The Congress on Wednesday lodged a police complaint claiming that its workers were attacked during a door-to-door campaign in the Lakshmidevi Nagar ward in Rajarajeshwarinagar.
Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh said ex-corporator Velu Nayakar, who was with the Congress, attacked party workers “at the behest” of the BJP candidate Munirathna.
Congress workers even staged a protest outside the Nandini Layout police station demanding action.
“In Lakshmidevi Nagar ward, during the campaign, Velu Nayakar attacked our party workers at the behest of Munirathna. Our local leaders say the attack happened with police support,” Suresh, who is leading the Congress’ campaign in Rajarajeshwarinagar, told reporters.
“There are complaints that Congress voters have been deleted from the list. Also, it’s a challenge to identify genuine voters in this constituency. So, our party workers were going door-to-door to verify. There’s nothing wrong in this. If we were doing something illegal, let them approach the Election Commission instead of taking law into their own hands,” Suresh said, adding that their protest will continue if the police failed to act.
Nayakar refuted the charges. “We didn’t attack them. They were going door-to-door collecting names, photocopies of ID cards, phone numbers and that they would be given Rs 2,000 for every vote. I requested the former Congress MP Dhruvanarayana not to do this,” he said. “They said those who want to take (cash) will take and that it wasn’t our business.”