CMO involved in cancellation of Congress nominations: KPCC chief

KPCC chief DK Shivakumar accused Karnataka CM Office of instructing returning officers to deliberately find defects in the nominations filed by the Congress party.

Basavaraj Bommai’s office has been accused of calling the returning officers of various districts and instructing them to deliberately find defects in the nominations filed by the Congress Party and rectify the mistakes in the filings of BJP candidates contesting the Assembly election.

DK Shivakumar accuses CMO of instructing officers to deliberately cancel Congress party nominations. (ANI)

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar demanded that the election commission should investigate the matter and summon the call details of the CMO to ascertain the truth.

Congress’s Karnataka unit chief said in a press conference, “A major conspiracy is going on to reject the applications of the Congress candidates. BJP legal team and CM Office are trying everything to make sure Congress candidates’ nominations are disqualified. I request ECI to collect the call register of the CM. In Savadatti also, the same thing happened. CM himself called officials,” he said.

“You know how they acted in my case even after I filed nominations many times. They tried to disqualify my application also. CM Office itself is participating in malpractice to tell returning officials to accept their candidates’ applications, CM himself is involved in it,” he added.

In a surprise move hours before the deadline for filing nomination papers on Thursday, Bengaluru rural MP and the brother of DK Shivakumar – DK Suresh – entered the fray from Kanakapura as well. Foreseeing a conspiracy at play, he did so as a “backup plan” in case his brother’s nomination got rejected by the EC.

The election commission had on Friday accepted the nomination of Shivakumar for the Kanakapura assembly constituency. Earlier on Thursday, Shivakumar’s brother and Congress MP from Bangalore rural DK Suresh had filed nomination from the Kanakapura segment as a “precaution” in case the nomination of Shivakumar got rejected.

The development came even as the Karnataka high court rejected Shivakumar’s plea challenging the state government’s permission to the CBI to prosecute him in a disproportionate assets case.

Responding to the allegations, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said that the election commission (EC) is a constitutionally formed body and there is no question of interference. Slamming the claims made by Shivakumar, Bommai said that the KPCC president is scared of his defeat and is therefore making such “useless allegations.”

“Election Commission is a constitutionally formed, independent body. It runs by the rules of the election commission. So, there is no question of interference. He is scared of his defeat, so he is making baseless, useless allegations every morning. I need not answer all that,” said Bommai.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar also said many leaders are joining the Congress ahead of the election. “Kalyana Karnataka’s several leaders already joined us. Many others are wishing to join Congress in the district and taluk units, I’ve also suggested our leaders the same. I welcome those who want to join us. Vishwanath Patil, a three-time former MLA is also joining us. Chittapur is an important constituency. Arvind Chauhan is also joining us,” he said.

(With agency inputs)