Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, on Thursday, while taking a dig at the BJP-ruled government in Karnataka, said that the Election Commission (EC) is acting on state government's direction. Venugopal's comments came in connection with the EC informing the Supreme Court that it would defer the upcoming by-polls to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka till the top court takes a decision on the 17 disqualified MLAs.

Expressing shock over EC's statement, Venugopal told news agency ANI, "The Election Commission acts on the directions of the Central government." He also, while pointing out how the order that came from the apex court has hit the BJP hard and has led the party to reconsider their position, said, "They are now hesitant to fight the elections."

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Venugopal has targetted BJP earlier too

However, this is not the first time that Venugopal has targetted the saffron party. Recently, he had slammed the party over the arrest of DK Shivakumar in a money laundering case. The Congress leader had called the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI 'puppets' of the Central Government. He had also claimed that the government was trying to divert public attention from important issues and that the arrest was made to hide the failures of the economic slowdown by the BJP Government. 

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Hearing on October 22

According to the Supreme Court orders, the hearing of the arguments in the Karnataka MLAs disqualification matter will happen on October 22. On a related note, the by-polls were scheduled to be held on October 21 and the result was supposed to be announced on October 24. Further, the legislators have sought relief to contest the Assembly elections for 15 Assembly seats in the state.

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