Belagavi: Former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) member Shankar Munavalli has filed petition in the Dharwad high court circuit bench questioning the appointment of Dinesh Gundurao as the KPCC president and him distributing ‘B’ forms to party candidates.The petition has been admitted in the high court and the next hearing is on March 28. Munavalli has prayed not to validate the ‘B’ forms given by Dinesh Gundurao and direct the income tax department to inquire the returns submitted by KPCC authorities.The petitioner has made the Election Commission of India, the chief commissioner of income tax, Bengaluru, AICC president Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and KPCC working president Ishwar Khandre apart from KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao the respondents in the case.Munavalli has stated that the KPCC president must be elected as per the bylaw of the Congress party. “But subverting the law, the party has not been conducting elections for the post since the past 20 years. Instead, it is nominating members to such crucial posts. Gundurao has not been elected to the post as per law and hence he does not have authority to issue ‘B’ forms,” Munavalli said.On Friday, he said the oldest political party of the country was not only violating the law by appointing persons to crucial posts but was also mishandling public donations. He alleged that party leaders misused the donations he had given three times.According to Munavalli, he had donated Rs 2.5 lakh on October 27, 2015, and Rs 5 lakh on June 28, 2017, to the party through cheques. He claimed he had donated Rs 16.5 lakh on July 10, 2017, which was returned to him after he sought details about how the money had previously given to the party was spent, he said.According to the senior leader, the income tax department has never inquired him about the source of money he donated to the party. “This means, the money I donated was not shown to the IT department, which is illegal,” he claimed.

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