Complaint against 8 Karnataka MLCs over fake bills

Leader of the Opposition in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Padmanabha Reddy on Wednesday met the Election Commission of India officials here and sought the disqualification of eight members in the Karnataka Legislative Council, accusing them of claiming false travel bills.

In his complaint, Reddy said the eight MLCs-  B R Thimmapura, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Raghu Achar, N S Boseraju, S Ravi, M D Lakshminarayana (all belonging to the Congress), and C R Manohar and Appaji Gouda (JD-S) voted in the 2016 BBMP mayoral elections even though they were not registered as Bengaluru city voters.

The these MLCs represent different constituencies in the State. But they all participated in the mayoral polls stating that they were registered voters of the city, going against the electoral norms of the BBMP, the BJP councillor said.

He also said since they claimed that they reside in BBMP limits, the eight were not entitled to any travel allowance (TA) when they attended meetings of the Legislative Council.

“Even after claiming themselves as residents of Bengaluru, these MLCs stated that they were residing in various towns in the state and claimed travel allowances from Karnataka Legislative Council secretariat. This way, they misused government funds,” said Reddy told reporters after meeting the ECI officials. Reddy also said the he would also lodge similar complaint against these MLCs with the Karnataka Governor.