JOIN USCongress in-charge for the bypoll-bound Vijanayagar Assembly constituency, Basavaraj Rayareddy, on Wednesday said that the Congress had information that the BJP candidate Anand Singh was planning to lure the voters by gifting them with gold coin weighing eight grams for his son’s wedding, scheduled December 1.
The former minister said that the Congress would soon lodge a complaint with EC against Singh.
Speaking to reporters here, Rayareddy said, “There are 2.36 lakh voters in the constituency. Singh is giving a gold coin, bearing Goddess Lakshmi’s picture, each to 55,000 families. This is election malpractice. Hence, the Election Commission should take a serious note of it,” he said.
“We don’t have any objection to Singh holding his son’s wedding. But he should not violate the model code of conduct. Money spent on the wedding, including feeding people, should be included in the candidate’s election expenditure. The poll panel should depute a team to keep a vigil on the activities pertaining to the wedding,” he urged.
“Our sources said, Singh has spent Rs 2 crore for erecting a huge pandal and he is spending as much on food and hospitality. This apart, he is gifting gold coin to the people attending the wedding. All this amounts to blatant violation of the poll code,” he said and demanded the EC to take stringent action against the BJP candidate.
It is said, Singh has sent invitations to over 40,000 people and more than 55,000 people are expected to attend his son Siddharth Singh’s wedding scheduled for December 1.