Congress to EC: Scrutinise Karnataka tenders, contracts issued by BJP govts 45 days to 3 months before polls

“This is more so where the sole purpose of the tenders and contracts is to issue hugely inflated estimates, without appropriate assessment of cost of work or the need for works by the sanctioning authority for which no justification is available on government file,” read the memorandum.

“The tenders will have an impact during the election period that whatever money is released under those tenders would impact and influence people and therefore, this is something that they should examine. We are very pleased that the Election Commission said that even if it is before the code of conduct comes into operation, if it has an impact on the period of the code of conduct, we would be willing to look at it,” senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said after meeting the EC.

The memorandum claimed that the BJP governments at the state and Centre had issued tender notifications in various departments worth over Rs 20,000 crore.

The delegation, which also included Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain, Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Pratap Singh Bajwa and AICC secretaries Pranav Jha and Vineet Punia, also raised the issue of Karnataka State Media Certification Commission refusing clearance to some of the campaign material of the party.

“The Election Commission said that they are sending a senior officer to Karnataka tomorrow and that senior officer will make sure that there is a review of all the material that we have made a grievance about which has not been approved and that there would be a level playing field of material, which is permitted to every party in the past as well as at present,” Khurshid said.

The party also sought the immediate transfer of four officers who are serving the Karnataka Chief Electoral Office for more than three years. The party claimed these officers were allegedly linked with the “Chilume Trust” that was accused of illegally collecting voters’ data.