Kumaraswamy asks EC to take corrective steps

Bangalore, Dec 2 (UNI) Denying that he had violated the model code of conduct while campaigning for the Chamundeshwari Assembly bypoll, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who had already been repriminded by the Election Commission for alleged violations, demanded that the EC take immediate corrective steps to undo the damage done to him personally and his party's image at the earliest.

In a letter to the EC, copies of which were released to the media here, he claimed that the EC's action had not only put his party at great disadvantage in the poll arena, but also provided a tool to the Opposition parties to criticise him and the party. The Chief Minister alleged that the EC had ignored and overlooked various facts which ought to have been examined before arriving at the ''unilateral'' decision of reprimanding him and cautioning him to be careful in future.

Mr Kumaraswamy also communicated his displeasure over the EC rejecting his explanation on the impugned act of distributing cheques of Rs 5,000 each to the beneficiaries of the Self-Employment Scheme. The beneficiaries had been shortlisted by the SC/ST Development Corporation, a State agency, to implement the existing scheme even before the EC had announced the date for the byelection to the Chamundeshwari Assembly seat, he had contended.

He rued that the EC had rendered an ''unfair'' act on him by rejecting his reply to the EC's earlier order and his subsequent reprimand which had drawn wide media attention and created a false impression in the minds of readers and the electorate of the Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency.

UNI MV GD TS1840