Bengaluru: High drama prevailed in Karnataka after the ruling Congress party refused to accept the result of Sringeri Assembly constituency, where the recounting of ballot votes ended in reversing the results declared in May 2023, where Congress candidate was declared elected by 201 votes.
Soon after the recounting, which took place as per direction of the Karnataka High Court revealed that most of the Ballot votes counted in favor of Congress candidate T D Raje Gowda were actually invalid, Sudhir Murolli, the Congress agent during recounting lodged a criminal complaint against BJP candidate D N Jeevaraj and the then Chickmagalur DC Ramesh,
When both approached the court, the Karnataka High Court came down heavily on the State government and stayed the criminal proceedings against both till further orders.
While issuing notice to the complainant, Justice V Srishananda of the Karnataka High Court said that the police should not register FIR under political pressure and they should not work under political pressures.
Meanwhile, soon after the recounting, BJP candidate D N Jeevaraj urged the Returning Officers to issue the certificate as per the court directions. However, the Returning Officers refused to issue the certificate till Jeevaraj issued a legal notice to them. Later in the day, Jeevaraj received the certificate through e-mail.
Soon after receiving the certificate, Jeevaraj tried to meet Speaker U T Khader to take oath as MLA. However, Khader asked for sometime before he takes a call on allowing Jeevaraj to take oath. Jeevaraj, along with BJP leaders called upon the Governor and submitted a memorandum, seeking directions to the Speaker to administer the oath to him.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the Governor, Jeevaraj dismissed the `Vote Chori' allegations by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
``I did not lodge a complaint directly to the court. The usual practice is to count the postal ballots first and take up EVM tabulation. However, in 2023, in Sringeri constituency, the polling officers said that counting of 1800 postal ballots was completed only by 4.30 pm. The BJP polling agents submitted two petitions just for re-verification of postal votes only. The returning officers did not agree and for the last three years, I have been fighting the case in the court. When the re-verification was done, the truth came out that some officials, sensing that Congress was coming to power, had added some invalid votes in favor of Congress candidate, as the margin was very low,'' he added.
Meanwhile, Speaker U T Khader denied that he was dodging Jeevaraj from taking oath. ``Governor also spoke to me. The problem is that no one met me yesterday and I have come to Mangaluru today. This is not a straight case and there are a lot of technical issues. I have sought a legal opinion on this. The State government initiating a criminal case against Jeevaraj has nothing to do with me. I have asked Jeevaraj to meet me today evening,'' he added.
