- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The political mercury is soaring high with the high-profile election in the southern Indian state of Karnataka approaching. On Thursday (27), a few leaders of the Indian National Congress in the state, including its state chief DK Shivakumar, filed a police complaint against home minister Amit Shah and other leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the copy complaint.
In the complaint filed at a police station in state capital Bengaluru, Shah was accused of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and hatred and maligning the opposition during his recent rallies in the poll-bound state.
The BJP is in power in Karnataka since 2019 when the coalition government of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress collapsed and is eyeing a return to power although the state’s political history shows that it has always been difficult for the ruling party to beat the anti-incumbency mood.
The Congress, on the other hand, is hoping to return to power in a big Indian state ahead of next year’s general elections.
Karnataka will go to polls on May 10 with the results announced on May 13.
“Union Home Minister has said that if Congress comes to power then there will be communal riots. How can he say this? We have filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India on this,” DK Shivakumar said after filing the complaint, Asian News International reported.
Shivakumar was accompanied by senior Congress leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Dr Parmeshwar.
The complaint mentioned the name of Shah, concerned BJP leaders and the organisers of the rally at Vijaypura and other locations in Karnataka on April 25.
“Speech given by Amit Shah was shockingly riddled with flagrantly false statements aimed at tarnishing the image of Indian National Congress by levelling false and unfounded allegations, with a clear objective of trying to create an atmosphere of communal disharmony amongst the gathered crowd and the individuals viewing it on other media platforms,” the complaint read.
A video link of the alleged hate speech was also attached to the complaint. Sections like 153, 505 (2), 171G and 120B of the Indian Penal Code were mentioned in the complaint.
It is to be noted that Shah is doing back to back to back rallies as the BJP’s star campaigner for the Karnataka polls.
