This story is from November 23, 2019

HD Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah accuse Bengaluru police of assisting BJP campaign

The opposition Congress and JD(S), which aggressively launched their bypoll campaigns in Bengaluru on Friday, accused the city police of favouring the disqualified MLAs and the ruling BJP ahead of the December 5 byelections.
HD Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah accuse Bengaluru police of assisting BJP campaign
BENGALURU: The opposition Congress and JD(S), which aggressively launched their bypoll campaigns in Bengaluru on Friday, accused the city police of favouring the disqualified MLAs and the ruling BJP ahead of the December 5 byelections.
“BJP candidates are misusing the police force to threaten our cadre and leaders,” said former chief ministers HD Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah, while campaigning in Mahalakshmi Layout and Yeshwantpur respectively.
“They are forcefully preventing them from lending support to our candidates.”
The two former CMs also accused Bengaluru police of being “compliant” with diktats of the ruling BJP. Kumaraswamy also made personal attacks on disqualified JD(S) MLA and BJP candidate K Gopalaiah, alleging he had a “dubious past”.
“Everyone in Mahalakshmi Layout and elsewhere know the antecedents of the man,” Kumaraswamy said. “He reformed himself when he was associated with us. However, the instincts a person is born with cannot change and we can do nothing about it.”
The Congress and the JD(S) recently expelled six of their BBMP corporators for indulging in anti-party activities. It was found that they were campaigning for BJP candidates.
“Many of our party leaders and workers are scared of him [Gopalaiah] now,” Kumaraswamy said after some television channels showed JD(S) leaders campaigning for Gopalaiah. “Our BBMP corporator Bhadre Gowda was forced to back the BJP as the police entered his home and threatened his family.”

The former CM said he had spoken to senior police officers and urged them to stop cops from harassing party workers.
In Yeshwantpur, Siddaramaiah echoed a similar view. The former CM said he spoke to Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao in this regard and asked him to initiate action. “If police continue to behave in a biased manner, we will have no choice but to take to the streets to protest,” Siddaramaiah said.
Asked to respond, Rao said: “Police are bent on conducting elections impartially. If any untoward incident occurs, one should file a complaint and we will act on it immediately.”
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