Prakash Raj seeks 6-month extension for Karnataka voter list revision
Prakash Raj, actor and activist, wants the Election Commission of India to give Karnataka 6 extra months to clean up its voter lists.
He says there's plenty of time before the next assembly elections, so rushing isn't needed, unlike what happened in West Bengal.
Raj believes a careful revision will help avoid big mistakes.
Prakash Raj to protest voter mislistings
Raj pointed out that booth-level officers have messed up by not following guidelines: more than 6 million voters were wrongly listed as "shifted" or "deceased," even though many voted recently.
He doesn't think existing voters should have to reapply through Form 6.
With drought causing people to move and risk being left off the rolls, he's planning a protest in Bengaluru this Tuesday, urging officials to fix errors and extend the revision timeline.
As he puts it, "The State has another two years before the next Assembly elections. Hence, the SIR should be conducted systematically, leaving no scope for discrepancies. In West Bengal, SIR was carried out in a hurry as elections were approaching. But the situation is different in Karnataka. There is no need to hurry," he told reporters.