Basavaraj Bommai said, “I make it clear that the leaders of Delhi have not spoken to me.”
Belagavi/Hubli:
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday rejected Congress state president DK Shivakumar’s statement that there was a proposal to hold assembly elections early.
With just four months left for the Karnataka assembly elections, Mr. Shivakumar today claimed that the BJP government is going to hold early elections on the pretext of Covid.
Bommai told reporters in Belagavi, “DK Shivakumar has said that early assembly elections may be possible due to COVID-19. He even said that leaders of Delhi have also spoken to me.”
The Chief Minister said, “I clarify that the leaders of Delhi have not spoken to me. We have no proposal to hold early elections even before the completion of the term.”
Mr. Shivakumar had said in Hubli that the Chief Minister had also spoken to Director General of Police Praveen Sood regarding the preparations for the elections.
“With Covid as an excuse, they can hold elections ahead of time. He (Bommai) has spoken to the Director General of Police regarding the preparedness. Today, he has spoken to the cabinet members. This is not an official information, but informal.” Mr. Shivakumar told reporters.
He said, “Even he (Bommai) got a call from the Prime Minister’s Office. We are always ready for elections whenever he wants.”
The state Congress chief alleged that the central government was trying to disrupt Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in view of the large number of people attending.
He said the state government had also disrupted his march from Mekedatu to Bengaluru earlier this year for a balancing reservoir on the Cauvery river, using COVID as an excuse and cases against him and others were registered.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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