Bangalore, January 10
Reacting to allegations of large scale bungling in the electoral rolls in Karnataka, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalswami today directed scrapping of 33 lakh names, which were added in November this year without conducting appropriate verification.

The CEC, while directing that all 33 lakh names added to the electoral rolls during November 2 - 17 this year are scrapped, said he was surprised that no deletions had been made in the electoral rolls during this exercise.

He also directed the State Election Commission to undertake a fresh revision by February 7 and publish a draft notification by that date.

The drastic step was taken after complaints from representatives of the Congress and the BJP, who met members of the commission yesterday and gave instances of large-scale bogus additions during the exercise conducted in November.

He said the Election Commission was keen to take the help of political parties in ensuring an error-free voter list. The parties would be provided with the draft notification so that it could be scrutinised further before it was finalised, he added.

Gopalswami said political parties would be given one-month time to file objections following which a final electoral list would be published on March 10.

He, however, did not specify when the elections would be held, only saying that “there is still time for that”, even as he added the commission’s present priority was to ensure an error-free electoral roll.

Gopalswami also did not react to questions on whether elections would be held according to the recommendations of Justice Kuldeep Singh, Delimitation Commission, saying that it was for the Central government to decide on this issue.

“We are, however, clear that we will hold the poll before May 28” when the six month spell of Governor rule is scheduled to end in the state.

The State Election Commission, which has been caught on the wrong foot, has already started the process of revision and has already deleted the names of 3.48 lakh voters and added 9.27 lakh voters in a draft submitted to the Election Commission. The State Election Commission is, however, still in the docks with the CEC saying that action would be taken against officials responsible for the “lapses”.