BENGALURU, 21 FEB

Congress MLA P Ravi Kumar (Ganiga) has petitioned City Police Commissioner B Dayananda over allegations of cash-for-votes for elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka to be held on 27 February. This comes a day after Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said he had information that former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was making offers to Congress MLAs to buy votes for D Kupendra Reddy, a candidate backed by JD(S)-BJP.

In the two-page complaint given to Dayananda on Tuesday, Kumar urged the commissioner to file a first information report (FIR) based on the points he had raised. Kumar claimed he has proof of senior BJP and JD(S) leaders approaching three independent MLAs, associated with the Congress party, with promises of inducements to cross-vote. “Once an inquiry is initiated, I will submit all evidence, which ranges from inducements to threatening them with dire consequences,'' he said.

In the elections for four Rajya Sabha seats, the Congress based on its numerical strength in the Assembly (135 party MLAs and three Independents) has fielded three candidates. BJP with 66 MLAs, one Independent and 19 members of JD(S) will fall short of four votes to get its second candidate, business magnate Reddy elected. Each candidate needs 45 first-preference votes to get elected.

In the complaint, Kumar said the Independent candidates — Darshan Puttannaiah, Latha Mallikarjun and KH Puttaswamy Gowda — have been approached individually for cash-for-votes. He claimed Reddy's son and the owner of a prominent hotel had contacted Latha and offered money to cross-vote. Later, Latha's husband Mallikarjun was approached by Harihar's former MLA Shivashankar with inducements. Similar attempts have been made to Puttannaiah and Gowda.