Expressing surprise over Congress fielding a second candidate 'all of a sudden', senior JD-S leader and former Minister H D Revanna requested the national party for support to keep the 'communal forces' out of the race.
BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had stepped down as minister on March 3 following allegations of sexual harassment against him, said on Tuesday that the videos purportedly showing him with a woman were fake and vowed to send the 'conspirators' behind bars.
The only facesaver for the Gowda family was Deve Gowda's another grandson Prajwal Revanna, son of PWD minister H D Revanna, who won from Hassan seat.
The party leadership blamed two of its MLAs, Srinivas Gowda from Kolar and S R Srinivas from Gubbi, for betraying the party.
Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday indirectly blamed Governor H R Bhardwaj for delay in the appointment of Lokayukta asserting that the government has followed precedents and the ball was in his court.
The Janata Dal - Secular on Monday released its first list of 64 candidates for the first phase of Assembly polls on May 10, nominating former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and his elder brother H D Revanna to contest again from Ramanagara and Holenarasipura seats, respectively. Former ministers who secured nominations include N Cheluvarayaswamy (Nagamangala), B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamarajpet) and H K Kumaraswamy (Sakleshpur-reserved).
The Karnataka Election Watch Committee of the Association of Democratic Reforms has found that several leaders, including former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his brother H D Revanna, have not declared their PAN numbers while submitting their affidavits to the returning officer at the time of filing their nominations. 240 candidates from various parties in Karnataka have failed to declare their PAN numbers at the time of filing their nomination papers.
H D Kumaraswamy, son of H D Deve Gowda and former chief minister of Karnataka, stated in the affidavit filed by him while submitting his nomination for the election from the Ramnagara constituency on Monday, that he owes Rs 1.33 crore to none other than his wife Anitha. According to the affidavit, Kumaraswamy's family has assets worth Rs 49.72 crore and liabilities of Rs 26.05 crore, as declared in the affidavit.
Revanna has decided to stand by Gowda in the hour of crisis.
The promoter of the Rs 22.50 billion Banagalore-Mysore expressway project alleged before the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the former prime minister was trying to scuttle the project for political reasons.
Portfolio sharing had turned out to be a thorny issue between the Congress and JD-S and was thrashed out after much haggling, with both parties announcing an agreement on June one.
Fourteen ministers are from the Congress, nine from its ruling coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular and one each from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party.
M D Riti recalls her first encounter with Karnataka's next chief minister.
With the family patriarch ageing, his successor H D Kumaraswamy not keeping well, and palpable anger against his other son H D Revanna in the family pocket borough of Holenarsipura, the clan is seemingly in decline.
The elder brother of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Revanna cites non-availability of a government bungalow as the reason for undertaking the tedious journey.
The Lok Sabha constituencies that JD-S will contest are Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Tumkur, Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru North and Vijayapura.
Personal differences between the two alliance partners, Congress insiders say, are owing to Kumaraswamy's style of functioning. He, unlike his father, is suspected to have a soft corner for the BJP, reports Bibhu Ranjan Mishra.
Both Hassan and Mandya, where the BJP's strength is negligible, are currently held by JD-S, which Congress too is eyeing this time.
The CM, however, said he would abide by the high command's decision.
Siddaramaiah said he was not unhappy about the Congress-JD(S) coalition as was being projected, and there was no doubt about the stability of the government.
"They call themselves the champions of speech and expression. But deny the same for the people of Kerala."
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'