Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Friday took exception to the statements of Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khursheed about the Central schemes for the minority development and said that they were in clear violation of the model election code of conduct.
Addressing presspersons, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the statement of the Union Minister about sanctioning Rs. 2,600 crore for the Multi Sectoral Deveopment Programme (MSDP) to 90 districts having high minority concentration, including Gulbarga and Bidar, while campaigning for Congress candidate Ajay Singh in the byelection to the Gulbarga South Assembly constituency amounted to violation of the code of conduct.
“I will write to the Election Commission seeking action against the Union Minister for misusing his office for furthering the chances of the Congress candidate by announcing schemes for the minorities,” Mr. Yeddyurappa said.
To write to Manmohan
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that he would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drop Mr. Khursheed from the Ministry for allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
The Chief Minister alleged that some State government officials, who were close to both former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh and Union Labour and Employment Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge, were camping in Gulbarga and helping the Congress candidate.
“This is a serious violation of the C&R rules and the Election Commission should take note of the presence of the officials from other districts and take action against them. I have asked the party workers to give me the list of the officials who were found working for the Congress candidate and I will present the same to the Election Commission,” he said.
