Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) chief commissioner Tushar Girinath said on Tuesday that the final list of voters of 25 out of the 28 assembly constituencies under the civic body would be announced on January 5.
Girinath said that since the voter’s list of Mahadevapura, Shivajinagar and Chickpet assembly constituencies are being 100% revised, the final list of voters of these three constituencies will be published on January 15.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) called for a review of the voter lists in Shivajinagar, Chickpet, and Mahadevapura on November 25 after allegations of massive voter data theft carried out in the city by Chilume Educational, Cultural and Rural Development Institute.
NGO Chilume has been accused of collecting personal information about voters, with its members posing as government officials in some cases.
The BBMP had entrusted Chilume with the task of conducting house-to-house surveys to create awareness of the revision of electoral rolls. The firm, however, allegedly went door-to-door to collect personal details, including caste, education, mother tongue, Aadhaar and other details.
The BBMP had appointed 12 KAS officers to check draft voter lists of these three constituencies and extended the period of claims and objections to the electoral roll under special summary revision by 15 days till December 24.
Meanwhile, responding to reports of over 80,000 people applying to have their names added to the voter’s list a month after the alleged voter data theft came to light, Girinath said the electoral population ratio is low in the city and efforts are on to include everyone in the voter list.
“It is estimated that about one lakh people are newly added to the electoral rolls every year. Compared to the population of the city, only 58% are on the voter list. We are trying to include everyone,” the BBMP commissioner said.
Last month, the BBMP blacklisted Chilume amid allegations of voter data theft. BBMP commissioner Girinath, who is also the election officer for the city, passed an order blacklisting the entity and prohibiting it from participating in any awareness programmes organised by the civic body and the service and procurement tenders floated by the BBMP.
On November 18, the head of the NGO, Krishnappa Ravikumar, was arrested along with other employees, including director Renuka Prasad, human relations executive Dharmesh and project executive Prajwal.
On November 27, four BBMP officials were arrested on charges of providing fake ID cards to representatives of Chilume. The Halasuru Gate police arrested revenue officers Chandrashekar K (Mahadevapura), Suhail Ahmed (Shivajinagar) and Bheemashankar (Chickpet) and assistant revenue officer Mahesh (RR Nagar).
