'DKS wooing voters with goodies'

Senior JD(S) leader P G R Sindhia, the party’s candidate for the Assembly elections from the Kanakapura constituency in Ramanagar district, has alleged that the Congress was adopting dubious ways such as distributing goodies to voters, to return to power in the State.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Sindhia said the right place to witness electoral malpractices was Kanakapura, where former minister D K Shivakumar is the Congress candidate. Sarees, wristwatches and T-shirts carrying Shivakumar’s photographs and thousands of drinking water cans have been distributed to voters in the constituency in the last one week.

Displaying the freebies, Sindhia said that in violation of the model code of conduct, over 50,000 sarees and watches had been distributed to voters. A written complaint has been lodged in this regard with the Election Commission. But no action has been taken because the officials in Kanakapura have colluded with the Congress, he said.
Sindhia said it was mentioned on the freebies that they were distributed on the occasion of Kanakotsava, and this has been done only to hoodwink the Election Commission.

Shivakumar’s followers have ensured that 5,000 names were deleted from the voters’ list besides getting several Tamil Nadu residents  enrolled as voters in Kanakapura, he claimed. Congress leaders are holding a series of meetings in New Delhi to select non-corrupt politicians to contest the elections. He said he hoped that the Congress would take a look at the illegal means adopted by its leader to somehow retain the Kanakapura seat.

Shivakumar retorts

Reacting to the charges levelled by Sindhia, Shivakumar called him “sultan of lies” and asserted that T shirts, watches etc bearing his photograph were distributed well before the model code of conduct came into force.

“They were distributed when we held youth and women’s conventions. Sindhia, instead of levelling charges against me should take note of the electioneering in the constituencies where JD(S) legislators are contesting,” said Shivakumar, who was on a visit to New Delhi. Sindhia had lost hope of winning the Kanakapura seat as Congress did well in both Gram Panchayat and municipal polls, he said.