The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday submitted a memorandum to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj seeking his intervention in ensuring a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections. This comes a day after the murder of C.N. Srinivas, party worker and husband of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike councillor Manjula Devi. They termed the murder an attempt to terrorise its leaders ahead of the polls.
A delegation of BJP leaders, including former Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, former Deputy Chief Minister R. Ashok, former Minister C.T. Ravi and several MLAs from Bangalore city, met the Governor to express concern over the murder.
In the memorandum, they urged the Governor to direct the government to conduct a probe into the murder. “If the councillor’s husband himself does not have security, what about the common man?” Mr. Sadananda Gowda said.
Alleging that even the police were being used to target Opposition parties, he said top officers in all the six police stations in K.R. Puram, where the murder took place, belonged to a particular community. “How can such a thing happen in the police administration?” he wondered.
Mr. Sadananda Gowda said the Governor had assured them of discussing it with the government. In the memorandum, the BJP feared that there was a possibility of anti-social elements exploiting the situation to create a fear psychosis and derail peaceful campaigning by political parties. They alleged a section within the Congress was patronising fundamentalist forces, who were indulging in anti-social activities.
