Bengaluru, Nov 6 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will constitute a committee to examine the electoral rolls prepared

Bengaluru, Nov 6 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will constitute a committee to examine the electoral rolls prepared

Bengaluru, Nov 6 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will constitute a committee to examine the electoral rolls prepared

Bengaluru, Nov 6 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar will constitute a committee to examine the electoral rolls prepared after the SIR and advise the government on whether to use them for the upcoming local body elections, Minister Satish Jarkiholi said on Friday.

    He said the committee would study the changes made to the rolls, including the deletion and shifting of voters, and submit a report to the government and the ruling Congress.

    "The CM said at the Cabinet meeting yesterday that a committee would be constituted to discuss the issue and submit its findings. Based on the report, further action will be taken," the state PWD minister told reporters in response to a question.

    He said the committee would comprise Ministers and some party leaders. "The CM's view is that the party and the government should have the same stand and should not take different positions. That is why he is constituting a committee," he added.

    Elections are due to the five municipal corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and to the taluk and zilla panchayats.

    Although the State Election Commission (SEC) will decide which rolls to use, the state government's opinion will also carry weight, party sources said.

    According to the sources, some in the party feel that using the post-SIR rolls would be self-defeating, given the Congress' protests against the SIR and the Chief Election Commissioner. The Karnataka INDIA bloc's protest on Thursday also adopted a five-point resolution calling on the state government to reject the final SIR rolls and to ensure that the local body, taluk and zilla panchayat polls are held on the pre-SIR voter list.

    Last week, the Election Commission published the final rolls after the SIR, listing 4.55 crore electors in the state, down from 5.54 crore before the revision, a decline of about 99 lakh.

    Asked whether the Congress would contest the zilla and taluk panchayat polls on the old or the revised rolls, Jarkiholi said no final decision had been taken. The party's final stand is thus still open, even as the INDIA bloc has demanded that the SIR rolls be rejected. He also indicated that the local body elections would not be postponed on this account.

    He said some Cabinet members had raised concerns over voter deletions. Explaining the need for a detailed examination, he said the committee would look into whether eligible voters had been left out and where those whose names were shifted had moved.

    "We have to study who has been excluded and where they have been shifted. There are figures on the number of voters who have been shifted. We need to know where they have gone," he said.

    He also flagged the possible addition of voters from outside the areas concerned. "We do not know how many people have been added from outside and how many names have been affected. There is some confusion on these issues, and clarity is needed," he said.

    The committee's findings, he added, are expected to help the government and the Congress arrive at a common position on the use of the revised rolls.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)