JOIN USThe Karnataka High Court on Wednesday issued notices to Mangaluru South BJP MLA Vedavyas Kamath and nine others while hearing an election petition filed by J R Lobo, former Congress MLA from Mangaluru South constituency.
Justice B Veerappa was hearing a petition filed by Lobo who lost the elections from the constituency and has moved the court, citing misuse of electronic voting machines (EVMs) as the reason for his defeat.
He has sought directions, declaring the election of Kamath as illegal and void in view of his corrupt practices and to declare him (the petitioner) as the winning candidate.
The petitioner contended that Kamath won the election by a huge margin of 16,000 votes despite the fact that he was neither popular nor known to the citizens of Mangaluru and he had not made any contributions to the society in any manner.
‘Used religion’
He said Kamath won the elections by using religion/Hindutva as a tool for garnering votes and manipulated EVMs and VVPAT machines to sway voters.
He stated that he would have secured the highest number of votes in normal circumstances, but lost the elections due to the hacking by Kamath.
Lobo said, in 2013, he had won the election from the constituency by a margin of more than 12,000 votes. After winning the election, he had rendered service in various ways by implementing government-sponsored schemes and brought new grants and schemes to develop infrastructure in Mangaluru. The court adjourned the hearing to August 16.