BJP MP Surya is charged with breaking the election code

Bengaluru: Leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Member of Parliament for Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, has been accused of “seeking votes” in the name of religion and violating the election code of conduct. Chief electoral officer, Karnataka, stated on X, “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.”

The Bengaluru Jayanagar police station has received the case. In 14 seats across Karnataka, voting took place on Friday for the first round of the Lok Sabha elections. This was the Congress and BJP’s second showdown on the political battlefield in less than a year. Up to 5 p.m., poll authorities reported 63.90 percent voter participation. Of the fourteen segments that held elections, Mandya had the greatest turnout—74.87 percent—followed by Udupi-Chikmagalur and Hassan, both of which had equal turnouts of 72.13 percent, and Bangalore Central, which had the lowest—48.61 percent.

Despite signs of ongoing voter apathy in the city, Bangalore North had a turnout of 50.04 percent and Bangalore South had a turnout of 49.37 percent. Bangalore Rural, which is seeing a close race between D K Suresh, MP for the Congress and brother of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, and Dr. C N Manjunath, a renowned cardiologist and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s son-in-law running on the BJP ticket, has registered 61.78 percent of the vote.

For the first round of the election, which covers most of the southern and coastal regions and allows over 2.88 crore people to cast ballots at 30,602 polling places, a total of 247 candidates—226 men and 21 women—are in the running.