Voters' data row: Congress welcomes EC decision, demands FIR against Basvaraj Bommai

Bengaluru, Nov 26 (IANS) Congress Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala on Saturday welcomed the swift action by the Election Commission in ordering review of deletions and additions in voters` list and suspension of two additional district election officials.

Alleging that the "kingpin" of "voter fraud" is none less then in-charge Minister cum Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai and Chief Commissioner of BBMP, who is Electoral Officer, Surjewala demanded that an FIR must be lodged by the EC against them for a fair inquiry.

"Chilume Trust and Chilume Enterprises were authorised by the Bommai government to collect voters` data for all 28 assemblies of Bengaluru. They have illegally collected voters` personal data and uploaded it on a Private app," he charged.

"Any fair inquiry in vote fraud by the EC has to cover all 28 assemblies. Chilume hired nearly 10,000 employees and subcontracted the work of data collection to multiple agencies, which was illegally stolen," he said.

"Crores were pumped in. Where did the money come from? Who funded this illegal operation?" Surjewala said.

The EC has to inquire about the "brazen hijacking of democracy", he maintained.

"New revelations disclose that Chilume`s fat cat Ravikumar had also received payments from the union government in sundry accounts of innocent villagers and withdrawn the same indicating a huge money laundering racket and duping the exchequer," he said.

The EC should investigate and direct ED and Income Tax department to investigate the "scam".

"All the above is imperative for retaining the very sanctity of democracy, for the Bommai Government`s `sinister` plan to corrupt the electoral process has been caught red handed," he said.

"Onus is on the EC and each one of us to defend democracy and every Kannadiga`s right to vote," he said.

(The above article is sourced from news agency IANS. Zeenews.com has made no editorial changes to the article. News agency IANS is solely responsible for the contents of the article)