Those seeking the resignation of CEC are anti-national, says B.P. Yatnal

Those seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar are anti-national, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, an expelled BJP MLA, said in Vijayapura on Monday.

"Mr. Kumar is a true patriot. It is because of his timely execution of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise that West Bengal remains an integral part of India. Otherwise, it would have seceded to Bangladesh. He is cleaning the electoral rolls diligently. He is removing all the fake and bogus voters that were entered in the lists by Congress leaders in the past. Most of these fake and bogus voters were Muslims. They acted as the vote bank of the Congress. Now that they are being removed, the Congress is worried," he said.

Mr. Yatnal was speaking at a rally at Gagan Mahal, held to express support for Mr. Kumar. Mr. Yatnal began the rally by offering a milk abhisheka to a life-size portrait of Mr. Kumar. He urged his supporters to expose the ill intentions and misdeeds of anti-national forces who were creating anarchy by insulting Mr. Kumar.

He said that he had written a letter to the SIR officers to delete the names of bogus Muslim voters in Vijayapura, as he knew "all about them". "Some goons come to the Deputy Commissioner's office every day and complain about me, but I do not care about it. I can expose them anytime," he said.

Drought relief

Mr. Yatnal said Congress Ministers in Karnataka had distributed a pittance to farmers in the name of drought relief. "They have given just ₹2,500 per acre. That is insignificant. There was no need for the State government to pay that. Our own Minister M.B. Patil is so rich that he could have distributed this amount to farmers from his own pocket,'' he said. "As an MLA, I would give up six months' salary to help farmers. Will the other MLAs do that?" he questioned.

Mr. Yatnal claimed that B.R. Ambedkar had said that all Muslims should be sent to Pakistan to keep India safe, and alleged that the Congress was following policies of Muslim appeasement. "Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has called Muslims his brothers. Mr. Patil said he would field a Muslim as the Congress candidate from Bijapur City constituency and make him an MLA. I challenge Mr. Patil to seek only Muslim votes and win any election," he said.

Mr. Yatnal's supporters carried flags with the symbol of a JCB earth mover, in anticipation of a new party named 'JCB' to be registered by him. A JCB earth mover was brought to the Gandhi Chowk Circle to shower petals on the protesters.