Kharge flays SEC for announcing poll readiness

Bangalore, Mar 15 (UNI) Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mallikarjun Kharge today criticised the State Election Commission (SEC) for announcing its preparedness to hold mid-term elections to the State Assembly.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Kharge alleged the SEC had not completed the delimitation process but announced the publishing of voters' list on March 20.

He also criticised the BJP for blaming the Congress for the delay in the announcement of the election dates.

''The BJP leaders are holding the Congress responsible for the CEC not announcing the date,'' he said.

''The SEC has not adhered to its check-list, sent to the Observers for Electoral rolls. The new voters list is prepared at random and in the process, many eligible voters' names were deleted and bogus names included,'' Mr Kharge alleged.

He said only the Congress raised its voice and demanded a thorough examination of the voters' list.

As per the check-list, the SEC should share the electoral list prepared after the delimitation process with political parties and obtain written receipts, which had not been done.

The SEC had not taken any action on complaints by political parties, especially the Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and BSP, he said.

Mr Kharge reiterated the Congress stuck to its earlier demand that the delimitation process should be complete in all respects without giving room for any objection before election dates were announced.

Terming BJP's protest rally and agitations as 'election stunt', Mr Kharge said they were done only to remain in publicity.

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