Election Commission of India (ECI) officials will visit 92-year-old Bharat Ratna awardee and eminent scientist CNR Rao’s Bengaluru residence for verification after backlash over the notice issued to him as part of the Karnataka electoral roll Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Rao was asked to appear at an SIR hearing centre to address a discrepancy in how his name was recorded during the enumeration process.
In May, the ECI announced Phase 3 of SIR across 16 states and 3 Union territories The SIR in West Bengal was one of the most contentious in recent years. On April 10, the ECI announced the deletion of nearly nine million from the electoral roll.
Out of these, around 2.7 million deletions fell under the “logical discrepancy” category.
The difference in absolute votes between the Bharatiya Janata Party, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time, and the Trinamool Congress was similar to the total SIR deletions. His documents since 2004 carried his name as Harekal Hajabba.
Officials will visit his home and conduct the necessary verification there,” said an ECI official, who did not want to be named. Hajabba said officials visited his residence after the notice became public and took it back, telling him they would examine the matter and get back to him.
“…Rao does not have to appear before the election officials at the designated centre.
