Bengaluru: Following the seizure of genuine EPIC cards from a flat in Jalahalli police station limits on Tuesday evening, the BJP demanded the Election Commission of India to countermand the elections to the upmarket Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency.
BJP leaders, Ananth Kumar and Prakash Javadekar said it was the handiwork of Congress leaders backed by the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Similar irregularities were reported in Badami too, the BJP leaders alleged. "We demand the ECI countermand the elections of both the constituencies," Mr Kumar said. The BJP leader alleged that "RR Nagar Congress candidate, Munirathna who is inspired by Mr Siddaramaiah was behind this."
Chief Electoral Officer, Sanjiv Kumar who visited the flat, said "an appropriate decision" would be taken by the ECI. He said three central observors and BBMP commissioner, Maheshwar Rao were on the spot and were investigating the matter. "Once the investigation is over, the Election Commission will take a decision," Mr Kumar said.
He told reporters about the details he gathered on visiting the flat. "I personally visited the flat no. 115 SLV Park Apartment in Jalahalli. This is owned by Ms Manjula Nanjamuri who rented it out to Rakesh. We found 9746 EPIC photo identity cards wrapped in small bundles bearing names and addresses. We have found five laptops which have photographs of a candidate. There are two trunks in the flat which have more than a lakh form-6 counterfoils in mezenta colour. These forms have numbers whereas the ones issued by the ECI does not have numbers."
Mr Kumar further said that over 44,000 names were added to the voters list during the summary revision. "Compared to the average addition of voters in Bengaluru, this was high," he said.
Party leader Manjunath Kanyadi who is from the area claimed that the party workers stumbled upon this big scam by accident.
"The Congress candidate for Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Munirathna was found following with some of his assistants a few days back. The local BJP workers kept a close watch on the movement of Munirathna who kept coming to the flat with his associates. One day, our workers found an EPIC card fell from Munirathna's associate's bag which led BJP workers to spread dragnet over the activity", Manjunath Kanyadi said.
"Since local police are with sitting MLA, the BJP could not have taken chance. So, the BJP videographed and then alerted the ECI," Mr Kanyadi said.
Mr Javadekar also claimed that the diary had entries on money paid by the party to voters and demanded that the poll in that constituency too should be countermanded. CM Siddaramaiah is contesting from Badami besides Chamundeshwari.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed that this entire episode was the creation of the BJP to divert attention . He also asserted that the flat belonged to a BJP leader which was rented to her son and said the ‘midnight drama’ enacted by the BJP was baseless.
