BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Sunday discussed the controversy surrounding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge ahead of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
“The differences and irregularities in the ECI have come to light, and the entire country is now aware of it. We discussed the party’s future course of action,” the CM told reporters in Bengaluru after the meeting.
Shivakumar said the CWC would discuss the CEC issue and decide the party’s future course of action. An all-party meeting would also be held after the CWC meeting, the CM added.
On BJP’s charges that the Congress was protesting out of frustration over electoral defeats, he said the ECI itself had acknowledged issues raised by the Congress. “In a democratic system, decisions should be based on the majority. But a decision was taken amid dissent between two of the three commissioners. Now they have been made to sit together by patching up their differences,” he said.
On appointments to boards and corporations, Shivakumar said the matter had already been decided in Delhi. Senior MLAs would be accommodated first, followed by party workers, and the remaining appointments would be completed soon, he said. On inducting women in the cabinet, he said the issue would be discussed during his next visit to Delhi.
On farmers blocking roads at Byramangala over land-related issues, Shivakumar said the government was not forcing anyone to part with land. He urged farmers who did not want to sell their land not to do so, adding that he was only continuing work initiated by former CM HD Kumaraswamy.
Meanwhile, KPCC president B K Hariprasad accused CEC Gyanesh Kumar of acting as a “BJP agent” and alleged that the ECI was failing to protect citizens’ voting rights. Hariprasad backed LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the CEC, and criticised BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar for demanding an apology from Gandhi.
He alleged that Kumar had failed to satisfactorily respond to 14 objections raised against him over the past 10 months and challenged him to place the facts before the public. Hariprasad also alleged that Kumar had offered former Kerala chief secretary G G Thomason an opportunity to contest an election. He further questioned Chandrasekhar’s role as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, alleging that he had entered into several deals in the sector.
Pontiffs to get 2 acres
Shivakumar assured that the government would provide 2 acres on the outskirts of Bengaluru for the accommodation of pontiffs and devotees visiting the city. Inaugurating the Veerashaiva Lingayat Dharma Samrakshana Sammelana at Sri Basaveshwara Sujnana Mantapa in Vijayanagar in the city, he called on Veerashaiva Lingayats to work towards uniting all communities in Karnataka, saying social harmony should be a key responsibility of the community.
Death of democracy: People protest outside CEC office
A group of Bengalureans gathered in front of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka on Sunday to stage a symbolic protest against what they described as “death of Indian democracy”. They conducted the mock funeral to the effigy of the ECI, which they described as “dead due to the abject dereliction of duty of the ECI led by CEC Gyanesh Kumar.” “The ECI claimed to represent the voice of millions of Indians who have been unconstitutionally disenfranchised in the past few years. The vote is the fundamental element of our democracy and never in the history of India has it been snatched away in a loot like this. This is a symbolic closure to the rotten past and a call to the people of India to join the cleansing act to reclaim our democracy,” said one of the protesters.
