BJP leader petitions ECI against eight MLCs over fake bills

 Leader of the Opposition in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council Padmanabha Reddy of the BJP on Wednesday met Election Commission of India (ECI) officials here and sought the disqualification of eight members of the Karnataka Legislative Council, accusing them of flouting electoral norms and claiming fake travel bills.

 In his complaint, Reddy said the eight MLCs- B R Thimmapura, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Raghu Achar, N S Boseraju, S Ravi, M D Lakshminarayana (all Congress), and C R Manohar and Appaji Gouda (both JD-S) voted in the 2016 Bengaluru mayoral elections even though they were not registered as voters in Bengaluru city. These MLCs represent different constituencies in the state. But they all participated in the mayoral polls stating that they were registered voters of the city, going against the electoral norms of the BBMP, the BJP councillor said.

 Reddy also said that since these legislators claimed that they reside in BBMP limits, they were not entitled to any travel allowance when they attended meetings of the Legislative Council. “Even after claiming themselves as residents of Bengaluru, these MLCs stated that they were residing in various towns in the state and claimed travel allowances. This way, they misused government funds,” Reddy told reporters after meeting the ECI officials.

He said that he would also lodge a similar complaint against these MLCs with Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala.