BENGALURU: A special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru has issued summons to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar in a case regarding advertisements released by the Congress alleging corruption by the previous BJP government in the run-up to the May 10 Assembly election.
State BJP secretary S Keshavprasad had filed the complaint on May 9 and the court has posted the case for July 27 for recording of statements. The advertisement published by the Congress had claimed that the previous BJP took 40 per cent commission in government contracts and had looted the state of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
In the run-up to the Assembly election, the Congress had released advertisements featuring a ‘corruption rate card’ allegedly prevailing during the previous BJP government. “The cost for the CM post is ₹2,500 crores while the cost of a ministerial berth is ₹500 crore”, among other charges.
The Election Commission had also issued notice to the Karnataka Congress to submit proof of its allegations.