Latest news with #MahadevapuraAssembly
Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Axed for defying Congress's ‘vote chori' line, Siddaramaiah's vocal loyalist: Who is Rajanna?
Among the most vocal Congress leaders in Karnataka, state cooperation minister K N Rajanna was forced to resign from the Siddaramaiah Cabinet on Monday, two days after saying that alleged voter list irregularities in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru occurred on the Congress's watch. Rajanna's statement embarrassed the Congress leadership as it came barely two days after Rahul Gandhi's allegation that over 1 lakh votes were 'stolen' in Mahadevapura in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, helping the BJP win the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. Ever since the Congress came to power in Karnataka in 2023, the Madhugiri MLA has put the party leadership on the back foot with his remarks on several issues. He has also been a bellwether of the power struggle between the party factions led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar. On Saturday, Rajanna, 74, said the Congress-led state government had failed to act when draft voter rolls were prepared. That his remarks came a day after Gandhi held a massive 'Vote Adhikar Rally' in Bengaluru also did not go down well with several Congress leaders. An influential figure in the state's cooperative sector, Rajanna is a four-time legislator belonging to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) Valmiki community. He was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Council in 1998 as a Congress nominee. He left the party in 2004 over the denial of a ticket for his debut Assembly election, which he then contested, successfully, as a Janata Dal (Secular) candidate from the now-defunct Bellavi constituency. After Siddaramaiah left the JD(S) to join the Congress in 2006, Rajanna was among the leaders who followed in his footsteps, to remain a Siddaramaiah loyalist since. Though his first two elections on the Congress ticket – from Madhugiri in the 2008 Assembly polls and then a bypoll in the same seat in 2009 – proved a failure, he was eventually elected from the Madhugiri Assembly seat in 2013 and then again in 2023. Rajanna has also served as the president of the Karnataka State Co-operative Apex Bank for two terms. Four months after the Congress stormed to power by winning the state Assembly polls in May 2023, Rajanna caused heartburn in the Shivakumar faction after he called for the need of three more Deputy CMs besides Shivakumar. This was among the Siddaramaiah camp's initial moves targeting the Deputy CM as it reportedly felt that too much power was concentrated with Shivakumar, who has also been the Bengaluru Development and Water Resources Minister besides heading the state Congress unit. Rajanna reiterated this demand in early 2024, before going silent on the issue. Later, he was also vocal in his demand to replace Shivakumar as the state party chief by reminding the Congress high command of its 'one person, one post' policy. Earlier this year, during the Karnataka Legislature's Budget Session, Rajanna dropped a bombshell when he alleged there was an attempt to 'honey trap' him by a 'gang' that had targeted 48 leaders cutting across party lines. Though there was then a buzz in state political circles that the 'gang' was 'linked' to a Congress leader, the Karnataka police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which investigated the case, did not find any evidence behind Rajanna's allegation. A month ago, Rajanna again put the Congress leadership in a spot after he publicly objected to All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, holding a meeting with state government officials. Rajanna had said that while it was within Surjewala's powers to meet party legislators and leaders, a meeting with government officials was 'unconstitutional'.
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Business Standard
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Karnataka minister KN Rajanna removed from cabinet amid 'vote-theft' row
Rajanna reportedly upset the Congress leadership by questioning his own party's government in Karnataka for the alleged 'vote theft' in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment Rahul Goreja New Delhi Karnataka Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna was removed from the cabinet on Monday after Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted the recommendation for his dismissal, news agency PTI reported. Special Secretary to the Karnataka Governor writes to the Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka "I am directed to forward herewith the original Notification signed by the Hon'ble Governor for removal of KN Rajanna, Hon'ble Minister for Co-operation, from the Council of… — ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2025 This move followed Chief Minister (CM) Siddaramaiah's recommendation to the governor to sack Rajanna, after the minister initially resisted calls to resign, the report added. While the reason for his dismissal is not known yet, it is being looked at in the context of his criticism of the Congress party in relation to the "vote-theft" row. Background Rajanna reportedly upset the Congress leadership by questioning his own party's government in Karnataka for the alleged 'vote theft' in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment, as claimed by senior party leader and leader of opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi accused the Election Commission of India of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to manipulate the 2024 Lok Sabha elections through voter fraud. He alleged that more than 100,000 fake voters were recorded in Mahadevapura during the elections. Rajanna, however, said that the irregularities took place while Congress was in charge of Karnataka and said they happened 'right before our eyes.' "Look, if we just start talking about such things casually, there will be different opinions. When was the voter list prepared? It was prepared when our own government was in power. At that time, was everyone just sitting quietly with eyes closed? These irregularities did take place — that's the truth. There is nothing false," Rajanna said, according to The Times of India. He further alleged that the Congress-ruled Karnataka government "kept quiet" at that time.
