voters in Bengaluru was fixed at 59,000,000 after SIR. He pointed out that the SEC now has an additional 31,000 voter ID cards left, describing the additional cards as “fake” and claiming they will be used to “steal votes.”

He alleged that the Congress government had done this to commit irregularities in the proposed GBA elections. “The State Election Commission did so despite submitting an affidavit to the Supreme Court that the municipal council elections will be held only after the SIR and when a new voter list is prepared,” he said.

The SEC denies this

SEC Secretary Amaresh H. denied the allegations and said the tender was floated before the SIR was announced. Mr. Amaresh said the tender was issued under Rule 26 of the Greater Bengaluru State Government (Registration of Voters) Rules, 2025, which provides for the printing of voter cards.

He said the SEC was acting within its statutory mandate and that the SIR was not asking it to suspend its work related to local body election processes.

“The SIR is not binding on the State Election Commission in the manner proposed. Local body elections and elections conducted by the Election Commission of India are governed by different frameworks,” he said. He added that the decision to print the cards was also aimed at addressing impersonation, especially in densely populated urban areas.

Published – 28 Oct 2026 22:38 IST