Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar presenting a memorandum to State Election Commissioner GS Sangreshi in Bengaluru on Tuesday. | Photo credit: ANI
A delegation of Congress leaders led by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday submitted a memorandum to State Election Commissioner GS Sangreshi, alleging serious lapses in the ongoing revision of the voter list ahead of the local body elections and demanding immediate remedial action, including preparation of a new list after proper mapping.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Mr. Shivakumar said that in view of the upcoming Greater Bengaluru (GBA), zilla, taluk and gram panchayat elections, the State Election Commission (SEC) had revised the voter list, but “there are many errors in the revised list”.
No verification
He alleged that genuine voters were wiped out without proper verification and that members of the same family residing at the same address were assigned to different polling stations. “The mapping is not done correctly. The voter list must be correctly mapped with residence and votes,” he said.
The memorandum called for a comprehensive audit of the recent deletions in the affected constituencies and the reinstatement of all eligible voters who were wrongfully removed after proper verification. He also demanded that members of the same household should not be arbitrarily deployed in different polling stations.
New voter list
Mr. Shivakumar said the party has urged the commission to prepare a fresh voter list after proper mapping and to allow party booth level agents (BLAs) to accompany the commission’s BLOs during field verification. “We appealed for the revision of the voter list within the legal framework,” he said.
The petition also demanded suspension of BLOs allegedly involved in irregularities, including division of family votes among booths and deletion of names of minorities and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from the list.
Congress further sought an opportunity for political parties to scrutinize and verify the revised electoral rolls before their final publication.
“With the local body elections coming up, the voter list itself has to be corrected now. If something goes wrong, it will give a bad name to the government and the State Election Commission. That’s why we have raised the issue in advance,” said Shivakumar.
Confusion?
As for whether a separate review by the SEC would cause confusion, he said the commission has the authority to conduct the process. “The older version of the voter list is not correct and therefore they have to prepare a new list after mapping,” he said.
The delegation included ministers Ramalinga Reddy and Dinesh Gundu Rao, BAMUL chairman DK Suresh, MLAs Rizwan Arshad and AC Srinivas and MLCs Puttanna and Srinivas.
Published – 17 Feb 2026 20:57 IST