Bagepalli

Congress

G V Sreeramareddy

Elections are over and a new government is in place, but some voters — who were apparently promised money in exchange of votes — alle ged that they did not get the cash as assured by a national parrty.At least 100 voters inconstituency came out in open, saying that they had been given fake bonds worth Rs 10,000 and were asked to encash the same on May 25 by the representatives of a national party.Sources said two unknown persons from a national party had approached voters with the bonds before the polls. Those who received the bond said they were told that the same could be encashed on May 25. When they tried to encash the same, they realised that the company [Prarthana Credit Cooperative Society] as well as the phone number mentioned on the bond were fake. The bonds were distributed on April 9. Some were even informed that they would receive another Rs 5 lakh soon.Jagadeesh Ganganna- var, who was the Returning Officer for Bagepalli constituency said, “This incident was brought to our notice recently. We got calls from the public informing about such bonds. If it was brought to our notice during the election time, we would have taken action through a raid or seizure. Now, after election, it remains to be seen what we can do now. There are two aspects to this — issuing the bond and receiving the bond is bribery. We have filed more than 40 FIRs, but this incident is being talked about only now. They can now register a police complaint, but those who have accepted the bond will also be in trouble.” SN Subbareddy () won, securing 65,710 votes whileof the CPI(M) came second with 51,697 votes.