Vote theft concerns raised by Rahul, Kharge have turned out to be true: CM Shivakumar
Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday said concerns raised by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over alleged "vote theft" had been vindicated by recent disclosures about the functioning of the Election Commission.
Shivakumar said the Congress would discuss its next course of action at the Congress Working Committee meeting, while opposition parties would subsequently meet to deliberate on the issue.
"Whatever Rahul Gandhi and Kharge sahib had said has now turned out to be true. I have come to discuss what our roadmap should be on this issue. The entire country has become aware of it. So, it is becoming clear that the elections were conducted with a lot of irregularities," he told reporters here.
The chief minister said the issue had brought the functioning of the Election Commission under scrutiny and an all-party meeting had also been called to discuss the way forward.
Responding to the BJP's criticism that the Congress was raising the issue out of frustration over electoral defeats, Shivakumar said the Election Commission itself had raised concerns similar to those flagged by his party.
His remarks came amid reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected on record at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders concerning voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, changes to Form 6 and management of the electoral-roll database.
"What we said, the Election Commission itself has said, hasn't it? What is democracy? Majority. In a majority decision, two of them had already said, 'What you are doing is not right, what you are doing is not correct.' They have patched things up, brought them back, adjusted things and now seated them together," he said.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that all its decisions, including those concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, were taken unanimously. Following a full commission meeting on September 26, it also said the nationwide SIR order had the approval of all three commissioners.
On the appointment of chairpersons to boards and corporations in Karnataka, Shivakumar said the matter had already been decided in Delhi.
"All that has already been decided in Delhi. We have decided that all the senior MLAs should be accommodated. The workers will also be accommodated soon," he said.
Asked about providing ministerial berths to women, he said the matter would be discussed during his next visit to Delhi.
On the disappearance of an Assistant Executive Engineer in Gadag, Shivakumar said complaints had already been received against the official and an investigation was underway.
"There is a person called Naik in Gadag district. He has given a complaint twice or thrice. An investigation into that is going on. There are allegations that he was not properly carrying out his work as required under the law. He was not visiting the sites," he said.
Shivakumar said the official had allegedly gone missing earlier as well and had been traced to places including Ajmer and Hyderabad.
He said officials had been instructed to maintain video records of works before and after their execution to prevent fraudulent billing.
"Whenever anyone undertakes work, we have instructed them to make a video. It should be recorded at the beginning and again after the work is completed, which he was not doing," Shivakumar said.
"We are tracing him. His movement has been traced from Hyderabad and elsewhere. We will bring him back," he added.
On farmers blocking roads at Byramangala over land acquisition for the proposed Bidadi township near Ramanagara in Bengaluru South district, Shivakumar said no one was being forced to part with their land.
"I am asking people not to give land to anyone. We are not exerting pressure on anyone. I don't have any such requirement," he said.
"Those who want to part with their land will do it; those who don't want to need not. Why should the road be blocked? Blocking the road causes inconvenience to the public," he added.
