BJP files complaint with EC against CM Siddaramaiah and JP Hegde for their remarks
Bengaluru: The Opposition BJP has filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India, accusing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of trying to defame the party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls by levelling allegations that the BJP was trying to woo Congress MLAs by offering them Rs 50 crore each.
In a complaint before the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka on March 24, a delegation of BJP leaders led by former minister S. Suresh Kumar alleged that the chief minister had made such an allegation with a political intention of defaming the BJP at the time of Lok Sabha polls. Terming the allegations as “false”, the BJP delegation said the CM had failed to furnish evidence to support his allegations.
Describing this as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the BJP delegation demanded that Siddaramaiah apologise to the BJP for such allegations and also withdraw his remarks. It also urged the ECI to initiate an appropriate action against him.
The BJP delegation also filed another complaint against the Congress candidate from the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency K. Jayaprakash Hegde for his reported appeal to voters not to support his BJP rival Kota Srinivas Poojary because he does not know English and Hindi languages. Hegde had said that knowing only the Kannada language would not help him work effectively in Delhi as an MP, the complaint pointed out.
The BJP delegation described this as an assault on the pride of Kannadigas and an insult to the regional language. Stating that such remarks would amount to a violation of the model code of conduct, the BJP demanded action by the ECI against Hegde.