The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KPCC opposed to ‘hurried polls’

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Karnataka

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KPCC opposed to ‘hurried polls’

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee has demanded that the Election Commission ensure the deletion of names of bogus voters, inclusion of names of genuine voters, redrawing of newly delimited Assembly constituency boundaries and reallocation of polling booths before ordering elections to the Assembly.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, KPCC spokesman V.S. Ugrappa, general secretary M. Ramachandrappa, secretary H.N. Premakumar, the former Ministers Sagir Ahmed and B.R. Yavagal, and Karnataka State Cooperative Housing Federation president H.S. Somasekhar said that under the election rules, those whose names were to be deleted from the voters list in a particular constituency had to be issued individual notices and their replies heard before their names were removed.

There were 38,967 booths for 3.98 crore voters in the State, out of which 25,897 booths had less than 1,200 voters. In 13,000 booths the number of voters ranged from 1,200 to 5,000.

Since no booth should have more than 1,200 voters, the booths had to be re-allocated. Many voters had not been given photo identity cards. None of these things could be done without calling for objections, they said.

Mr. Ugrappa said that Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami had said it would take about five months to make the required changes in the newly delimited constituencies. This view was endorsed by the State’s Chief Electoral Officer.

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