Siddaramaiah gets RB Thimmapur in, BJP livid

Bengaluru: On a day when MLC R.B. Thimmapur was inducted into the state Cabinet as excise minister, the BJP has petitioned  Governor Vajubhai Vala to disqualify the five Congress MLCs incluidng Thimmapur and two JDS MLCs besides one independant  MLC, who had submitted "false information" to the Election Commission to help them vote in the last BBMP Mayoral elections. 

The BJP delegation headed by leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Jagadish Shettar also urged the Governor to take action against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for "aiding and abetting"  the MLCs to mislead the commission. 

"The eight MLCs have violated section 31 of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 by providing  wrong information to the EC. They drew travel and dearness allowances from the Legislative Council Secretariat while claiming to be residents of Bengaluru to participate in the election of the Mayor and standing committees of the BBMP," the memorandum charged. The MLCs targeted are Allum Veerabhadrappa, R. B. Thimmapur, Raghu Achar, N.S. Bosaraju, Ravi, M.D. Laxminarayana, C.R. Manohar and Appaji Gowda. 

Recalling that the BBMP Commissioner had in his  report to the Election Commission admitted that the due process had not been followed in the Mayoral election owing to the mess with MLCs' addresses, the BJP leaders argued there was enough evidence to disqualify them from the legislature. 

They also urged the Governor to take action against Mr Siddaramaiah without whose support the "fraud" could not have been committed.