For son’s wedding, Anand Singh builds a palace in Hosapete

Ballari: The approaching December 5 assembly bypolls continue to be an eye-opener on the wealth of some of the candidates in the contest. Putting maharajas of old to shame, BJP candidate for Vijayanagar (Hosapete), B S Anand Singh has built a “palace” of his own, sprawling over about seven acres in the district.

On Friday, the mining baron- turned- politician took time out from his busy schedule of campaigning for the bypoll,  to hold a  house-warming ceremony at “Dwaraka,” as the “palace” is called, in the presence of his family and friends, but said a firm no to the entry of the media, which waited outside.

Going by sources, Dwaraka, which has a built-up area of three acres, is a modern day tribute to the palaces of old as besides a helipad and swimming pool, it has a huge “darbar hall,”  a wooden penthouse and life-size stone sculptures of elephants carrying “golden howdahs”  at the gate of its entrance.

Sources reveal that construction of the palatial home on Hosapete Railway Station bypass road  took almost  seven years to complete with top architects from Mumbai, Chennai and abroad brought in to build it. Nearly 50 purohits have been holding the house- warming rituals for the last three days, according to them.   Mr Singh now plans to host his  son, Sidharth’s  wedding with a Bengaluru girl on  December 1 at his newly opened home.

The former legislator, who is one of the 17 disqualified Congress and JD(S) MLAs, who quit to bring down the Kumaraswamy government in July,  has already distributed cards to every household in his former constituency to invite the people to the wedding.

But BJP rebel candidate, Kaviraj Urs and social activist, B S Gowda have  brought this to the notice of the  election officer and Hosapete sub-division assistant commissioner, Tanveer Asif, complaining that  he  is trying to influence the outcome of the bypoll  by inviting  around 50,000 voters to the wedding and giving them expensive gifts.

They have demanded that he postpone the wedding as it violated the  election code of conduct. "When the media was barred from entering his palace, how can we expect  election officers to be fair in discharging their duties during the wedding?" Mr Urs asked,  urging the authorities to ask Mr Singh to either postpone the wedding or  make it a simple affair with only family in attendance.

Mr Tanveer Asif, however, said that Mr Singh had given prior intimation about his house- warming and his son's impending wedding to the Election Commission.

"We sent our staff to his house and watched the whole ceremony.  We found nothing there that violated the election code of conduct,” he said, adding the wedding could not be stopped either.

"The only condition we have is that he should not give any gifts to the invitees as this would amount to violation of the poll code of conduct, " he maintained.