Amid the simmering border dispute, Maharashtra minister Shambhuraj Desai on Wednesday said if Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai does not stop making irresponsible statements, Maharashtra will have to rethink about water supply from its dams to the neighbouring state.
He said the truth will come out from the investigation and asked the opposition Congress, which is demanding Eshwarappa's arrest, not to become investigators, prosecutors and judges themselves.
Bommai also said that Naveen's body has been embalmed and kept in a mortuary in Ukraine.
"One thing I want to make it clear that this case will be thoroughly investigated. There will not be any interference or direction from our side. Police will independently investigate the case and truth will come out," Bommai said addressing a press conference in Mangaluru.
Shivakumar also claimed that the BJP wanted to call for elections in Karnataka soon after the 2022 Gujarat poll results were out but backtracked on the move.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 30 of the total 50 seats in the region in the 2018 assembly polls, followed by Congress 17, Janata Dal-Secular 2, and others (KPJP-Shankar) 1.
The chief minister said such speeches are on the rise across the country, especially on social media platforms.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
Overhaul of the goods and services tax (GST) structure, including possible changes in the tax slabs, may now be taken up only after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, given the number of states that are going to the polls in its run-up. "No major overhaul of tax rates is expected in GST until the end of next fiscal year. One major reason for this is that some members of the group of ministers (GoM) - mandated to look at rate rationalisation by the GST Council - are from poll-bound states. Later, this may lead to reconstitution of the panel," a senior government official told Business Standard. Besides, both the Centre and states are not in favour of frequent changes in the tax rates amid inflationary uncertainties; they believe any major change should be brought in after extensive deliberations, according to the official.
Mallikarjun Kharge, meanwhile, came to the defence of his son, saying he never made those comments.
It also promised to launch the 'Poshane' scheme through which every BPL household will be provided with half litre 'Nandini' milk every day and five kg 'Shri Anna - siri dhanya' through monthly ration kits.
'You (Modi) come here and don't even take the name of your Chief Minister (Basavaraj Bommai) and (B S) Yediyurappa (former CM). Your speeches are all about Narendra Modi'
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday said that the government has decided to go for open market tender to procure rice, whose process will start from Thursday.
Some Hindu outfits have been demanding that the loudspeakers on mosques should be removed and the Supreme Court's order on noise pollution be implemented.
A local leader of Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction confirmed they painted the buses.
Following the alleged desecration of the Maratha king's statue, miscreants in Belagavi shouted slogans and pelted government vehicles with stones and freedom fighter Sangolli Rayanna's statue was subsequently vandalised.
He said the cabinet expansion exercise may not take a week's time and a direction from the leadership was likely by Monday.
'I fear that Karnataka is going to the polls next year and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has staked claim to Akkalkot and Solapur'
Tragedy stuck a family of four here on Tuesday when an under-construction Bengaluru Metro pillar collapsed on them, leaving a woman and her toddler son dead while her husband and another child escaped with injuries.
The electoral fortunes of top leaders-- Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, Congress heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar and JD-S' H D Kumaraswamy, among many others will be known on Saturday.
'Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Where should we send Tipu Sultan? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? In the same way he should be knocked out and sent off'
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).
The EC had on Saturday issued a notice to the Karnataka Congress over its "corruption rate card" advertisements published in newspapers in the run-up to the May 10 state polls and sought "empirical evidence" to prove its allegations by Sunday evening.
It should announce its candidates 45 days before the elections; trust rooted leaders; start its campaign focused on five guarantees six months before elections.
A first information report (FIR) has been registered against three girl students of a paramedical college in Udupi over the alleged recording of a video of their fellow student in the college washroom recently, police sources said.
According to the party sources, the preparations are in full swing and seasoned BJP workers are being deployed on more than 50 seats.
Calling the action of the ED as harassment, he questioned the timing of the summons when the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra was on and when the State Assembly session was underway.
The Congress on Sunday took a strong exception to the exclusion of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Karnataka government's newspaper advertisement on freedom fighters and termed the Bharatiya Janata Party action 'pathetic'.
We will do whatever we can for the justice of the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka, said Fadnavis.
The state's revenue receipts might not afford various freebies announced by the parties, unless revenue deficit and hence fiscal deficit is widened.
Sniping at the BJP senior leadership has reached a new high in Karnataka. For the moment, there is a truce, but the party knows the damage it could do ahead of the polls.
According to Lokayukta sources, Prashanth, the chief accounts officer of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, was caught red-handed on Thursday evening while accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a contractor at the Karnataka Soap and Detergent Limited (KSDL) office.
'Some instigators are testing our patience. Hence, our government and the chief minister have given a clear message. In the coming days, we will make arrangements that the criminals should tremble to even think or dream of committing such murders'
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the incoming government in Karnataka would not only give its stamp of approval for the five pre-poll guarantees announced by the party in the first cabinet meeting itself but also pass an order to this effect immediately.
BJP Karnataka strongman B S Yediyurappa on Thursday dismissed reports he is being neglected in the party and said he has his own strength and no one can finish him off politically.
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.
It was in Kolar in 2019, during Lok Sabha election campaigning, that he made a remark on the Modi surname for which he was convicted of criminal defamation and stripped of his Parliament membership last month.
Shettar said he has not lost his hopes and would wait till the evening.
Eshwarappa had initially refused to resign as a minister, but was instructed to do so by Bharatiya Janata Party bosses in New Delhi before BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda arrived in Bengaluru for consultations with state party leaders on Friday.
