With just 4 days left for the Karnataka elections to take place, the leaders are still wooing in the voters.
Who will win- it is only natural to know of the expected results via the opinion polls. But to blandly ask the voters whom they will be voting for- that is an instruction in the privacy of the voter.
Are you voting for the BJP? No! Why? Tell me and sign the form.
This is what citizens in Dasarahalli constituency are being told since Friday.
A group of BJP workers are going door-to-door in the evening, questioning people as to whom they are voting for.
Posing as election officials, they first start collecting the Epic number, address, contact number, details of the head of the family, number of dwellers and eligible voters.
Subsequently, they ask the people whether they would vote for the BJP.
If the answer is no, they would ask why so and even tell them to sign the form after the details are noted down. Every evening, from 5 to 8 pm, the party workers would collect details and signatures from the people in the constituency.
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However, this has not gone down well with the citizens. Some of the citizens questioned the party workers, which they (workers) did not like. They instead quizzed the people why were they not voting for the BJP and insisted on an answer.
When alert citizens questioned them whether they were authorised to do so, the party workers fled the scene.
“First, they asked me for the voter details. I shared it. But was taken aback when they asked me whether I was voting for the BJP. When I enquired about their identity and insisted on seeing their ID cards, it was only then they said they were from the BJP,” said K Narayan a resident.
“When I snatched the form and looked at it, I learnt that it was a BJP voters’ questionnaire and data collection task. I was shocked to know that I was the 368th person on the list. I refused to sign the form, but they were adamant and wanted to know the reason,” Narayan added.
Sanjiv Kumar, chief electoral officer, said the matter would be investigated.
“I have noted the details. But someone will have to give a written complaint. We will have to check whether this is a political activity or a type of a campaign or anything else. However, such things are not allowed,” he said.
S Muniraju from BJP, P N Krishnamurthy from Congress and R Manjunath from JD(S), are contesting from the constituency.
In 2013, Muniraju had defeated B L Shankar from the Congress with 46,734 votes and in 2008, he had defeated KC Ashok from the Congress with 36,849 votes.
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