India, Oct. 1 -- Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday called for a criminal investigation into what he described as a coordinated effort to remove voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), accusing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers of submitting applications targeting minorities, Dalits and Scheduled Tribes.

"There are many instances of individuals filing multiple applications in different names for deleting voters. Minorities, Dalits and tribals are being targeted to remove their names from the electoral roll under SIR," Shivakumar said.

He said applications were submitted seeking the deletion of 4.5 million voters. He added that 14,000 such applications were filed in Vijayapura alone. He alleged that the bul...