Scroll.in
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Karnataka minister KN Rajanna resigns day after his comments on Rahul Gandhi's ‘vote theft' charge
Karnataka Minister for Cooperation KN Rajanna resigned from the state Cabinet on Monday, The Indian Express reported. This came a day after Rajanna told reporters that the purported discrepancies in the voter list, alleged by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to have occurred in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bengaluru Central parliamentary constituency, took place despite the Congress being in power in the state. He reportedly said that when the voter list was being prepared, Congress leaders remained silent instead of raising objections at the draft stage. 'These irregularities did take place,' the newspaper quoted Rajanna as saying. 'It is a shame that we did not monitor it.' On August 7, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that his party had spent six months examining the electoral rolls in the Assembly constituency in central Bengaluru and found discrepancies in 1,00,250 names. He alleged that this was evidence of the Election Commission having colluded with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gandhi claimed that the electoral rolls included 11,965 duplicate entries, 40,009 voters with fake or invalid addresses, 10,454 'bulk voters' registered in a single address, 4,132 voters with invalid photographs and 33,692 voters in whose cases there had allegedly been misuse of Form 6. The Election Commission's Form 6 is an application document for registering new voters. On Friday, Gandhi urged the Karnataka government to investigate the alleged voter fraud in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. 'The Karnataka government must investigate this crime and take action,' Gandhi had said at a protest rally in Bengaluru on Friday. 'Election Commission officers who added thousands of fake people into the voter list must be questioned and bring out the truth of Mahadevapura.' Karnataka has had a Congress government since May 2023. He had claimed then that more than one seat in Karnataka had been 'stolen', adding that the Congress should have won 15 to 16 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections but secured only nine.
Scroll.in
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Karnataka poll official asks Rahul Gandhi to show papers based on which he claimed woman voted twice
The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday issued a notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, asking him to furnish documents to prove his claim that a woman in Bengaluru Central's Mahadevapura Assembly segment voted twice in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, ANI reported. Gandhi, at a press conference on Thursday during which he alleged large-scale discrepancies in the Assembly segment, claimed that a woman named Shakun Rani voted twice during last year's Lok Sabha election. The chief electoral officer said that on inquiry, Shakun Rani said that she voted only once, and not twice. 'Preliminary enquiry conducted by this office also reveals that the tick marked document shown by you in the presentation is not a document issued by the polling officer,' the officer told Gandhi in the notice. Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka gives Lok Sabha LoP Notice for providing documents to inquire into allegations made in his Press Conference in New Delhi on 07.08.2025. "You are kindly requested to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which you have concluded that… — ANI (@ANI) August 10, 2025 Gandhi on Thursday alleged that 1,00,250 'fake votes' were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment, which contributed to the BJP's victory in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in 2024. He accused the Election Commission of having colluded with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 'destroying the election system'. The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha claimed that the electoral rolls included 11,965 duplicate entries, 40,009 voters with fake or invalid addresses, 10,454 'bulk voters' registered in a single address, 4,132 voters with invalid photographs and 33,692 voters in whose cases there had allegedly been misuse of Form 6. The Election Commission's Form 6 is an application document for registering new voters. On Thursday, the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka had asked Gandhi to send the names of electors who had been allegedly wrongly included or excluded 'so that necessary proceedings can be initiated'. The chief electoral officer had also asked Gandhi to sign an oath for each such name, adding that making false declarations was punishable under the Representation of Peoples Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘Vote chori': Karnataka CEO asks Rahul Gandhi to submit proof for allegations related to Mahadevapura
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka on Sunday issued a notice to Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi asking him to provide documents to support the allegations of 'vote chori' he had made in New Delhi earlier. The notice was related to one of Gandhi's allegations of electoral malpractice in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. It referred to the Congress leader's remarks that one Shakun Rani had voted twice during the Lok Sabha polls held last year. 'You have also stated that as per the records given by the polling officer, Smt. Shakun Rani has voted twice. You have said; 'Es ID card per do baar vote lagahai, wo jo tick hai, polling booth ke officer ki hai'. On inquiry, Smt. Shakun Rani has stated that she has voted only once and not twice, as alleged by you,' the notice read. Issued by V Anbukumar, the CEO of Karnataka, it said the 'preliminary enquiry conducted by this office also reveals that the tick marked document shown by you in the presentation is not a document issued by the polling officer. Therefore, you are kindly requested to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which you have concluded that Smt. Shakun Rani or anyone else has voted twice, so that a detailed inquiry can be undertaken by this office.' At a recent news conference, Gandhi alleged that 1,00,250 'fake votes' were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in order to ensure a win for the BJP. He listed five methods in which fake voters were created to give the saffron party an edge. They included duplicate votes, fake and invalid addresses of voters, bulk voters in a single address, invalid photos, and misuse of Form 6. In a protest held at Bengaluru on August 8, he had also urged the Karnataka Government to inquire into the irregularities that allegedly took place during the 2024 polls. Shortly after Gandhi made the allegations, the CEO had asked him to submit his complaint regarding voter roll manipulation 'under oath'. Following a Congress protest on Friday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar submitted a memorandum to the CEO regarding the irregularities. On Saturday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the law department would investigate the allegations and submit a report soon. Responding to development, former Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali said that Shakun Rani was from Panipat and was living at Purva Apartments. 'She tries to add her name to the voters list with form 5. She gets no response for two months and then she applies again and when she checks the voter list subsequently, she finds her name twice in the same booth,' the BJP leader said in a statement. Limbavali accused Gandhi of misguiding the people by alleging that Rani had voted twice. 'When I checked the roll with my BLA – since we keep these records – we found that a person with the name Shakun Rani had voted only once. We asked her and she told us she had voted only under serial number 1228 in the voter list for booth number 341,' he said.
