ECI Being Targeted to Hide Govt Failures, Says Vijayendra

Dharwad: BJP state president BY Vijayendra on Tuesday alleged that the Election Commission of India was being targeted to hide the failures of the Congress government in Karnataka. He asserted that the BJP would not be intimidated by police cases against those filing Form 7.

“I want to tell the Chief Minister that the Election Commission is being targeted to hide the failures of the state government. I am not here to defend the Election Commission. But the Congress government should not try to intimidate our workers by filing cases against them. In the state, police stations have virtually turned into Congress offices,” he told reporters in Dharwad.

Vijayendra accused the ruling party of creating confusion over the SIR exercise instead of addressing issues confronting the state.

“Yesterday, HD Kumaraswamy, Basavaraj Bommai and R Ashoka met the Election Commission. We have made it clear that the state government cannot misuse the police machinery and file FIRs against people in the name of Form 7,” he stated.

The BJP president asserted that Form 7 was a legal right given by Election Commission to all the political parties.

Vijayendra said that the BLAs and BLA-2s could recommend names for deletion, but the verification of such recommendations was done by BLOs. He pointed out that BLOs functioned under the State administration and not Central government officials. He also stated that the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, Anbukkumar was appointed by state government.

Vijayendra said Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Minister Priyank Kharge and KPCC president BK Hariprasad had been speaking extensively about SIR and questioned their stand on the exercise referring to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from Kerala and the Home Minister.

He said Tharoor had spoken about the benefits of SIR in removing double and triple entries from the electoral rolls.

“The Kerala Home Minister has also spoken about it. They have said that because of SIR, the Congress could come to power in Kerala. Otherwise, the CPM could have won. Because of SIR, double and triple entries could be removed. They said the electoral rolls were cleaned up and that this helped the Congress government come to power in Kerala. I have not said this. Their own leaders have said it,” he asserted.

Vijayendra attacked Home Minister Priyank Kharge and the “Republic of Kalaburagi”.

“The entire district is in the grip of the Kharge family. He should reveal how many murders have taken place in Kalaburagi since coming to power,” he added.