Setback for Congress: Karnataka HC invalidates Malur MLA's election, orders recounting of votes

The Karnataka High Court has set aside the election of Congress MLA KY Nanje Gowda from Malur in Kolar district and ordered recounting of votes polled in the constituency in the May 2023 assembly polls in four weeks in a major setback for the ruling Congress.

The judgment by a Justice R Devadas came on an election petition filed by the BJP candidate KS Manjunath Gowda, who had lost to the Congress candidate by 248 votes. The petitioner had alleged irregularities in the counting of votes. The court invalidated the MLA’s election after an elaborate hearing on the petition.

The court, however, has put operation of its judgment on hold for a month on a plea from the Congress MLA. The interim relief would allow him to move the Supreme Court. Malur seat will fall vacant after a month if the MLA does not get the relief.

The court verdict has come as a major setback for the Congress MLA who had been pursuing plans to become the chairman of the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Federation (KMF), the owner of dairy brand Nandini.

The BJP cheered the development as it comes barely a month after Rahul Gandhi kicked off the Congress party’s nationwide vote-theft campaign from Bengaluru on August 8, seeking to amplify his charge that the elections had been rigged in Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat.

Opposition leader R Ashoka (BJP) called the development vote-chori by the Congress “This is a direct indictment of #INCIndia’s #VoteChori politics,” he said in a post on X, and wondered if Rahul Gandhi would now launch the campaign against his own party MLA. He urged chief minister Siddaramaiah and Dy CM DK Shivakumar to answer how the Congress stole the mandate of Malur people.