DK Shivakumar's nomination 'valid'

BENGALURU: The Returning Officer for Kanakapura Assembly constituency Santosh found the nomination papers of Congress nominee D.K. Shivakumar 'valid' after scrutiny of nominations on Friday. D.K. Shivakumar had filed four sets of papers on April 17.

The Bharatiya Janata Party raised objections to the nomination of D.K. Shivakumar, the Kanakapura seat Congress nominee and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) alleging discrepancies.

From the BJP, R. Ashok, Minister for Revenue, has been fielded in Kanakapura seat and BJP alleged that the assets and liabilities declared by Congress nominee would be disproportionate, while certain cases might be pending against him. But, their allegations against the Congress nominee was not supported by documents.

A D.K. Shivakumar supporter present at the time of scrutiny of nominations, Vijay Dev, told Deccan Chronicle that BJP leaders had just raised their objections with any documentary evidence and suspected that the raising objections against Congress nominee might be to create panic among the Congress party by BJP.

Vijay Dev said, "The objections from BJP were on a sheet of paper without any documentary evidence in support of their objections against the Congress nominee." 

Advocates and election agents from both Congress party and BJP party were present at the time of scrutiny of papers.

Prior to his nomination being declared valid, D.K. Shivakumar had expressed confidence that his papers would be found valid and he is aware of filing of papers. Shivakumar stated that documents submitted by him at the time of filing of papers are correct.

It may be recalled here that D.K. Shivakumar’s brother D.K. Suresh, Lok Saha member of Bengaluru Rural seat, had also filed his papers to contest Kanakapura Assembly seat after the Congress party leaders feared that the nomination of D.K. Shivakumar being ‘rejected’ on technical grounds.

Suresh, after filing papers on Thursday, stated his nomination was a precautionary step by the party.

Shivakumar has won from Sathanur Assembly seat in 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004 elections and after the merger of both Sathanur and Kanakapura seats during the delimitation of Assembly seat in 2008, Shivakumar as a Congress nominee won 2008, 2013 and 2018 elections.

His opponent in the fray is BJP’s R. Ashok who is new to the Kanakapura seat and he represented Uttarahalli and Padmanabha Nagar seats in Bengaluru city.