BENGALURU: Expelled MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal's open declaration of the candidate he voted for became a point of contention, with Congress alleging election misconduct.
Speaking to the media after voting concluded, MLA A S Ponnanna, former legal adviser to the chief minister, said former MP VS Ugrappa, who was the Congress polling agent, objected to Yatnal allegedly violating the secrecy of the ballot by openly issuing a letter revealing whom he intended to vote for.
"The secret ballot system adopted for the election was violated. Therefore, his vote ought to have been kept in a separate box. However, before the objection could be formally raised, he had already cast his vote in the same box as the other MLAs. The returning officer ruled that what happened outside the voting premises was not something she could take cognisance of, but that secrecy was maintained inside the voting booth," Ponnanna said.
However, MLC N Ravikumar contested the allegation, claiming that Ugrappa had brought up Yatnal's letter addressed to BJP national president Nitin Nabin inside the voting booth and questioned the MLA.
"The Congress election agent, Ugrappa, showed the letter and raised questions, which is not allowed. How did he show the letter? It was supposed to be a peaceful voting process," Ravikumar said.
"He (Ugrappa) was only supposed to verify whether all those entitled to vote had cast their votes. Instead, he questioned Yatnal on other matters," he added.
Ravikumar pointed out that the Congress' objection was that Yatnal's ballot should not have been placed in the same box as the others. "But the election officer said voting inside the room was conducted in secrecy and silence, and ruled that nothing improper had taken place," he said.
