BENGALURU: The Congress on Thursday filed a complaint with the Election Commission and Bengaluru police seeking action against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his remarks that the state will be afflicted with riots if the Grand Old Party comes to power.
The Congress leaders said that the Chief Election Commissioner will hear the matter at 4 pm on Friday.
In a complaint filed with the Station House Officer, High Grounds Police station in Bengaluru, senior Congress leaders DK Shivakumar, G Parameshwara, and Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that Shah has committed serious offences, which are punishable under the Indian Penal Code and the Representative of People Act-1951.
“The cause of action for filing the present complaint arose on April 25, 2023, when Shah, along with several other BJP leaders, addressed a gathering at Vijaypura. While the BJP’s address continued for well over an hour, the speech given by Shah was shockingly riddled with flagrantly false statements aimed at tarnishing the image of the Indian National Congress by levelling false and unfounded allegations, with the clear objective of trying to create an atmosphere of communal disharmony amongst the gathered crowd and the individuals viewing it on other media platforms,” the Congress leaders stated.
The Congress leaders stated that Shah’s remarks that if Congress wins the upcoming elections, then the entire state of Karnataka will be “afflicted with communal riots” were designed to incite and indirectly threaten and try to mislead electors into voting for a particular political party and candidate.
The party also filed a complaint against Housing Minister V Somanna for allegedly trying to influence the JDS candidate contesting against him in Chamarajanagar to withdraw from the contest.
CONGRESS FEARS DEFEAT, SAYS CM
SHIGGAON: Reacting to Congress approaching the EC and the police over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent ‘riot remark’, CM Basavaraj Bommai in Shiggaon on Thursday said that the fear of defeat was haunting the Congress. “As they know that they are going to lose the polls, they have resorted to such acts. But there is no truth in the Congress’ petition and it will be rejected,” he said. The CM said that he has been visiting every village in the constituency (Shiggaon) and the response from the people has been tremendous. “This is the constituency of the CM and with a lot of development works, people feel that I must be get elected by a big margin. I am confident that the voters will elect me with a record margin. I am indebted to them”, he said.