by Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network—Bantwal (RD/CN)
 
Bantwal, Jan 4: “Thousands of legitimate voters were denied the opportunity to cast their franchise in the recently held ZP and TP elections due to the mistake of officers who erroneously deleted their names from the voters’ list, thereby bringing disgrace to democratic governance,” alleged Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee (DCC) president MLA Ramanath Rai.
 
Addressing media persons at Lions Club auditorium on Monday January 3, Rai alleged that the voters were denied the right to cast their votes due to the manipulation of officers by their superiors.
 
“The voters’ list that was issued by the revenue department to various political parties was inclusive of the names of all voters and the voters’ list that was in the possession of electioneering officers had many voters’ names missing.  It’s a gross injustice to voters since nearly 20 to 30 percent of voters’ names in the list were deleted from each voting center,” alleged Rai.
 
He further said that he would seek an explanation related to the issue from the Tahsildar and deputy commissioner and also consult legal experts to file a suit in the high court in this regard.
 
Bantwal block Congress president Padmashekar Jain, Abbas Ali, Chandrahas Karkera, Congress local leaders Ashwini Kumar Rai, and M S Mohammed were present on the occasion.