BJP leaders carried out RR Nagar raids: Cong tells EC

The Congress on Wednesday urged the Election Commission (EC) for a thorough inquiry into the recovery of thousands of voter identity cards in midnight “raids” on a flat owned by a BJP worker in RR Nagar Assembly segment in Bengaluru.

A Congress delegation comprising senior leaders Motilal Vora, Anand Sharma, Vivek Tankha, Amee Yajnik met Election Commission officials with a plea to restrain Income Tax Department officials from carrying out “politically motivated” raids at houses and offices of party candidates.

Sharma accused the BJP leaders of impersonating EC officials to carry out midnight raids on a flat owned by BJP worker Manjula Nanjamuri and rented out to Rakesh, also a BJP worker.

He accused the BJP leaders, including the BJP candidate from RR Nagar, of planting campaign material of the Congress candidate into the flat.

“In Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency, this drama was enacted and it was not the EC or the police, but the BJP people who raided a flat which belongs to a BJP leader and the tenant is also a BJP leader,” Sharma alleged.

Sharma claimed that the BJP was planning to repeat RR Nagar-like “raids” at other Assembly seats as it was facing “imminent defeat” in the Assembly elections.

The Congress leaders asked the commission to initiate the process of prosecution against the perpetrators of crime, including BJP leaders, for committing an offence of impersonation at elections under Section 171D of the IPC.

Sharma also accused the Modi government of indulging in “wilful manipulation” of government machinery, specifically the Income Tax authorities, to “repeatedly raid, browbeat and intimidate” Congress candidates.

The Congress leaders asked the commission to direct the chief electoral officer and the central government agencies, including the I-T department, to restrain from any prejudicial action against the Karnataka Congress and its leaders without prior permission till the end of the Assembly elections.