Mangaluru: Actor and social activist Prakash Raj has questioned claims by BJP leaders that lakhs of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan had entered Karnataka, arguing that the final report of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls identified only two women among the cases cited.
Speaking on the issue, Prakash Raj criticised the claims of large-scale infiltration and questioned the expenditure incurred on the revision exercise, as well as the deletion of a substantial number of names from the electoral rolls.
Actor questions claims of large-scale infiltration
Referring to a list of around 600–700 individuals that he said was submitted to the Supreme Court, Prakash Raj claimed that it contained only two women—one from Bangladesh and another from Pakistan.
He said the two women had come to India after marriage, while others on the list were Nepalese nationals working as security guards or in restaurants, and German and American nationals who had arrived to teach.
Mocking the claims of large-scale infiltration, he asked BJP leaders to explain where the alleged lakhs of infiltrators were.
He questioned the need to spend crores of rupees on an exercise that, according to him, had identified only two such women, while a large number of Indian citizens faced the possibility of losing their voting rights.
Questions expenditure and voter deletions
Prakash Raj also criticised the scale of deletions during the SIR exercise, alleging that nearly 98 lakh to one crore names had been removed from Karnataka’s electoral rolls on grounds including lack of mapping.
He argued that even after accounting for deceased voters and duplicate entries, a large number of living electors had been affected under categories such as ‘Absent’, ‘Shifted’ and ‘Logical Discrepancy’.
The final electoral roll published on October 27 showed 4.54 crore general electors, compared with 5.54 crore before the revision. The Election Commission’s figures also showed that 1.08 crore enumeration forms were not submitted during the initial exercise. These included entries classified as permanently shifted, absent, deceased and duplicate. After the claims and objections process, the final roll included more than 10 lakh additions.
Prakash Raj questioned the impact of these changes on citizens’ voting rights and alleged that the process had placed an unfair burden on genuine voters, particularly those unable to complete documentation and verification within the prescribed time.
Raises concerns over Bengaluru voter figures
Taking Bengaluru as an example, Prakash Raj claimed that nearly 50 per cent of voters had been removed from the electoral rolls.
He questioned the implications of such a reduction for the city’s civic infrastructure and public services.
“If, according to the Commission’s calculations, there are only 53 lakh voters, then why should the government build new roads or introduce additional buses in the city? What a ridiculous situation this is!” he remarked.
He argued that electoral roll revisions should not result in genuine voters being excluded and questioned whether the stated reasons for deletion had been adequately verified.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, has maintained that the revision involved verification and prescribed procedures, including notices and hearings for electors whose eligibility required examination. Its published figures show that 61,867 electors were found ineligible following the notice-and-hearing process.
Prakash Raj’s remarks add to the continuing political debate in Karnataka over the SIR exercise, the scale of voter deletions and allegations that eligible citizens could be left out of the electoral rolls.