Sowmya plaint against Surya for ‘forcing’ students to attend rally

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Former MLA and Congress candidate from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat Sowmya Reddy on Thursday filed a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) against BJP MP and her rival in the constituency, Tejasvi Surya.

She and her Congress compatriots alleged Surya and his supporters had compelled students of at least two colleges in the constituency to attend his rally en route to filing papers on Thursday.

The two colleges in question are Jain College which is located in VV Puram and BMS College in Basavangudi.

The students of Jain College went a step further and alleged that attendance at the rally was made out to be compulsory in their college student council WhatsApp groups.

Screenshots of some of the messages have been doing the rounds on social media.

“Tomorrow, all the members of the student council have to assemble near Maiyas hotel Jaynagar at 9.0 AM for Tejaswi Surya rally. You’ll be getting T-shirt so don’t be late. Everyone has to be there at the reporting time and no excuses will be entertained. You will be getting attendance for this. Thank You!” the text message read.

Other screenshots show students asking why attendance was mandatory. Some responses said Surya had attended their college fest and it was their turn to return the favour.

It has been pointed out that the student council doesn’t have the power to mark students as present if they miss classes.