00:00All right, cutting across to some updates coming in straight away.
00:03And this is amid the political showdown over Form 7 now in Karnataka.
00:07Karnataka CEO has issued a clarification on the mass deletions charge.
00:11He says, and I quote here,
00:13To delete any name from the draft roll, the ERO has to issue a notice for hearing.
00:18He has to call both the objector and the voter for the hearing.
00:22So, he has to verify the documents.
00:25Only after that, once he is convinced, can a decision be taken whether to delete it or not.
00:31Not a single voter has been deleted so far.
00:34This is again according to the CEC in Karnataka.
00:37And also saying that I have written to all the EROs very clearly to take necessary action.
00:42If after any inquiry they are convinced that action is needed,
00:46they will take action as per law once they complete the inquiry.
00:51Sagar Raj, my colleague, joins us for more details on this.
00:54Sagar, so Karnataka CEC basically saying that there is a human intervention.
01:00It is not an automated, you know, software which is just deleting names altogether.
01:05First, such clarification coming in.
01:11Absolutely, and this according to the legal rules as per the section 16 to 20 of the registration of electoral
01:19rules 1960.
01:21And the clarification is given by Anwar Kumar, who is the chief election officer here in Bengaluru,
01:26who have categorically mentioned that whenever there is a process of deletion is being done,
01:32it will be done after a thorough investigation where they will summon the person who have given the application to
01:39delete,
01:40as well as the authors, whether it is the family members or the author himself,
01:43that he claims that he is still there or he is not dead, he is not transferred to somewhere else,
01:48he is still staying there and is the author of that particular controversy.
01:51They will summon him or their family members and thereafter, the person who have raised the complaint,
01:57both of them will be summoned and the ERO have to conduct the investigation.
02:00There will be a deliberation between them where they have to prove with the documents and everything
02:04that they have been transferred or they have been shifted or whatever the claims made by the complainant.
02:09And thereafter, the author had to justify saying that he is still there,
02:12then these are the documents to prove that he is still the author from that particular constituency.
02:18So, there will be a lot of deliberation which will be done according to the Chief Election Officer here in
02:23Karnataka
02:23and thereafter, a decision will be taken if at all, if they have to delete the author or not.
02:29Alright, it's okay, also a good time maybe to just, you know, dial back a little bit on the story
02:34and educate our viewers on what exactly is Form 7.
02:38Form 6, we know, is the form which is required to be getting a pass from your local election officer.
02:46If you want names included, Form 7 is for deletion.
02:52The controversy so far had been that names are getting deleted without a proper human intervention.
02:58The software is calculating even a small thing like a spelling error or, you know, a name mismatch
03:05or even, you know, sometimes a middle name missing or middle name being there
03:08that causing names to get deleted altogether without a hearing.
03:13Now, we have the Karnataka CEC saying that that's not the case.
03:17There is indeed a human hearing that happens before the deletions take place.
03:23So, where exactly did the allegations sagay then that, you know,
03:27these deletions are taking place without hearing come from?
03:34So, we are outside election commission office, just now the press conference is over.
03:38So, let me explain to you how, what exactly has happened all this while.
03:42So, according to the allegations made by the Karnataka Congress government, there is a middleman.
03:46Middleman who claims himself as a BLA who can recommend the names that these are the people
03:52who are not in that particular locality and they have knowledge about every single person
03:58in that particular constituency and they claim that so-and-so person has been permanently shifted,
04:04so-and-so person is dead, but still his name is in the outer list.
04:09So, they give a recommendation and there was a draft list which was put out by the election commission
04:14after the special intensive thing which has been done across the state.
04:19And in that particular draft, the people who were alive, they have been mentioned dead
04:25or transferred to some other place.
04:28They have been permanently shifted to some other place.
04:30And that is the reason that the Congress leaders are claiming that there is some kind of a conspiracy
04:35and there is a criminal act done by, allegedly by the BJP according to them.
04:40And that is the reason they filed a complaint with the election commissioner stating that
04:44how can you even target them.
04:46And their allegation also says that they are targeting only one particular community,
04:51that is a Muslim community, marginally, I mean, SCST and the other communities in the society.
04:58So, they feel that the traditional Congress authors have been targeted and it has been allegedly done by the BJP.
05:06And Anbu Kumar has promised stating that he will talk to all the district commissioner
05:11and he will take the report and if at all, if there is anything, their ERO will file a complaint.
05:17And he has also given a clarification.
05:19Whatever the FIR which has been registered as of now, these are the private complaints.
05:24These are not the complaints which has been registered by the election commissioner office.
05:29That is the ERO of that particular district.
05:34Alright, Sakai, they are reporting on what exactly the Karnataka CEC is saying.
05:37We have been getting some conflicting reports from Goa, for example,
05:40where the commissioner had to say that, you know, there were some deletions that took place.
05:44We will have to go back and really see what exactly is happening.
05:47But at the moment, the update from Karnataka CEC is that they are not doing deletions without a hearing.
