After midnight drama, BJP-Congress continue to trade charges

The midnight drama continued into Wednesday with the BJP and the Congress trading charges and demanding high-level enquiries against each other with regard to the confiscation of voters’ IDs in RR Nagar.

Both the BJP and the JD(S) have demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) countermand elections in RR Nagar.

The BJP went a step further and demanded that Congress candidate Munirathna and Manjula Nanjamari, said to be the owner of the apartment where the voter ID cards were discovered, be arrested.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said BJP workers had barged into Manjula’s flat after they became aware of “suspicious” activities. He said CCTV cameras and streetlights in the locality were dismantled a month ago.

The Congress turned the tables on the BJP and described it as a “classic case of the pot calling the kettle black in a midnight drama”. It denied the charges against Munirathna. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused BJP leaders Ananth Kumar, Javadekar and B S Yeddyurappa of conspiring against the Congress of being the “actors, directors and perpetrators” of the entire episode.

“The BJP leaders have enacted the drama to subvert democracy and disgrace the democratic process. Through a web of deceit, top BJP leaders Javadekar and Ananth Kumar have tried to divert attention in the last 24 hours by presenting false facts. We have called their hoax,” he said.

Surjewala said both Manjula and the tenant of the house, Rakesh, were BJP workers. While the BJP denied that Munjala was a BJP worker though she told reporters she continued to be a party worker. While the Congress claimed Rakesh is Manjula’s adopted son, the BJP said he had no connection with her.

Surjewala said Muniraju Gowda and Rakesh had planted the cards in the apartment. “The apartment was raided by the BJP candidate and his supporters. They planted evidence there and ransacked their own flat to frame charges against the Congress,” he added.