BJP downplays Aland, urges Congress to focus on Malur

Seeking to downplay Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of efforts in Aland to disenfranchise voters through dubious means, the BJP accused him of merely making allegations without supporting documents.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R. Ashok alleged that Congress leaders, including Mr. Rahul Gandhi, were used to levelling such charges in front of the media, without giving any evidence.

Launching a counter-attack on Mr. Gandhi and other Congress leaders, he asked them to focus the debate on the happenings in Malur Assembly Constituency too where the Karnataka High Court had set aside the election of sitting Congress MLA K. Y. Nanje Gowda and ordered re-counting of votes.

“In Malur, the allegations of irregularities have been upheld against the Congress candidate. The court has observed that even the District Election Officer has erred there. But why are the Congress leaders not talking about it and why are they not seeing it as an example electoral malpractices by them?” Mr. Ashok wondered.

Accusing Mr. Gandhi of lacking common sense, Mr. Ashok alleged that his allegations of vote theft in Mahadevapura earlier had become false. Hence they were pointing an accusing finger towards Aland, he claimed and urged him to focus on Malur, where his own party MLA’s election had been set aside.