Ex-BJP man held for taking money for false promise of ticket

NT Correspondent

Ballari/Vijayanagara: Yet another case of a BJP worker allegedly defrauding a ticket aspirant of large sums of money has come to light in Kottur town in Ballari district.

Revanasiddappa, who had left the BJP and joined the G Janardhana Reddy-led Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janata Party has been arrested, Vijayanagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Sriharibabu has confirmed.

In the lead up to the Assembly elections, he had allegedly promised retired engineer Shivamurthy of Kottur a BJP ticket from the Hagaribommanahalli constituency in Vijayanagara district for a sum of Rs 1.95 crore.

Revanasiddappa had recruited one Shekhar based in Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district to pull off the scam. When the relevant BJP list was released and Shivamurthy realized that the ticket had gone to someone else, he confronted Revanasiddappa, who responded with threats.

When asked to intervene, village elders got the two parties to agree on a compromise wherein Shivamurthy would have his money returned to him. The accused is said to have written two cheques to Shivamurthy but both bounced.

The aggrieved person then filed a complaint at the Kottur police station. Revanasiddappa was arrested by local cops, it has been revealed. The incident comes in the backdrop of the Chaitra case.

The woman had allegedly cheated a businessman of Rs 5 crore by falsely promising him that she’d get him the BJP ticket from the Byndoor constituency in Udupi district.