Congress petition Governor over delay in elections for local bodies

Bangalore, May 5 (UNI) The Congress party in Karnataka today petitioned Governor T N Chaturvedi against the JD(S)-BJP coalition government's delaying tactics in holding elections to 207 urban local bodies, which were stayed by the Karnataka High Court.

The Congress leaders including Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mallikarjuna Kharge, Opposition leaders in the two Houses N Dharam Singh and H K Patil, respectively, met Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

The leaders, in their petition, alleged that the government, which was reluctant to hold the elections, deliberately erred in the allocation of Reservation to various categories. The Karnataka High Court had granted stay from holding the elections, which were announced by the State Election Commission following a writ petition filed by certain aggrieved persons who had challenged the Reservations allotted by the state government.

In their memorandum, the leaders also urged the Governor to instruct the state government to delegate the powers to State Election Commission to rectify the anomalies.

Congress leaders also stated that the state government's move to appoint administrators to the local bodies, after the five-year term of elected representatives ended, was against the spirit of the Constitutional provisions.

Later, speaking to newspersons KPCC president Mallikarjuna Kharge said that his party would bring pressure on the state government to hold the elections to the local bodies as early as possible. The party would also launch an agitation in the state if the state government failed to hold the elections early, he said.

UNI