Election Commission books BJP MP Tejasvi Surya for 'soliciting votes on ground of religion'

BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya has been booked for violation of the election code of conduct and "seeking votes" in the name of the religion.

"Case is booked against Tejasvi Surya MP and Candidate of Bengaluru South PC on 25.04.24 at Jayanagar PS u/s 123(3) for posting a video in X handle and soliciting votes on the ground of religion," Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka posted on X.

The case has been filed with Jayanagar police station in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, Vasanth Kumar, Advocate and BJP legal cell Convenor said that five complaints were lodged with the Election Commission today.

"Today 5 complaints were lodged with the Election Commission. One is canvassing and speaking to workers by CM Siddaramaiah inside a polling booth in Mysuru...another complaint is, in a polling booth in Kolar constituency, one ex-councillor Venkatesh is distributing cash to voters, another complaint is AICC Youth President Srinivas is protesting...today is polling day so he is violating Model Code of Conduct," Vasanth Kumar said.

Earlier today, BJP candidate from Bengaluru South constituency, Tejasvi Surya, cast his vote in Bengaluru and predicted that the Congress party may not win more than 30 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

Karnataka is voting on 14 seats today in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections.

The second phase has 88 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 States/Union Territory, including 13 in Rajasthan, 20 in Kerala, eight in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam and Bihar, six in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one each in Tripura, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir.

34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes. Additionally, there are 3.28 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years. 1202 candidates (males: 1098; females: 102; third gender: 02) are in the fray.