Third BRS MLA to join the Congress
A day after BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed that 20 Congress MLAs were ready to quit the party and join him, his party MLA Prakash Goud from Rajendranagar met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Congress sitting MLA and Rajarajeshwari Nagar candidate N. Munirathna Naidu and 13 others have been booked in connection with the recovery of about 10,000 fake voter ID cards from a flat in Bengaluru.
According to the media reports, Munirathna has been named as an accused in the FIR which was registered on Thursday.
The Congress candidate was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Representation of People Act, 1951, for bribery and undue influence in an election.
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According to media reports, Munirathna’s candidature will not be affected in the wake of him being named in the FIR.
The other accused in the FIR include flat owner Manjula Nanjamari and tenant, Rekha. Munirathna is accused number 14.
On Wednesday, State Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar had told reporters that a total of 9,896 voter cards and over a lakh counterfoils resembling acknowledgement slips were seized from a flat in the assembly constituency.
Preliminary investigation showed that the voter cards were genuine, but the counterfoils were yet to be verified, Kumar had said.
“All the materials have been seized and investigation is going on under the supervision of the EC. The materials indicate a planned work over a period of time to survey and locate the vulnerable electors and induce them through middlemen,” he said.
The ruling Congress blamed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the incident, calling it a conspiracy hatched by the party leaders in the apartment that allegedly belonged to a former BJP Corporator Manjula Nanjamari.
On the other hand, the BJP urged the EC to countermand the election in the constituency, terming the incident an attempt by the ruling Congress to rig the election.
The Assembly election across 223 constituencies of the state will be held on May 12. Votes will be counted on May 15.
(With agency inputs)
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