Congress candidate makes voters ‘take oath’, BJP sees red

Bengaluru/Shivamogga: In an interesting development, the state BJP has petitioned Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha demanding the disqualification of Bengaluru Urban district Congress candidate M.Narayanaswamy for violating the code of conduct in the Council polls due on December 27.

According to BJP leaders, Mr Narayanaswamy asked voters to swear in the name of god that they would vote for him. This, they claim, happened during the campaign in Byatarayanapura village of Marenahalli Gram Panchayat (GP) when Mr Narayanaswamy, along with the gram panchayat president, asked panchayat members to swear that they would cast their first preferential votes for him. The BJP has reportedly obtained video clippings of GP members taking the oath which were telecast by a TV channel, as proof.

The saffron party also alleges that Mr Narayanaswamy lured voters by giving Rs 1 lakh in cash and a silver coin to each of them.

“Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has condemned this practice, he said the Congress is opposed to this culture. We want the Eelction Commission to act against the Congress candidate by disqualifying him”, the BJP said in the memorandum. Congress rebel candidate, Dayananda Reddy too is facing allegations of distributing silver coin among voters.

The Congress government is using money power and official machinery to win the elections to the Council, claimed leader of the opposition in the Council K.S. Eshwarappa.

Addressing reporters, he said instances of ‘voters being bought’ were not confined to Bengaluru alone and were happening across the state. He claimed that the managing director of Karnataka Niravari Nigam Limited, Rudraiah, had admitted that mistakes had happened with regard to the modernization work of Tunga canal. The work had been taken up without following the procedure. The contractors have used dust-filled sand for making the concrete mix to reconstruct the canal. If the procedure was not followed, Rs 128 crore to be spent on it would go waste, he said.