Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced reservation for Muslims in supplying goods and services up to a value of Rs 1 crore to various government departments, corporations and institutions in the state budget for 2025-26. The budget also increased the value limit of government contracts in which Muslims can avail reservation to Rs 2 crore. The reservation to Muslims under 2B category is in addition to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Castes coming under Category-1, Category-2A. The budget also included various welfare schemes for minorities, including Rs 50,000 to support simple marriages and Rs 1,000 crore under the Chief Minister's Minority Colony Development Programme.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday said he has been asked by the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership not to contest the May 10 assembly elections, to which he has informed the party top brass of his displeasure with the decision.
The bill was defeated by a voice vote on February 23 in the upper house, where the Opposition has a majority, after it was passed by the assembly on February 21.
The exit polls on Saturday predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance winning most of the seats in Congress-ruled Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections and the Congress not putting up a good show.
The electoral predictions made by the various exit polls about the outcome of the Karnataka election seem to have hit bull's eye. The Congress has, expectedly, taken a major lead within the first couple of hours of counting of votes. But the trend that has surprised pundits and politicians alike is the revival of the Janata Dal - Secular, which has relegated the Bharatiya Janata Party to the third position.
The BJP requested Rahul Gandhi to admit Hariprasad to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru for treatment.
Here are the glimpses of the celebration.
Kamal has a crisp pen when it comes to writing short and yet powerful film dialogues. But while speaking ex tempore -- and that has been his style -- he looks every bit a confused man, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Seeking clarification, Karnataka Governor has sent back to the government a bill that sought to collect funds from temples with over Rs 10 lakh annual income, citing that a case concerning the earlier related act and amendments made to it is still pending in Supreme Court.
Jagdeep Dhankhar's sudden resignation as Vice President has led to speculation about underlying political tensions and disagreements with the ruling alliance.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said if the Congress comes to power in Karnataka, dynastic politics will be at an all-time high in the state and it will be 'afflicted with riots'.
Post-Karnataka, it would be a mistake to underestimate the BJP. It should be amply clear by now that the Right-Wing is more an elaborate theatre than a single scene, actor or play, warns Shyam G Menon.
The BJP was unable to win any seat in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala besides Puducherry in 2011.
An expert committee in Karnataka has concluded that there is no association between premature cardiovascular disease and a prior history of Covid-19 infection or Covid vaccination. The report suggests that common risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, and smoking are more likely causes.
All five leaders named have been critical of the saffron party's decision to appoint former chief minister B S Yediyurappa's son Vijayendra as its state president and Ashoka as the leader of opposition.
The Election Commission on Monday asked the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party to provide "verifiable and traceable" facts by Tuesday evening regarding its newspaper advertisement describing the Congress as "the most corrupt party in the world".
In controversial remarks, Maharashtra Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Monday said terrorists have no caste or religion and questioned veracity of the claim that terrorists asked about faith of tourists before killing them in Kashmir's Pahalgam town last week.
The Bharat Mata controversy in Kerala shows how political and symbolic fights between the state and the Centre have taken attention away from education, throwing the state's oldest university into confusion and disorder, observes Shyam G Menon.
According to state officials, the project envisages lifting of 17.40 thousand million cubic feet of water from river Thunga to Bhadra reservoir and 29.90 TMC from Bhadra reservoir.
As he completed one year in office on Thursday, the Chief Minister also gave a hundred out of hundred score for his government's performance.
The DMK leadership may now have to deal with a demand for more seats from its Congress ally in the Lok Sabha polls, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress on Monday distanced itself from the controversial comments of some of its leaders on the Pahalgam terror attack, saying that only the recent CWC resolution and the views expressed by AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and authorised AICC office-bearers represent its position. The opposition party's assertion comes in the wake of remarks by leaders like Vijay Wadettiwar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Shashi Tharoor, Tariq Hameed Karra and Saifuddin Soz that have triggered a row, with the BJP alleging that some from the opposition party were speaking "Pakistan's language".
Several pollsters have predicted that the Congress may have an edge in Karnataka, which is BJP's southern citadel, in a hung assembly with a couple of them even projecting that the grand old party may get a majority on its own.
'BJP was always there in my blood, but due to some reasons I had gone out, but today I feel I have come back to my mother's lap. Looking at my brothers here, I don't feel like I'm coming back to the BJP office after 13 years'
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He claimed that people from all walks of life across the state were angry against this BJP government.
The accusation comes a day after the President's secretariat forwarded the assertions of the Opposition BJP that Delhi was facing a constitutional crisis to the ministry of home affairs for "proper attention".
Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday appeared to be warming up to the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that "a new chapter has to begin to control looters" as he targeted the Congress government alleging corruption.
The Opposition Congress on Saturday seemed to be on course to breach rival Bharatiya Janata Party's lone southern citadel Karnataka, inching towards the magic figure of 113 needed to form a government on its own.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were a 'blueprint for rigging democracy' and this 'match-fixing' would next happen in Bihar and 'anywhere the Bharatiya Janata Party is losing'.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
Seemingly expressing his displeasure against ministers demanding three more deputy chief minister posts in Karnataka, state Congress president D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said the party would respond to them appropriately.
As Karnataka gears up for D-Day, with most exit poll projections predicting a hung assembly while putting the Congress in the lead, the outcome will boil down to how the battle for some key constituencies play out.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, IT industry veteran N R Narayana Murthy along with wife Sudha Murty, and Mysuru royal family member 'Rajamate' Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, were among the early voters who cast their ballot in the Karnataka Assembly polls.
The Congress' victory in the Karnataka assembly polls is likely to help the party get its candidates elected in three of the four Rajya Sabha seats from the state falling vacant next year.
With Karnataka starting release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in compliance with the directives of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), protests have erupted in southern parts of the State.
The Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench has disposed of a petition challenging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Indian citizenship, allowing the petitioner to explore other legal options. The court stated that since the central government couldn't provide a timeframe for resolving the petitioner's complaint, there was no reason to keep the petition pending.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
Setting the mood for the assembly elections in Karnataka due next year, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday exhorted party leaders in the state to work together, as he set an ambitious target to win a minimum of 150 seats.
To keep the flames under check, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the supply of Nandini ghee to make Tirupati laddus was suspended one-and-half years ago, during the BJP government's tenure.
