Dharwad: Tippanna Majjagi writes to CEC to remove biased officials from the duty

Tippanna Majjagi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hubballi-Dharwad city district president, has penned a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of India (ECI), urging the withdrawal of AROs assigned to the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituencies.

In the letter, Majjagi implored the commission to rescind the election duties of Shalom Hussain, Assistant Commissioner and ARO for the Dharwad Assembly constituency (71), and Mohammed Qaiser, ARO for the Shiggaon Assembly constituency (83). He claimed that these officers exhibited bias and failed to fulfill their duties in a fair and transparent manner.

Majjagi alleged that Officer Shalom Hussain, also responsible for ERO constituencies Navalgund, Kundagol, Dharwad, and Kalaghatagi, tampered with the voter lists by deleting names without providing valid reasons. This action, he asserted, violated ECI guidelines stipulating that names should not be deleted from existing voter lists during elections without valid justification.

The officer, Majjagi charged, omitted names of selected communities and categories of people from the voter lists of the Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency, a clear violation of ECI guidelines. He accused Hussain of bias, suggesting that by retaining selected voters’ names, the officer had predetermined support for a specific party or individual.

Majjagi also cited instances where the officer showed reluctance to include new voters in the lists despite them submitting designated forms for enrollment. In Jeerigvad village, he alleged, public applications for inclusion in voter lists were kept pending by the Booth Level Officer (BLO), despite informing the ERO. Only after lodging a complaint with the CEO’s office via phone were the pending names entered into the list. Many applications, however, remained pending as the ERO showed no interest, he charged.

The BJP leader appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner to issue appropriate instructions to the state government to relieve these officers of their election duties and appoint impartial replacements.