Actor Prakash Raj addressing the media in Bengaluru on Friday.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
Actor Prakash Raj, whose name figures in the list of over one crore voters marked as Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), has questioned the Election Commission’s decision to ask voters who have shifted residence to enroll afresh through Form-6 instead of using Form-8. He said asking a person who has been voting for years to register as a new voter just because they have shifted residence was tantamount to deleting an existing voter from the rolls. “Have they shifted to Mars or Jupiter?” he asked. Form-6 is used for fresh enrolment, while Form-8 is used for corrections and modifications, including changes in residence.He also questioned the pressure the SIR exercise was placing on voters as well as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and officials conducting the verification. “Why is the government traumatising people, including those working as BLOs and bureaucrats tasked with conducting the exercise, with such a process?” he asked.Mr. Raj also questioned the timelines for the exercise and sought an extension, pointing out that the next elections in Karnataka are still at least two years away. He demanded that BLOs be given at least three more months to revisit the houses of voters marked absent and verify their status to ascertain whether voters had actually shifted or died. Mr. Raj also questioned the verification of his own name after he raised the issue publicly. He said corporation officials visited his address after he tweeted that his name had appeared in the ASDDO list and told him that they had conducted a “mahazar”. He questioned how a mahazar could be conducted after the verification process had already been completed and also questioned whether the video of the verification could have been recorded at the address. Clarifying if he has a vote elsewhere too, Mr. Raj said he had been registered as a voter in Chennai until 2018. He said he had submitted Form-7 for deletion of his Chennai entry, following which his name was added to the Bengaluru electoral roll. In 2018, he said, a rumour went around claiming that the actor has vote in four cities. He said an investigation was subsequently conducted to verify whether he had registrations elsewhere and officials had confirmed that his Bengaluru registration was the genuine one, while the other entries were deleted. “However, I have lost even that vote,” Mr. Raj said, referring to the ASDDO list. Published - August 14, 2026 09:47 pm IST
