The BJP on Wednesday sought the Election Commission’s intervention to restrain senior leader KS Eshwarappa from using the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Shivamogga where he is contesting as an independent candidate.
Modi’s picture can be used only by BJP candidates or alliance partners. But the independent candidate Eshwarappa has been misleading, saying he is contesting on behalf of Modi and other BJP leaders. He is confusing the voters, and his act will have a bearing on the elections and hence constitutes an office, the BJP said in a letter to the Commission.
The party also sought stringent action against Eshwarappa and a direction to him not to use the image of Modi and other BJP leaders.Eshwarappa, a senior Kuruba (other backward classes) leader and a former state BJP president, has been firm in his decision to take on Yediyurapps’s son, BY Raghavendra, the official BJP candidate in Shivamogga.
The senior leader did not agree for a compromise when the BJP’s national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and State General Secretary (Organisation) GV Rajesh visited his house in Shivamogga ahead of the PM’s visit, last month.
Eshwarappa, a former deputy chief minister, has been miffed over denial of ticket to his son KE Kantesh from Haveri, and he holds Eshwarappa responsible for this.