BENGALURU: THE Election Commission has initiated a probe into a complaint seeking disqualification of eight MLCs, who are facing allegations of furnishing false residential address in order to vote, during the BBMP mayoral elections in August 2016 and Ballari City Corporation elections in April 2017. The MLCs were also accused of drawing huge travel allowances by furnishing false information.
The probe has been initiated following a complaint filed by BJP’s Padmanabha Reddy, leader of the Opposition in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council, demanding disqualification of MLCs B R Thimmapura, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Raghu Achar, N S Boseraju, S Ravi and M D Lakshminarayana, all from Congress, and C R Manohar and Appaji Gouda of the JD(S). The Chairman of the Legislative Council has also issued notices to these MLCs seeking explanation as to why they should not be disqualified from the Legislative Council and criminal cases filed against them.
The Election Commission has written to the Deputy Commissioners of Ballari, Bagalkot, Chitradurga, Ramanagar, Tumakuru and Mandya to furnish authentic information on their residential addresses and voting in various civic bodies.