ELECTIONS

On top of winning a nationally televised leadership initiative in 2008, this Bangalorean joined the BJP in 2009 just before the Parliamentary elections. His induction was attended by Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar. He is well known as a governance reforms activist and a man who has consistently called for greater engagement of educated citizens in politics. However, today, he has struck out on his own, disappointed with India's political parties. In fact, with his new initiative Nav Bharat he appears to be hitting out against the party system itself.Meet Bangalorean Rajendra Kumar Misra, 47, better known as 'RK'. Misra…

The last couple of months have been exasperating for citizens who wanted their names in the voters' list. There have been random name deletions, false names and addresses in the roll. Now the High Court has ordered the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, to ensure suo moto that errors in the list should be fixed. Court ordered on December 11th, that CEO should publish the final corrected list on January 28th.As per this, public will not have to run around to get their details corrected; election officers will have to verify the entire list themselves.The order came in a PIL…

Last Friday, December 14th, there was an event announcement from BBMP. My apartment association got a printed letter (enclosed). The subject of the letter was "citizen participation in improving civic amenities", and it was signed by the Assistant Commissioner (Admin and Tax), with a request to the President of the RWA to attend a meeting. The note said:Bangalore has earned fame as garden city and has attracted attention of the world. A meeting is organised in Town Hall on 15-12-2012 at 11:00 to discuss with the Commissioner of BBMP on how we can make Bangalore a city with the best…

If you have not updated your name in the voter list yet, there is time till December 31st. Though the last date for submitting applications for all 28 BBMP constituencies was December 4th, the date has been extended now. A press release on this, was issued yesterday by the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka.The draft rolls had been published earlier on November 5th. This list has been revoked. As per the new schedule, the new draft rolls would be published on December 10th, which will be available on the website http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in. Public can also inspect the rolls at the offices…

Ever since the state Election Commission opened up the voter registration for the summary revision earlier this month, the system has been besieged with problems.With the online registration system available this time too, many citizens opted to submit their applications online. As on November 29th, 2,10,020 citizens registered and 1,40,325 submitted their applications online. Many citizens who registered could not submit their forms successfully. Some of them had registered during the earlier window in June, and complain that their application status still says, "Under process". A bunch of assembly constituencies, part of Batch I and II was open for registration…

With the special summary revision of photo electoral rolls, on till December 4th, 2012, citizens can enroll in the voter list online too. To check your name on the voter roll or for information on how to register as a new voter, see bangalore.citizenmatters.in/vote2013Who can become a voter?Any person who is:a citizen of India18 years of age or above on the qualifying date (1/1/2012)ordinarily resident in Bangalore.This includes a student in a University, Institute etc.not disqualified to be voter e.g. not of unsound mind etc.I am not able to find my name in the voters listDue to the use of…

Lakhs of names have been reported deleted from Bengaluru's voter lists - there is even a PIL requesting the High Court to intervene. Shantala Damle, a social activist, was shocked to see over 30% names deleted from Basvanagudi constituency. (Ref: ToI, November 9th)In his response, the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, said:"I disagree with the claims of 30% deletions. A revision exercise was done, but there was no erratic deletion. Booth level officers of BBMP have visited individual houses. In April-July 2012, over 53,000 names were added after BBMP realised that genuine voters were affected in some places. If there are…

"Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose", said someone. But, for many people who often lose the little that they have, freedom is another wor(l)d. And that wor(l)d did not appear on 15th August 1947 or later for the majority who live in India at present. In fact, such a wor(l)d may never exist at all for this majority. So, sometime in mid 2007 some of us in Bangalore and other parts of the country decided that we should support and celebrate ongoing struggles for freedom. From that emerged the idea of a Civil Society Summit (CSS) -…

A PIL, questioning the deletion of lakhs of entries from the current voter rolls has come up for hearing at the Karnataka High Court. The court heard the case on November 6th.The PIL has been filed by Commander P G Bhat of Daksh, a Bangalore based organisation working towards accountability in politics and governance, Ashwin Mahesh of Loksatta party and Smart Vote, a campaign that encourages people to vote. The petitioners have named the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral officer (CEO), Karnataka as their main respondents, along with four other Electoral officers from Bangalore zone. It…

If you have voted in previous elections, have a voter ID card, and have not shifted your residence, still your name may have been deleted from the electoral rolls. Please verify and restore your name if deleted. In the last post we discussed that time, effort, and financial cost involved in voting should be lowered to increase voter turnout. Electoral organisation in Karnataka has created such costs by flouting rules and defying common sense. The burden of correcting the errors is on hapless voters who are not even aware of the mischief. On 18 April 2012, CEO’s website www.ceokarnataka.nic.in published…