‘Refused to sign’ category jumps 88% in SIR’s final week in Karnataka

BENGALURU: The number of voters marked as “refused to sign” rose 88% in Karnataka between July 31 and August 7, the sharpest increase in the week's ASDDO categories as Special Intensive Revision (SIR) neared its earlier enumeration deadline, which was last Friday.

The new deadline for the enumeration phase is now August 17, and the officials and BLOs are working on sanitising the data collected in consultation with voters to ensure nobody is wrongly allocated a category before the draft list.

While absent and shifted voters continued to make up the largest share of the more than 1.1 crore electors on ASDDO (absent, shifted, dead, duplicate, and others) list, the sharp rise in the “refused to sign” category came as over 11 lakh voters were added to the overall list during the week.

The pattern of additions changed as the enumeration exercise progressed.

ASDDO numbers increased alongside digitisation, with the steepest rise recorded between July 17 and 31, when collection of enumeration forms was in full swing.

Ground-level accounts suggest that the pace of the exercise may have contributed to changes in categorisation, particularly in urban areas.

Adam Khan, state committee member of Jagrutha Karnataka, which has been coordinating with BLAs and voters during SIR, said voters in Mangaluru, Tumakuru, and Bengaluru reported that BLOs distributed forms but did not return to collect them.

“In several places, especially in urban areas, several voters are marked permanently shifted. They have told us BLOs gave them forms, but did not collect them. They are now left with two forms. This is true in Mangaluru, Tumakuru and Bengaluru,” Khan said.

A BLA in Bengaluru attributed wrongful additions to the pressure on BLOs to complete enumeration within the deadline.

HV Vasu, state convener of Jagrutha Karnataka, said BLOs had spoken of pressure to complete the exercise within a stipulated timeframe.

“There were alleged threats of FIRs against BLOs for completion of forms. When we reached out to BLOs, they revealed they were instructed to complete the process by the end of the day,” he said.

Source: The Times of India