Tejasvi Surya Booked On Karnataka Polling Day For Allegedly Seeking Votes In The Name Of Religion

Tejasvi Surya, the sitting MP and BJP's candidate from Bengaluru South was booked by the chief electoral officer of Karnataka for a video posted on X in which votes were solicited on religious grounds.

A case was filed against Tejasvi Surya under section 123(3) at Jayanagar PS on April 25, as tweeted by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, amid polling in the crucial seat where Tejasvi is contesting against Congress's Sowmya Reddy, as per ANI report.

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Tejasvi Surya Booked On Karnataka Polling Day, Know Why

Appeals to voters were made by Tejasvi throughout the day to exercise their franchise. At around 2 pm, the last video was issued to him in which Ram Mandir was mentioned along with border security and Article 370 in an appeal to make the most of the remaining four hours of voting, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Earlier, an 80%-20% analogy was given by Tejasvi, urging BJP voters to turn out in large numbers at the polling booths. "We the BJP voters are 80 per cent but only 20 per cent come out and vote. Congress' voters are 20 per cent but they come out and vote 80 per cent. This is the ground reality at the polling booths in most cases. Every single vote of yours matters. Please come out and vote because if you are not voting, Congress' 20 per cent is voting," stated Tejasvi.

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Till 3 pm, Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 50.93% with Bengaluru South registering 40.77%. Udupi Chikmagalur had the highest turnout till 3 pm with 57.49%, Hassan 55.92%, Dakshina Kannada 58.76%, Chitradurga 52.14%, Tumkur 56.62%, Mandya 57.44%, Mysore 53.55%, Chamarajanagar 54.82%, Bangalore Rural 49.62%, Bangalore North 41.12%, Bangalore Central 40.10%, Bangalore South 40.775, Chikkballapur 55.90%, Kolar 54.66%, as reported by Hindustan Times.

As Tejasvi's vote was cast early in the day, a scathing attack on the Congress was launched by him, wherein it was stated that the party may not win more than 30 seats. It was emphasized by him that the Congress party had become frustrated, with survey after survey indicating that it may not win more than 30 seats.

Additionally, it was mentioned that more personal attacks and baseless allegations were made against the Prime Minister, history has shown that the Prime Minister had only gotten stronger and the BJP had only become more popular. ANI was told that today was a celebration day in Karnataka and it was a festival of democracy.