Bengaluru: Having gained a majority in Legislative Council, the ruling Congress has moved a no confidence motion against its Chairman D H Shankar Murthy of the Bharatiya Janata Party to make way for a candidate of its own for his chair.
But losing no time, Mr Murthy has hit back by issuing notices to seven MLCs for allegedly claiming travel allowance while posing as residents of Bengaluru for voting in the Mayoral and Deputy Mayoral elections in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Council not too long ago.
If the charges are proved, the seven, who include two from the Janata Dal (Secular), could be disqualified from the Council and lose the opportunity to vote in the no confidence motion moved against him. In his notice, Mr Murthy wanted to know why criminal cases should not be filed against the MLCs for misuse of benefits due to them.
The seven members , R B Thimmapur, Allam Veerabhadrappa, Boseraj, Raghu Achar, M D Lakshminarayana, S Ravi of the Congress party and C R Manohar and Appaji Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) party, had in affidavit claimed to be residents of Bengaluru to participate in the mayoral polls as the Congress was short of numbers to win them.
While it went on to bag the Mayor’s post, the Janata Dal (Secular) was rewarded with the post of Deputy Mayor. But an RTI activist learnt in response to his query that Mr Veerabhadrappa and Mr Ravi had claimed travel allowance from Ballari district, Mr Thimmapur from Bagalkot, Mr Boseraj from Raichur, Mr Raghu Ahar from Chitradurga, Mr Lakshminarayana from Turuvekere in Tumkur district, Mr Manohar from Chikkaballapura and Mr Appaji Gowda from Mandya district to arrive in Bengaluru for the elections. Following this, a case was filed against them both with the Lokayukta and the Legislative Council Chairman.
