Bengaluru: A day after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy stated that the state government delayed the announcement of the annual Rajyothsava award keeping in mind the election code of conduct, the Election Commission has responded. The Commission has made it clear that the state government didn’t consult the commission on the issue and the announcement of the Rajyotsava awards had nothing to do with the code of conduct.
In a statement to the media, Sanjeev Kumar, state election commissioner informed that state government didn’t approach the commission seeking any clarity on the issue. “Conde of conduct does not stop the government from announcing the awards,” he stated.
According to the highly placed sources, keeping in mind the by-election, CM HDK wanted to avoid another confrontation with the coalition partner, the Congress.
“The Congress MLAs are pressurising the CM to select their nominees for the award. To ensure that it will not result in a political crisis, he decided to defer the announcement of the awards and unnecessarily dragged the commission to another controversy,” said sources in the government.