Fighting against its coalition partner JD(S) and the Opposition BJP, the Congress retained Rajarajeshwari Nagara Assembly seat on Thursday. The Congress candidate R Munirathna has won by a big margin decimating JD(S) and BJP. In fact JD(S) supremo HD Devegowda had challenged the Congress here and said “ the coalition with the Congress is only for Vidhana Soudha and not in the election”. He had campaigned vigoursly for the JD(S) candidate who was trounced to the third position by the Congress which was backed up by strongman DK Shivakumar and his MP brother DK Suresh.
Munirathna won against JD(S) candidate GH Ramachandra and BJP’s Tulasi Muniraju Gowda by securing over 20,000 votes lead in the triangular fight. Assembly election in the seat was postponed earlier this year after nearly 10,000 voter identity cards were discovered from a flat in Bengaluru. The startling discovery, made allegedly by the BJP, triggered claims and counterclaims of foul play from both the BJP and the Congress, locked in a tough battle for the state. In response to complaints from both sides, the Election Commission had postponed the election. The BJP, had called Munirathna as the “money bag” of the Congress, and said ECs order a “victory of democracy”.
Munirathna beat his nearest BJP rival Tulsi Muniraju Gowda by more than 20,000 votes. JD(S) candidate GH Ramachandra, who joined the party after quitting BJP ahead of the elections, was pushed to distant third. Munirathna has been named as an accused in the case related to voter ID cards, which involves election-related malpractices and under the Representation of the People Act. Rajarajeshwari Nagar is one of the larger constituencies in Bengaluru and has about 4.71 lakh voters.
Munirthna who is supported by DK Shivakumar of the Congress has expressed that he was also an aspirant for the ministry in the Congress — JD(S) coalition Government led by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The Chief Minister is still struggling to expand the ministry as bargaining for plum portfolios have become the crux of the problem with the coalition partners. DK Shivakumar of the Congress and the JD(S) leaders which include party supremo HD Devegowda had verbal duel during the campaign. Unlike other places JD(S) did not tie up with the Congress went independent and lost the elections.
In another development relating to EVM’s NV Gowthama, chairman and managing director of Bharat Electronics ltd, the defence public sector undertaking, in Bengaluru which supplies EVM’s said no way that anyone can tamper with the electronic voting machines.
Addressing a press conference he said that it was common for leaders of political parties to lay the blame on the EVM’s whenever they fared poorly in the elections. He also referred to their recent failure to take up the challenge to prove that the EVM’s could be tampered with. He did acknowledge though that possibilities of malfunctioning of the machines could not be ruled out even if tampering was just not possible.