The former Minister and Congress leader H.K. Patil has said that Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai were misusing official administrative machinery to target Opposition leaders.
Addressing presspersons in Haveri on Wednesday, Mr. Patil accused the BJP and its leaders of repeatedly violating the model code of conduct during the byelections. Mr. Patil said that the Home Minister had brought pressure to bear on the Returning Officer of Ranebennur to conduct searches at the house of Congress candidate K.B. Koliwad in Ranebennur.
Mr. Patil said that, according to information available with him, the Home Minister had called the Returning Officer at least five times before the raid.
The senior Congressman demanded that Mr. Bommai resign from his post and urged the Election Commission to immediately act against him to prevent further misuse of official machinery during the byelections.
He also sought answers from the Election Commission on why no action had been taken yet on the Chief Minister’s son and Member of Parliament B.Y. Raghavendra for what he called violation of the model code of conduct.
He said that Mr. Bommai had violated the model code of conduct by not stopping his vehicle at a check-post. However, two police personnel had been suspended in connection with the case, he said.
Terming the searchers at the residence of Mr. Koliwad as politically motivated, he said that the authorities had not disclosed what they had found during the raid.
Mr. Patil urged the Election Commission to take legal action against those violating the model code of conduct and also give directions to the Income Tax Department to act impartially.
In Ranebennur
Meanwhile, in Ranebennur, addressing presspersons, KPCC Secretary and son of K.B. Koliwad Prakash Koliwad ridiculed the searches and said that the Income Tax sleuths had found two pairs of old sandals at their residence.
Terming the searches politically motivated, he said that such cheap political gimmicks would prove costly to the BJP in the byelections.
