Women politicians do not always receive adequate representation in Indian legislature, in spite of a law that dictates 33 per cent of the elected representatives should belong to the fairer sex. The situation is not very different in Karnataka politics.
Vicky Nanjappa travels to Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy's constituency, Ramnagar to assess the mood of the voters there
The strange practices that politicians adopt before they file their nomination papers
Many candidates in Karnataka put off their move to file nominations for the May 5 assembly elections on Wednesday owing to 'amavasya', considered inauspicious, as the poll process was set in motion.
Much to their dismay, the two leaders have chosen to stay on the sidelines of the election campaign in the state.
In a major political development in Karnataka, three independent legislators -- G Shekhar, Sangadgi, and Narendra Swami -- on Monday called on Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa at the latter's residence in Bangalore. The BJP needs the support of three more legislators to achieve simple majority in the 224-member Karnataka assembly.
The build-up of voters at polling stations, which are manned heavily by security personnel was slow initially, but picked up later. The state government has declared a holiday on Saturday to ensure that voters turn up in large numbers. Polling has been peaceful so far in the 12 districts and no untoward incident has been reported.
BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, who sat glued to the television, said the final tally of the BJP would be 120 seats, which is 8 more than the magical number to form the government in the 224-member Karnataka legislative assembly. Although B S Yeddyurappa will be the chief minister once the BJP forms the government, a legislative party meeting will be held on Monday to officially announce his name for the top post.
About 58,000 police personnel are maintaining vigil on 12,389 polling stations in the districts of Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga,Bidar, Gadag, Dharwad and Haveri. Brisk voting was witnessed in parts of Gulbarga and Dharwad where people queued up to cast votes in the morning. However, the turnout was low in Bijapur and Bagalkot where only about nine per cent of votes had been polled.
Speaking about the third phase of polls, the attention automatically gets diverted to the Dr D M Nanjundappa Committee Report. The committee was set up by the Karnataka government in order to study and redress the problems of regional imbalance in Karnataka. While the report managed to bring about a smile on the faces of several persons when it was initially submitted, the fact remains that almost eight years after it was submitted, it is yet to see to the light of the day.
Karnataka Congress chief Mallikarjuna Kharge on the party's prospects in Karnataka, his aspirations on becoming chief minister and issues pertaining to state election 2008.
'There is a certain amount of respect for the JD-S as compared to the other parties. The plus point for the JD-S is the rule of H D Kumaraswamy as chief minister for 20 months. He is considered as the best chief minister of Karnataka till date.This will work in favour of the JD-S and thanks to this factor the party will earn a considerable number of votes.'
Senior party leader Arun Jaitley said the party may be 'little away from the magical figure' of 113 in the 224- member assembly.
The fate of nearly 1,600 candidates, who contested the polls in the three-phase election, will be known and if there is a clear verdict, the people of Karnataka, who have been governed by the Rule of the President for the past six months, will know which party will rule the state by Sunday itself.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh took on Finance Minister Chidambaram on his loan waiver proposal in the Union Budget. Singh said the finance minister had assured that Rs 60,000 crore would be granted towards loan waiver. However, the requirement is just Rs 23,000 crore, the BJP national president pointed out while also adding that Chidambaram was trying to misguide the public.
On being branded as a party of Lingayats, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in North Karnataka, other parties were trying to give his party this image. "However, this is untrue and the distribution of tickets, especially in Bangalore, will prove that wrong. Most of our candidates are from the Vokkaliga and Reddy community and hence branding the BJP as a party of Lingayats is not correct," he added.
Bharatiya Janata Party emerged on top with 32-42 out of the 66 seats, which went to polls in the second phase of Karnataka assembly elections on Friday followed by Congress (15-20) and Janata Dal-Secular (8-12), according to an exit poll by NDTV news channel. Others were expected to win around 2-4 seats, the exit poll said.
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