A petition before the Karnataka High Court called for the cancellation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s election, alleging that his campaign’s promises of freebies for women discriminated against men. The petitioner’s counsel argued that Siddaramaiah’s election from the Varuna Assembly constituency should be annulled due to alleged malpractices, including bribing voters.
Bengaluru: The five guarantee schemes aimed at promoting social justice, promised by the Indian National Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, discriminatory against men and violated Article 14 of the Constitution, according to the petitioner challenging Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s election from the Varuna Assembly constituency.
This argument presented before the Karnataka High Court on Saturday by Senior Advocate Pramila Neasargi, representing petitioner KM Shankara, in front of Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav.
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Neasargi argued that Siddaramaiah’s election from Varuna should be annulled due to alleged malpractices, including voter bribery before the elections.
She cited the guarantee schemes, which provide benefits such as free travel for women, free electricity, rice distribution, financial aid for female heads of households, and unemployment allowances for graduates, as examples of such malpractices.
Neasargi stated,
“The guarantee scheme announced in the Indian National Congress’ manifesto amounted to bribery and constituted corrupt practice under the Representation of the People Act. In this instance, providing free bus rides at the expense of public taxpayers’ money generates no revenue and does not serve the common good. Moreover, it is limited to women, which directly violates Article 14.”
In the previous hearing, Senior Advocate Ravivarma Kumar, representing Siddaramaiah, argued that the petition challenging his 2023 election from the Varuna constituency was merely a “copy-paste” effort and should be dismissed on that basis alone.
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Kumar further pointed out that, earlier in March, a similar challenge to the 2023 election of MLA Rizwan Arshad from the Shivajinagar constituency dismissed by Justice S Vishwajith Shetty of the Karnataka High Court.
He emphasized that the petition against the Chief Minister’s election had been filed with nearly identical arguments, suggesting that the petitioner should face prosecution for participating in this “mass copying” of election petitions.