Prakash Raj to conduct ‘social audit’ of SIR across 10 Karnataka districts

Bengaluru, Sep 12 (PTI) Actor Prakash Raj on Saturday announced a campaign across 10 districts in Karnataka from September 20 to 30 to conduct a "social audit" of the SIR of electoral rolls.

Raj said he, along with some civil society groups, would visit different districts and polling booths to compare the names in the Election Commission's records with those deleted from the electoral rolls.

"Now, when the final roll came, what we were worried about and what we were speculating became true," he told reporters here.

Raj alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was carried out within a short time frame despite concerns that it would be difficult to cover an electorate of more than five crore people.

"If your real intention is that every eligible voter should be on the electoral roll, please take your time. This is not a T20 match or a five-over match because of a rain delay. We have two years before the election," he said.

He said the campaign would cover 10 districts from September 20 to 30, with teams visiting different booths and collecting evidence from people whose names had allegedly been deleted.

"We will meet the victims, and every district will have a press meet where the victims will speak," he said.

Raj said civil society groups from different states would also bring their evidence and that a gathering would be held in Delhi on October 1 or 2.

"We will bring those pieces of evidence there, and by October 15, we will approach different courts with the evidence," he said.

Alleging that the exercise was a "scam" and a "conspiracy", Raj said not even a single political party, not even a single representative who won because of the voters, is with the voters.

"We are left to fend for ourselves. We will have to fight. We will have to fight it legally. We will fight it consciously because this has to happen," he said.

"The writing on the wall is very clear: this is a conspiracy. This is an effort to put people in trauma, and no government or Constitution allows this. You have no right to delete," the actor said.

He cited the case of a woman named Chennamma in Mandya, saying she was born before Independence and had voted in 36 elections but now had to prove her eligibility.

"Where will she get the documents? Why are you doing this? What is your intention," he asked.

"The voter decides who rules this country, who governs this country. In a democracy, a government shall not decide who votes in this country," Raj added. PTI