BJP Urges Governor To Administer Oath As CM Alleges “Vote Dacoity”
Party seeks Governor Gehlot’s intervention amid legal and political clash
Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader of denying oath to its newly elected MLA D.N. Jeevaraj, citing law in the way while they made an appeal to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to administer an oath to their MLA instead of the Speaker.
Leader of Opposition in Assembly R. Ashok, along with D.N. Jeevaraj and MLA Araga Jnanendra met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Tuesday to complain against Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader who is accused of not administering oath to D.N. Jeevaraj, declared elected in the recounting of postal ballots with regard to May, 2023 election of Sringeri Assembly seat in Chikkamagaluru.
In the recount of postal ballots held last Saturday and result announced on Monday, Ashok said, Jeevaraj was declared elected and Election Commission of India issued him the certificate and the State Government issued necessary gazette notification as well over election of Jeevaraj.
However, Speaker U.T. Khader is not allowing Jeevaraj to administer oath and has started a new precedent in Karnataka. “When I met Khader, he started to give me lectures on the law,” stated the Leader of Opposition.
Apart from complaining, Ashok stated as per Article 188 of the Constitution, the Governor administers the oath. If the Speaker is unavailable, the Governor has the power to nominate someone else to do the job of administering oath to a MLA.
An appeal has been made to the Governor to administer oath to Jeevaraj similar to the way two BJP MLAs of West Bengal approached the Governor to take oath as MLAs when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee did a similar thing, said Ashok.
Over election of D.N. Jeevaraj, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleged tampering of about 250 postal ballots belonging to Congress nominee T.D. Rajegowda by the BJP and suspected a “criminal conspiracy.”
“It’s a vote dacoity,” said the Chief Minister on alleged postal ballots tampering of Sringeri seat and pointed to declaration of result by Returning Officer in haste while the result of postal ballot recount should have been done by the High Court of Karnataka.
