Resign, Mr CM: Karnataka Congress on voter data ‘theft’ by pvt NGO

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai rejected the Congress’s charge, saying he was ready to face an enquiry and get investigated

A controversy erupted in Karnataka on Thursday over a voters’ survey in the city by a private NGO, with opposition Congress accusing the chief minister of corrupt electoral practice and demanding his resignation. Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai rejected the Congress’s charge, saying he was ready to face an enquiry and get investigated.  The Congress alleged that a private firm engaged in voter survey in the city and collected details, including individuals’ caste.

According to The News Minute, NGO Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute received permission from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to conduct Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation. 

“But we have found that they misused the order and issued fake ID cards to hundreds of their field agents, identifying them as Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the BBMP. A BLO is a grassroots official who is supposed to be a government, quasi-government or retired government servant. BLOs are also required to be residents of the polling station to which they are assigned,” stated the News Minute report.

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The NGO workers collected voters’ data on caste, mother tongue, marital status, age, gender, employment and education details along with their Aadhaar number, phone number, address, Voter ID number and email address. The cache of data was not fed into the Garuda application of the government but into an application ‘Digital Sameeksha’ of the private firm, Surjewala charged.

As the issue snowballed, the BBMP terminated its permission given to Chilume.  Alleging that “the CM was the conduit of the electoral fraud,” Congress national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Surjewala said, “there has to be an FIR against Basavaraj Bommai and he should be arrested.” “We want to know who permitted a private entity to conduct the survey on behalf of the BBMP, who recommended the government to give such contract to a private entity and why the antecedents of the contractor was not checked,” Surjewala said.

“Is it not a clear-cut theft, breach of privacy and fraud played upon innocent voters. How can the contracted employees of a private entity be permitted to impersonate as government officers by being issued BLO cards,” Surjewala asked. He also wondered why an advertisement was not ordered to be issued by Bommai or the election authorities before giving the work to a private entity.

Congress’ state president D K Shivakumar alleged such surveys took place across Karnataka and it was not limited only to Bengaluru city. “What is the proof that which private information has been given to whom. There is nothing on paper. It is a baseless allegation. I am really astonished the way Congress is bankrupt with ideas...there is no proof at all,” Bommai added.

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