Tejasvi Surya booked on polling day for 'seeking votes in name of religion'

Tejasvi Surya was booked by the Karnataka chief electoral officer for 'seeking votes in the name of religion' in a video posted on X.

Bengaluru South sitting MP and BJP's candidate from the same seat Tejasvi Surya was booked by the chief electoral officer, Karnataka for posting a video on X in which he solicited votes on the ground of religion. "Case is booked against Tejasvi Surya MP and Candidate of Bengaluru South PC on 25.04.24 at Jayanagar PS u/s 123(3) for posting a video in 'X' handle and soliciting votes on the ground of religion," Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka tweeted on Friday amid polling in the crucial seat where Tejasvi's contest is against Congress's Sowmya Reddy.

Tejasvi made several appeals to voters to come out and exercise their franchise. At around 2pm, he issued the last video in which he mentioned Ram Mandir apart from border security, Article 370 in his appeal to utilise the last four hours of voting to the fullest.

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Earlier, Tejasvi gave an 80%-20% analogy asking BJP voters to come to the polling booths in huge numbers. "We the BJP voters are 80 per cent but only 20 per cent come out and vote. Congress' voters are 20 per cent but they come out and vote 80 per cent. This is the ground reality at the polling booths in most cases. Every single vote of yours matters. Please come out and vote because if you are not voting, Congress' 20 per cent is definitely voting," Tejasvi said.

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Till 3pm, Karnataka recorded a voter turnout of 50.93% with Bengaluru South registering 40.77%. Udupi Chikmagalur had the highest turnout till 3 pm with 57.49%, Hassan 55.92%, Dakshina Kannada 58.76%, Chitradurga 52.14%, Tumkur 56.62%, Mandya 57.44%, Mysore 53.55%, Chamarajanagar 54.82%, Bangalore Rural 49.62%, Bangalore North 41.12%, Bangalore Central 40.10%, Bangalore South 40.775, Chikkballapur 55.90%, Kolar 54.66%.

As Tejasvi cast his vote early in the day, he launched a scathing attack on the the Congress and said the party may not win more than 30 seats. "Congress party has become absolutely frustrated. Survey after survey shows that it may not win more than 30 seats... The more personal attacks and baseless allegations they make against the PM, history has shown that the Prime Minister has only gotten stronger and the BJP has only gotten more popular," he said. "Today is a celebration day in Karnataka. it is a festival of democracy. Millions of people will go out and vote... This is not just a right, but also a duty, because if we don't vote, we are not registering our voice, and contributing meaningfully to a democracy... Just like every year, more senior citizens are seen at the booths, they are coming out in big numbers to vote. I wish young people draw inspiration from senior citizens and also come out in big numbers and vote," he told ANI.

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