New Delhi: The sitting MLA of Karnataka’s Malleswaram assembly seat, C.N. Ashwath Narayan – also the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the constituency in the upcoming polls – has sent messages on WhatsApp to voters. While that is innocuous enough, the fact that these message include excerpts from electors’ individual voter identity cards has led to outrage.
As per a report in the Deccan Herald, “A few residents (of the constituency) called it illegal and questioned how the MLA, who is also a cabinet minister (in the current Basavaraj Bommai government), could have access to voters’ mobile numbers.”
Narayan is Minister of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood in Karnataka.
The report pointed out, “While candidates contesting elections have access to the electoral rolls in image format, the Election Commission does not share mobile numbers with any candidates, nor are the numbers linked to the voter ID.”
The message sent to voters from the BJP MLA’s office included their names, voter ID card number, relatives’ names and the booth address. Naturally, the MLA also had access to voters’ corresponding mobile numbers. The newspaper report said one of the voters has lodged a formal complaint with the returning officer of the constituency on the matter.
The controversy also found its way to Twitter, with citizens’ group members alleging that it amounted to the violation of one’s privacy.
Though the MLA’s office said the messages had gone only to those who had shared their mobile numbers with them earlier, activists have called such a claim untrue. “Suspecting illegal access to the data,” Vinay Kumar, a member of Citizens for Sankey Collective, was quoted saying, “candidates are only given access to electoral rolls in image format and not in text format.”
“These developments took place just after the controversy over the theft of electoral data involving NGO Chilume had rocked the state,” said the newspaper.
In November 2022, The News Minute and Pratidhvani, in a sensational joint investigation, had shown that Chilume (a private entity) had collected personal data from lakhs of voters in Bengaluru by posing as Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials.
In another exclusive report by TNM last week, yet another Bengaluru-based private firm was shown to have been found selling voter data in bulk to candidates contesting the state assembly polls. The report said information about the latest firm’s illegal action came to light after an independent candidate alerted the Election Commission of India on being approached by a seller of data.
Only ECI officials have access to such sensitive data. The TNM report published last April 26 said, “According to sources in the Election Commission, what is of concern is that the format of the data on sale is similar to the data stored on ERONET, a government portal with ECI data on voters that only election officials can access.”
It said the Commission officials “are investigating whether the company could have been used to bribe voters by depositing money into their accounts using UPI (Unified Payments Interface).”