Kalaburagi corporation row: HC issues notice to seven MLCs

Kalaburagi: The Kalaburagi bench of the high court has issued notices to seven BJP MLCs who allegedly tried to add their names in the voters’ list of the city in a n alleged bid to capture power in the corporation.
Hearing the writ petition filed by Congress corporators Varsha Jane and Trupti Lakhe on Wednesday, the bench headed by Justice M I Arun told the government to submit its statement on the issue by November 29.
The petitioners claimed that MLCs Laxman Savadi, Tulasi Munirajugowda, Bharati Shetty, Pratap Simha Nayak, Leher Singh, Raghunath Malkapure and Dr Talwar Sabanna had filed online applications to include their names in the list in Kalaburagi city, on October 23. “They have violated the guidelines for voters' addition. They also made the council secretary to instruct the Kalaburagi DC to shift their nodal district to Kalaburagi,” they added.
Former Congress corporator Huligeppa Kanakagiri alleged the BJP MLCs have created a rent agreement with their party workers to add their names to the voters’ list. “However, they have not deleted their names in the district, from where they were shifting to Kalaburagi. Legally, they may be right. But it shows that the BJP can go down to any extent to grab power. We will also file another petition against the regional commissioner who has postponed the mayoral polls, citing the reason of MLC elections,” said Kanakagiri.
The Kalaburagi city corporation elections saw a fractured mandate, with neither of the three major political parties securing complete majority. The results were announced on September 6 along with two other corporations of Belagavi and Hubballi-Dharwad.