Karnataka Row: CM Siddaramaiah Alleges ‘Vote Chori’ In Sringeri Recount After Congress Loss
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has alleged “vote chori” in the Sringeri Assembly recount, claiming over 250 postal votes were wrongly invalidated, leading to Congress’s defeat. The recount, ordered by the High Court, reversed the earlier result and triggered a political controversy.
CM Siddaramaiah alleges irregularities in Sringeri recount as election result flips | ANI
Bengaluru, May 5: After winning two seats in the by-election held in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has alleged that there was a `vote chori' in the recounting of the Sringeri Assembly constituency, which was held as per the directions of the Karnataka High Court, which resulted in the defeat of the sitting Congress MLA.
Background of recount and result reversal
During the 2023 elections, Congress candidate T D Raje Gowda was declared elected by a margin of 201 votes in the Sringeri Assembly constituency. Defeated BJP candidate D N Jeevaraj approached the Karnataka High Court, alleging that malpractices had taken place during counting of the ballot votes.
The Karnataka High Court had directed the Election Commission to recount the ballot votes. During the recount, it was revealed that over 250 votes counted in favour of Raje Gowda were invalid, and it was declared that Jeevaraj won by a margin of 52 votes.
Allegations of tampering and conspiracy
Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah alleged that the BJP had resorted to a criminal conspiracy to conduct vote chori in the Sringeri constituency recounting. When the votes were counted in 2023, Raje Gowda had polled 58,602 votes and had got 569 postal votes.
Jeevaraj had got 58,278 votes and received 692 postal votes. After verifying that they were valid votes, Raje Gowda was declared elected by a margin of 201 votes.
However, during the recounting on May 2, only 314 postal votes received by Raje Gowda were declared valid and 254 votes were declared invalid. "This is not just vote chori, but it is a dacoity. After counting, all the documents were kept in a locked trunk and then, there was a BJP government. During the process of keeping the documents in the trunk, the BJP people and officials have colluded and tampered with over 250 invalid votes. If there were invalid votes, why didn't they raise objections then itself?" Siddaramaiah said.
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Police case registered
Siddaramaiah said that a criminal case had been registered at the Chikmagalur police station and action would be taken against all the officials who have tampered with the election documents.
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