In a recent press statement, Dr Peter Machado, the Arch Bishop of Bangalore, said, "We call upon the voters of our State to elect only such candidates, who uphold and abide by Constitutional values, promote communal harmony, and treat everyone equally irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Let us send a strong message through these elections that the people of the State will not accept communal agendas like Hijab, Halal, Azaan, Anti-Conversion etc."
Machado believes that this election is going to be very crucial, not only for the people of Karnataka but for the entire country. He categorically stated that the Christian community is making all efforts to ensure that each and every vote would be polled. "There is an organised and collective attempt to ensure that every vote is polled. We have found that 9000 voters were dropped off the list in the Shivaji Nagar constituency in Bangalore. We raised this issue with the election officer and steps were taken to correct it. We don’t know how many voters have been dropped off in other constituencies. Removing people from the list does not look nice," he told Outlook.