From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Nov 20: Seeking to turn the tables on the Congress leaders for charging him and seeking his resignation on the Voters’ Data Theft Scam, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday warned that it will boomerang on the Opposition party.

Speaking to media persons near his residence here, he reiterated that it was the previous Congress regime under the then chief minister Siddaramaiah which had first engaged the services of the Chilume Trust and all these details are bound to come out in the probe.

“The charges levelled by Siddaramaiah, KPCC Chief D K Shivakumar and other leaders in the Votersgate Scam will boomerang on them," Bommai said.

‘Cong did it in 2013’

The chief minister said the state government had directed that the investigation must be done from 2013 when Siddaramaiah’s regime had first entrusted the voters’ data collection task to Chilume Trust, he said pointing out that the probe will bring out the details on the terms of the agreement signed by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress regime.

He explained that the BJP government headed by him had asked the non-governmental organisation to conduct voter awareness campaign. The government had insisted on the condition that the Chilume Trust should not have any connection with any political party, he said unlike the Siddaramaiah government’s decision of entrusting the revision of the electoral rolls, which is the responsibility of the State Election Commission SEC).

Bommai termed the previous Congress regime’s decision of entrusting the work of the statutory body like SEC to a private organisation and even permitting the tahsildar to appoint Block Level Officers (BLO) for conducting Chilume Trust activities is totally against the law. “It is evident that the Siddaramaiah government has completely misused its powers,’’ he claimed.

The chief minister termed the Opposition party’s campaign against the government and ruling BJP “totally politically motivated” and accused the Congress of usurping the work of SEC and entrusting it to a private NGO, which, he added, is a crime.

Asked about the Congress charge on the involvement of cabinet ministers in collecting data on the voters, the chief minister clarified that all political parties engage private organisations to collect such data and even conduct electoral surveys.

“What is important in the present case (of government or BBMP asking Chilume Trust) of collecting data by the NGO is the terms of the contract,’’ he said and made it clear that the BJP government had clearly specified that the agency should not have any political links.

He said the previous Congress regime had not made any stipulation against political link and even allowed the appointment of BLOs flouting the law, which is “totally illegal and irregular.”

'Not large-scale deletion of names'

To a question on the Congress demand for a high-level probe, Bommai said the government had earlier directed investigation into the orders issued in 2022, but now, the investigation will cover all decisions from 2013 onwards. “Let the truth come out. People will know,” he asserted.

The chief minister stoutly refuted the Congress allegation that names of 27 lakh voters had been deleted and termed it as “totally false and baseless.” There is no large-scale deletion of names from electoral rolls, he said.

He clarified that 15,000 names had been deleted in Shivajinagar Assembly constitutency as per the norms and about 45,000 and 47,000 names had been deleted in K R Pura and Mahadevapura Assembly constituencies.

The chief minister said the SEC is weeding out names of fake and bogus voters from the electoral rolls, which will help in conducting a free and fair election.

The SEC has utilised Artificial Intelligence tools to identify and delete dual entries and bogus voters, he said.

Answering questions on the Congress party lodging a complaint with the Central Election Commission, he retorted: “Let them lodge a complaint with any authority. It will ultimately boomerang on them. We want a complete investigation. Let truth come out.”