Bengaluru, 27 September

KPCC President BK Hariprasad on Sunday said the BJP-led NDA could not replicate its Bihar electoral strategy in Karnataka with the Election Commission, and demanded that the poll panel address questions over its functioning.

“If they (BJP leaders) say they will win in Karnataka the way they did in Bihar, it is very clear that they will try to win by keeping the Election Commission as the umpire. But that will not be possible in Karnataka,” Hariprasad told reporters here.

Hariprasad said that the BJP could not divert attention away from the Election Commission by targeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and targeted Keralam BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

He questioned Chandrasekhar’s membership of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence and demanded an investigation into decisions taken by the committee during his tenure and any benefits he may have received.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the reports of differences between Election Commissioners had shown that the “vote chori” charge placed by Rahul and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge “had turned out to be true”.