'Strict action against party leaders who do not actively oversee the signature campaign against vote theft': D K Shivakumar

New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress President D K Shivakumar on Thursday warned of stringent action against those party leaders who failed to take part actively in the signature campaign against vote theft.

“We have already collected lakhs of signatures against vote theft. We will bring it to New Delhi on November 9. I will have a word with block presidents and take stringent action against those who have not actively participated in the signature campaign. AICC General Secretary has clearly given instruction to remove from party positions all those who have not managed their responsibilities in the signature campaign,” he told reporters here.

“I will discuss this with the CM also. Vote theft is a serious national issue. We have already collected 70-80 lakh signatures in the state. Some of the block leaders and MLAs have not taken this seriously. We will take strict action against them. We will prepare a report and I have the power to dismiss block presidents. AICC leaders will give directions in this regard,” he said.

When asked about the Election Commission of India not taking incidents of vote theft from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana seriously, he said, “People are Gods in a democracy. We are making them aware of vote theft. The people will decide at an appropriate time. We all know what happened in Bengaluru South constituency. Rahul Gandhi is placing this before the people with evidence.”

Asked about controlling the RSS, he said, “Where have we said that we will control the RSS? We have only said that permission needs to be taken for using public places for programmes. This applies to everyone, we have not mentioned RSS anywhere. As per the Government Order (GO) issued during Jagadish Shettar’s time, permission is mandatory for anyone planning to hold programmes in public places.”