Mysuru, Oct. 3 -- Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday hit back at the BJP over its allegations that he and his Cabinet colleagues staged a dharna at the Chief Electoral Officer's office, asserting that they had gone there to "safeguard voters" facing possible deletion from the electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Breaking his silence over the controversy, Shivakumar said he had approached the constitutional authority to raise concerns over Form-7 applications seeking deletion of voters and had no authority to issue demands to the Election Commission.

"I cannot place demands before Constitutional bodies, I can only make requests. Therefore, I went there to make an appeal in connection with Form-7 and ...