The anti-SIR forum organised a protest rally in Belagavi on Monday against the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Leaders of various religious organisations, political parties and farmers associations joined the rally.

The protest rally began from the Sangolli Rayanna Circle in Yaragatti on the Bagalkot highway in the morning. The protestors gathered at the Rani Channamma Circle and raised slogans against the Union government for conspiring to snatch away the voting rights of the common man.

“One of the biggest contributions of B.R. Ambedkar to this country is the principle of One Person, One Vote. But the BJP is conspiring to snatch it. If it succeeds, democracy will lose its basic characteristic of universal suffrage. It will become an electoral democracy run by a few,” Writer Yallappa Himmadi said.

He urged all citizens to join the protest.

Activist Isabella Xavier said that the whole process of SIR is shrouded in mystery. “The ECI does not seem to have a standard set of rules. It is introducing new rules in every State. In some States, they are asking for property documents and in others, proof of voting in 2002. Due to the unreasonable demands made by ECI officers, names of several poor, labour, minorities and members of deprived communities have been deleted. What is most unfortunate is that more than half of the deleted names are of women who have voted all their lives,” she said.

Another activist Yusuf Kunni urged the people to put up a united front to oppose what he called an unconstitutional exercise.

A meeting of leaders of various organisations was held in the Kannada Bhavan later. A delegation met Bishop of Belagavi Diocese Rev. Fr. Derek Fernandes at the Bishop House in the evening.

Members of Jagruta Karnataka, Eddelu Karnataka and the anti-SIR federation are part of the group organising the rallies.

Their demands are immediate suspension of SIR in Karnataka. If the ECI is to go ahead with SIR, then it should not use logical discrepancy detection software. It should hold gram sabhas in every village and the voter list should be finalized openly after public scrutiny. The voter list should be published in machine readable format and complete transparency should be maintained and the public should be given at least six months to provide the necessary documents to file appeals and objections.

In Bagalkot, Congress District Committee president S.J. Nanjayyanmath addressed the rally on Sunday.

He said that deletion of lakhs of eligible voters through SIR is the main reason why Mamata Bannerji was defeated in West Bengal. He said that the BJP is misusing constitutional agencies like the ECI to disenfranchise supporters of other parties. A delegation met the former MP V.S. Ugrappa at the guesthouse later.

MLA Umesh Meti, H.N. Neelanayak, Pavitra Jakkappanavar, B.S. Baba Khan, members of Welfare Party of India and others participated. The protestors distributed pamphlets among commuters.