Bengaluru’s voter data theft scam has given rise to a new political slugfest, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress blaming one another on who first granted the NGO, Chilume, permission through Government Orders to collect voters’ data. BJP leaders in Karnataka have begun sharing a GO from 2017 — when Congress was in power in the state — that permits Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute to carry out revision of electoral rolls in the Mahadevapura constituency under the supervision of Booth Level Officers (BLO).
Karnataka Minister of Medical Education and Health K Sudhakar, shared a copy of the 2017 order on Twitter and said, “Congress government, which had allowed an organisation to revise the voter list in 2017, is now accusing the BJP government, 'like a monkey eating curd and smearing it on a goat's mouth'.” In his tweets, Sudhakar further blamed the Congress of being desperate to win the elections and said, “The Congress party, which has lost the trust of the people and is desperate, is raising doubts about the voting machines, raising doubts about the Election Commission, and the alleged illegal revision of the voter list is just a new addition to this string of lies.”
ಮತದಾರರ ಪಟ್ಟಿ ಪರಿಷ್ಕರಣೆ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ 2017ರಲ್ಲಿ ಅಂದಿನ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಸರಕಾರವೇ ಅನುಮತಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಒಂದು ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಈಗ ಇಲ್ಲಸಲ್ಲದ ಆರೋಪ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಮೇಲೆ ಗೂಬೆ ಕೂರಿಸುವ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವುದು 'ಕೋತಿ ಮೊಸರು ತಿಂದು ಮೇಕೆ ಬಾಯಿಗೆ ಸವರಿದಂತಾಗಿದೆ.'
— Dr Sudhakar K (@mla_sudhakar) November 20, 2022
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The subject of the letter shared by Sudhakar states that it is “regarding the appointment of booth level officers for polling stations in rural parts of Mahadevapura assembly segment”. The letter was seemingly in response to one written by Chilume to the Tahsildar of KR Puram in Bengaluru East, saying it will handle electoral revision and related work for 305 polling booths of Mahadevapura constituency through the trust. In this regard, the letter directs the NGO to do election work as ordained by the election and district officials, by taking along BLOs in the 94 rural polling booths and filling up empty roles.
It may be noted that KR Puram also happens to be the constituency of former BJP MLA NS Nandiesha Reddy. TNM had earlier reported that Reddy paid Rs 18 lakh to Chilume to buy voter data in 2018 ahead of the Assembly polls.
According to a report by the Deccan Herald, a total of 22 government orders have been issued to Chilume between 2017 and 2022, of which TNM has accessed a few copies. These orders issued by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)’s electoral officers to Chilume allow them to carry out election-related activities. However, apart from 2022, TNM could not independently verify in how many instances Chilume has issued fake BLO cards and collected voters’ data.
In a press release, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, “Chilume is not responsible for the compilation of voter lists, they were only asked to do voter awareness programmes. Deletion of voters is based on the report provided by the government officials through door-to-door visits, considering the data provided by the Election Commission of India and the applications received. But, in 2017, the then Congress government led by Siddaramaiah illegally gave Chilume the heavy responsibility of performing voter revision work using BLO cards.”
The CM further added that the claim of 27 lakh names being deleted from the electoral rolls is false. “Only 6.73 lakh names have been deleted. This measure has been taken by the Election Commission across the country to put an end to the malpractice of one person voting in more than one constituency,” he said. He has reportedly ordered a thorough investigation into Chilume’s activities since 2013.
Based on a three-month investigation by TNM and Kannada outlet Pratidvani, it was discovered that the theft of voter data was carried out by Chilume. The NGO was given permission by the BBMP to conduct SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation), a voter awareness drive by the Election Commission to revise electoral rolls before the Karnataka Assembly polls. However, TNM discovered that the order was misused and fake ID cards were issued to field workers who identified themselves as BLOs from the BBMP.
Immediately after the story was published by TNM on November 16, the BBMP issued a press release asking the general public not to share any voter details with workers from the Chilume NGO. The Congress Party also held a press meet demanding the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Karnataka-in-charge Randeep Surjewala alleged that Chilume indulged in voter data theft with the full knowledge of the Chief Minister.