BENGALURU: In a major breach of the electoral process, illegal entries were made to the voters’ list in Bengaluru, inflating the numbers by at least 7,000 across four constituencies. Four people were arrested in this connection.
The entries were noticed by poll staff in
BBMP limits and Bangalore Urban district over the past few weeks. Election officials have filed police complaints against illegal entries in the voters’ list in Dasarahalli,
Yelahanka, Shanthinagar and KR Puram constituencies.
The cases were referred to the cyber crime police of the Central Crime Branch. It is suspected that the entries were made using the password to the
Electoral Registration Management System portal after February 28, when the electoral revision notification was published. The BBMP brought it to the notice of the chief electoral officer, Karnataka.
1,573 fake names added to voters’ list in Yelahanka
Recently, in Dasarahalli constituency, poll staff filed a complaint at Soladevanahalli police station, alleging that 252 fake names had been added to the list. However, that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg, as the BBMP has written to the CEO Karnataka, stating that as many as 2,154 names were added in this manner inDasarahalli.
How was it noticed?
Polling staff noticed that in the past week, the number of names freshly added to the list would suddenly peak in the night. “The number of new names on the voters’ list through Form 6, the application for inclusion, would suddenly increase without us adding any names. We crossverified the names with the Form 6 applications we had received and processed. We then filtered the names for which Form 6 applications were not filed, and realized that some miscreants had added names using the ERMS portal,” said M K Jagadish, electoral registration officer, Yelahanka.
In Yelahanka, 1,573 fake names were added and a police complaint lodged with Madanayakanahalli police.
BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said entries were made in Shanthinagar, Dasarahalli, K R Puram and Yelahanka constituencies, and steps have been taken to delete them from the data base.
Chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar said 7,000 names were added illegally and four people were held.
TIMESVIEW
Fraudulently adding names to the voters’ list is a clear case of sabotaging democracy. Fake voters translate to fake votes, and illegitimate benefit to parties. While those with access to the system are clearly behind the breach, a probe must nail the culprits. It is regrettable that when citizens are hoping to vote the best candidate to power, there are attempts to rig the election. Citizens believe the online process is transparent, but sadly, miscreants hacking into the system could lead to a loss of faith. We don’t need this, especially as voter turnout in Bengaluru is quite low.
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