Karnataka assembly election: EC to investigate alleged fake voter ID scam in Bengaluru

With just days to go for the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018, close to 20,000 fake voters IDs was allegedly recovered from Congress candidate Muniratna's constituency of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Chief Election Officers (CEO) of Karnataka, Sanjeev Kumar while addressing an emergency press conference said that more than 9,000 genuine voter IDs were receovered from a flat belonging to a woman.

He added that in the next 24 hours when more information is available firm action will be taken.

Kumar says that they are unsure of how the voter ID cards reached the flat in the constituency and added that only after investigations appropriate action would be taken.

Conflicting reports suggest that a few of the voter IDs were genuine, while the remaining were clearly fake.

Kumar concluded by saying that after investigations, the Election Commission would take a decision on polling in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar.

Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded that since the fake voter IDs were found in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru, voting in the constituency should be postponed.

"Democracy is being attacked," Union Minister Sadananda Gowda tweeted as he posted photographs of the trunk loads of fake photo ID cards.

Raja Rajeshwari Nagar is one of the larger constituencies in Bengaluru and has about 4.35 lakh voters. In 2013, the seat had gone to the Congress's Munirathna who secured 37 per cent vote share. Munirathna, who is seeking re-election, is pitted against the BJP's Muniraju Gowda PM who put out a video of his search on Facebook.