A controversy erupted in Karnataka on Thursday over a voters' survey in the city with Opposition Congress alleging corrupt electoral practice in it and demanded the Chief Minister's resignation, while the city's civic body announced terminating the permission given to the private entity involved in the exercise.
The Congress demanded the resignation of CM Basavaraj Bommai, alleging he is directly responsible for the corrupt electoral practice by assigning the private entity to collect door-to-door voter information.
As a row erupted over the issue, the BBMP said Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust had violated the conditions and announced terminating the permission given to it to conduct door-to-door visit to "create awareness" among the public on online application via Voter Helpline Mobile App pertaining to Voter ID.
Congress general secretary and the party's Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged at a press conference here that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorised the private firm in August to carry out a door-to-door survey of voters 'free of cost' and that it gathered information on people's gender, mother tongue and collected voter ID and Aadhaar details.
"Chilume Educational and Rural Development Institute applied for permission to conduct voter awareness drive of the Election Commission. Firstly, the permission was given for Mahadevapura Assembly constituency and it was then extended to all 28 assembly constituencies of Bengaluru vide a government order dated August 20, 2022," the AICC general secretary claimed.