Congress leader Randeep Surjewala claimed on Saturday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been planning to assassinate the party's chief Mallikarjun Kharge and his family. At a press briefing in Bengaluru, Congress played an audio clip claiming that BJP candidate from Chittapur Manikanta Rathod had used abusive language for Kharge and was talking about killing him and his family.
“Plotting to assassinate the president of Congress Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, his wife and his children is not something that anybody should brush aside. And it's not an ordinary person. It is the blue-eyed boy, the Chittapur BJP candidate whose track record you know better than me, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai,” Surjewala said.
Since the BJP announced Manikanta Rathod's candidature, he has been under fire from the opposition. Here, we take a look at who he is.
Who is Manikanta Rathod?
For the Karnataka Assembly Elections, BJP announced the name of Rathod from Chittapur. Before this, he had been banished from Kalaburagi for a year.
Rathod, 48, has around 40 criminal cases registered against him in several districts of Karnataka including Kalaburagi. Charges against Rathod include murder, smuggling drugs and narcotics, criminal intimidation and illegal possession of arms among other things.
Rathod has also been accused in several cases of illegally transporting rice for free public distribution. He has been convicted in three cases, for one of which he had been imprisoned for a year and asked to pay a ₹10,000 fine.
{{/usCountry}}Rathod has also been accused in several cases of illegally transporting rice for free public distribution. He has been convicted in three cases, for one of which he had been imprisoned for a year and asked to pay a ₹10,000 fine.
{{/usCountry}}He was last arrested in November last year for threatening Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge with murder. In a press conference, Rathod had expressed his readiness to shoot Priyank. However, he was later released on bail.
Priyank is Congress party's candidate from Chittapur for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.
In December last year, Rathod filed a case against Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyank Kharge with the Lokayukta saying that they had misappropriated government land and had used it for Karnataka People’s Education Society, which had been founded by Mallikarjun Kharge.
Due to criminal cases against him, Shivamogga Rural Police banished Rathod for a year last September. However, a court order stayed this decision.
In fact, Rathod had to seek special permission in order to campaign in Chittapur.