Thaindian News

Chitradurga (Karnataka), Sep 13 (IANS) The Congress has written to election authorities to check Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from using money power to win an assembly bypoll, the party’s state chief said Tuesday.

“The BJP is wooing voters in Koppal (where bypoll is set for Sep 26) with money power,” state Congress chief G. Parameshwara told reporters in this town, about 230 km from Bangalore.

The Koppal bypoll follows the resignation of sitting Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) legislator Karadi Sanganna, who “defected” to the BJP in March this year.

“We have written to the Election Commission to take steps to check this to ensure fair balloting in Koppal,” Parameshwara said.

The BJP has fielded Sanganna, the Congress former legislator Basavraj Hitnal, and the JD-S has Pradeep Patil. The contest is among these three though there are 11 more candidates, all Independents, in the fray.

The bypoll is being taken as a prestige issue by all the three parties as this is the first election after B.S. Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s first chief minister in south India, was forced out of office over graft charges on July 31.

Yeddyurappa and the BJP are already facing the heat over “money power” as election authorities have sought his explanation for handing over a Rs.1,000 currency note to a folk artiste on Sep 9 when Sanganna filed his nomination papers.

The man was part of a troupe that performed during a procession in which Sanganna, accompanied by Yeddyurappa and other party leaders, proceeded in an open vehicle to file his nomination papers.

Election observers and several media video and photographers caught Yeddyurappa in the act. Based on the complaint filed by the election observer, Yeddyurappa’s explanation has been sought, according to the state election office.