CM Siddaramaiah files statement of objections to petition challenging his election

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Statement of Objections by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the petition challenging his election was filed before the High Court by his advocate on Thursday.

The Court recorded the submissions made and adjourned the hearing to October 6.

“The Election Petition filed by the Petitioner lacks legal merit and factual basis. The Petitioner has filed the present Election Petition purely to wreak political vengeance and the same is filled with political malafides. The Petitioner has approached this Hon'ble Court without solid evidence or legal grounds, making it appropriate for dismissal,” the statement says.

The Election Petition by KM Shankara, a resident of Siddaramaiah’s constituency Varuna, was before Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav and alleged that Siddaramaiah during the recently concluded Assembly Elections “indulged in corrupt practice during the election period.”

Concerning the allegation of corrupt practices, Siddaramaiah’s objections state, “The averments are baseless and the same has been averred without any application of mind. The Petitioner has not provided any cogent or coherent reasons to set aside the election conducted,” and that “the entire burden of proof to prove allegations of corruption beyond reasonable doubt is on the Petitioner.”

The Objections claim that as per the Supreme Court direction in Subramanyam Balaji v State of Tamil Nadu judgement hand-outs by a political party after they come to form a government cannot be termed a corrupt practice.

The Statement further states that “the promises made in the manifesto would not amount to a corrupt practice committed by an individual candidate.”

Objecting to the allegation that the poll promises are detrimental to the economics of the State, the statement says they “are the random estimates made by pseudo economists who have no understanding of the policy and are hereby denied as false.

The Petitioner has put forth fallacious and erroneous numbers and statistics made in a Samvada by Sri Vishveshara Bhat this is entirely false and baseless and has been made through unscientific means.”

Claiming the allegations against the Congress party’s guarantee schemes, the statement says, “The Petitioner has attempted to critically examine each guarantee scheme without understanding its basic tenets and before the actual policy had come out, he has expressed his views based on newspaper reports and has attempted to build a compelling story which has nothing to do with the current proceedings under RP Act.”