FIR filed after objections against 7,561 Ballari voters, report says
Police in Karnataka have registered an FIR after a Congress election agent alleged that a BJP-affiliated booth agent sought action against 7,561 electors in Ballari. Election officials said the claims lacked supporting documentation. The BJP agent denied seeking deletions, saying he submitted names for verification after identifying absent or shifted voters.
Police in Karnataka have registered an FIR after a Congress booth-level agent alleged that a BJP-affiliated election agent sought the deletion or revision of 7,561 voter names in Ballari City Assembly constituency. The FIR was registered at Brucepet police station on October 1 against T. Srinivas Mothkur, the Opposition leader of Ballari City Corporation and BJP BLA-1, according to The Hindu.
The case invokes Section 353 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, concerning statements conducing to public mischief. The dispute concerns Form-7 applications, which are used to request deletion of names from an electoral roll. Mothkur reportedly claimed that more than 7,500 electors were absent or had shifted.
On September 21, he wrote to the Ballari City Corporation saying that some booth-level officers had refused to accept applications while others had accepted them. He then submitted the remaining applications directly to the electoral registration officer. Election authorities responded that the claims were not supported by documents or other information.
They said booth agents could submit applications in bulk but were limited to 10 applications to a booth-level officer at a time or in a day. More than 30 applications required personal cross-verification by the electoral registration or assistant electoral registration officer. Mothkur again wrote to the authorities on September 22, enclosing a list of 7,561 names and requesting action.
Officials rejected the request, saying registration could not be verified solely on the basis of the complaint. Congress BLA Goutham S. later complained that Mothkur had sought deletions and alleged that most of the names belonged to a minority community.
Mothkur denied requesting deletions, saying he had only passed on names identified by another agent for official verification.
Vertrix News compared the attributed reports listed below and wrote this independent synthesis. Claims remain attributed where independent verification was unavailable.