From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Nov 2: In an obvious bid to revive the memories of the electorate of Rajarajeshwari assembly constituency, which is witnessing a by-election on Wednesday, over the alleged hoarding of over 9,000 voters’ identity cards by the present BJP candidate Munirathna as part of the ploy to prevent their votes going to his rivals in the 2018 assembly polls, state Congress president DK Shivakumar has alleged that Munirathna has 'illegally included names of 42,000 bogus voters in the electoral rolls.'
In the 2018 assembly polls, Munirathna was a Congress candidate and he had shifted his loyalty to BJP last year as part of the strategy of 17 disgruntled Congress and JD(S) MLAs to bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy to enable present chief minister B S Yediyurappa to grab power.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief has filed a complaint with the Bengaluru city police commissioner against police officials and others for their corrupt practices in R R Nagar constituency in the city.
The Congress party has lodged also lodged a complaint with the chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar and demanded disqualification of Munirathna from the elections.
Shivakuamar alleged that voters from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have to vote in the constituency and their names were included in the voters’ list.
A bogus voters’ list was created by adding names of 56 voters in a single house in the constituency, he claimed.
Additional bogus voters were included in the name of some voter’s addresses. Officials were involved in the generation of fake voters’ list, Shivakumar alleged.
The Congress party has alleged that the BJP candidate freely distributed TV set-top boxes, worth Rs 3.40 crore.
Complaint against police:
The party claimed that BJP candidate Munirathna was influencing the police to give support and cooperation to leaders and workers of the BJP for distribution of money to voters.
Local police officials Srinivas Reddy, Venkatesh Naidu (ACPs) and Mukram, Baira Reddy, Guruprasad, and Lohit (all circle inspectors) have been found supporting the BJP cadre and helping them to transport cash in police vehicles to various places in the constituency.
“The police support to the ruling BJP candidate is nothing but a criminal intimidation by the police to help the BJP and damage the Congress candidate in the election,’’ the Congress said and demanded action against the police.