Several Congress leaders, including the state president, received tickets for the Bihar assembly polls amidst internal disputes and efforts to reconcile with allies. The distribution process was marred by protests and accusations of corruption.
The MLAs were upset ever since the cabinet reshuffle and expansion on December 22 that saw removal of Jarkiholi.
Veteran BJP leader Prem Kumar has filed his nomination for the post of assembly Speaker in Bihar. With the NDA holding a majority, his election is likely.
Nitish thought that his stakes as chief minister were far greater than his stakes in protecting one of his party MLAs. He could not allow his rule-of-law train to be derailed by a small rock on the track. On the contrary, if he removed it to keep the train moving at a steady speed he would gain strong public admiration and sympathy that would help him take the masses along in carrying out other tasks. A fascinating excerpt from Arun Sinha's Nitish Kumar And The Rise Of Bihar.
Electoral fortunes of 1,302 candidates, including over half a dozen ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, will be sealed on Tuesday with 3.70 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise across 122 assembly segments in the second and final phase of the Bihar polls.
A case of attempt to murder was registered on Monday against Congress MLA J N Ganesh in connection with the alleged brawl with lawmaker colleague Anand Singh at a resort, police said.
The apex court had on July 12 restrained Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar from taking any decision till July 16 on the resignation and disqualification of 10 rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition.
"Speaker is yet to fix another date for them to appear before him," the sources added.
The incident occurred late Saturday night at the resort where the Congress MLAs are hunkered down since Friday in a move to keep the flock together against alleged bid to topple the ruling coalition by BJP, according to Congress sources.
These MLAs are Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraj, Munirathna and Roshan Baig.
The upcoming Delhi Assembly elections will see around 20 candidates who have switched parties, with the AAP, BJP, and Congress fielding former foes in a bid for political gains. While these candidates aim to prove themselves in their new political homes, they face challenges including apprehension among members of their adopted parties. The article provides details of prominent leaders who switched sides, including those who joined the AAP, BJP, and Congress.
Singh's suspension came days after he questioned the manner in which a vigilance bureau team raided the residence of Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in Amritsar in a disproportionate assets case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday released its first list of 189 candidates for the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls, fielding Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from his traditional Shiggaon constituency.
The coalition government is on a shaky wicket with 16 MLAs -- 13 of the Congress and three of the Janata Dal-Secular -- resigning their assembly membership. Besides, two independent legislators, who were made ministers recently to provide stability, have quit the ministry and withdrawn support.
The BJP will need to win at least six seats to remain in power.
The BJP has fielded former MP Parvesh Verma from the New Delhi seat against Arvind Kejriwal.
All 40-odd rooms at the resort have been booked for the guests from Jharkhand for the next two days, Congress sources said.
Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, on private visit to the United States, said he was keeping a tab on the developments while the state Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging the opposition party was trying to destabilise the government.
As many as 13 Congress and three Janata Dal-Secular MLAs had resigned from the Karnataka Assembly in 2019 thus bringing down the 14-month-old coalition government of the Congress and the JD-S led by H D Kumaraswamy.
Nagaraj reached Mumbai accompanied by Karnataka BJP president B S Yeddyurappa's personal assistant Santosh and BJP MLA R Ashok.
'Elections in Madhya Pradesh have so far largely avoided freebies.' 'But this time both the Congress and BJP are making such announcements.'
The MLAs who were seen at the Speaker's office include, Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Pratap Gowda Patil (Maski), Shivram Hebbar (Yellapur), Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), B C Patil (Hirekerur), Byratibasavaraj (K R Puram), S T Soma Shekar (Yashwanthpur) and Ramalinga reddy (BTM Layout) of the Congress. The JD-S MLAs are A H Vishwanath (Hunsur), who recently resigned as party's state chief, Narayana Gowda (K R Pet), and Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout).
With sulking Tourism Minister Anand Singh shutting down his MLA's office in Hospet in Vijayanagar district reportedly to show his displeasure over the portfolio allocation, Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai on Wednesday said he would speak to him.
In its first list for the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP has focused on seats it lost in 2018 and some of them even in 2013, and has reposed faith in 14 candidates, including three former ministers, who lost last time.
They have sought quashing of the July 25 order of disqualification by K R Ramesh Kumar, who resigned on Monday as speaker of the House.
The court struck down the portion of the Speaker's order by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka assembly.
Veteran party leader Anil Vij will seek re-election from his Ambala Cantt stronghold.
The 14 MLAs who had resigned earlier this month include Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, AH Vishwanath, K Gopalaiah, Narayana Gowda and Shrimanth Patil.
The Congress is likely to get 11 Rajya Sabha seats in the upcoming election cycle with some of its top leaders, including P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, eyeing another term.
However, the MLA, who was upset at not being made a minister, said he will go by the instructions of his voters and supporters on accepting the saffron party's offer.
Apprehending that some of its MLAs may not toe the party line, especially as BJP-backed Chandra had claimed support of at least two INLD MLAs, a dozen-odd legislators of the party were on Monday sent off to the hill station in Uttarakhand.
Dilip Pandey, Atishi and Raghav Chadha, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will also contest the assembly elections to be held on February 8.
The party has not applied the "one-family, one-ticket" formula for the Karnataka polls which it followed in the Punjab polls held last year.
Yeddyurappa has 15 days to prove his majority in the assembly.
Atishi, Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey are among the first-time MLAs. Atishi, who was fielded from Kalkaji, won the seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dharambir Singh by a margin of 11,393 votes. Chadha, who had also registered victory from Rajinder Nagar, defeated his BJP rival Sardar R P Singh by a margin of 20,058 votes.
In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned on Saturday dealing a blow to the 13-month-old government, a delegation of Congress leaders met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and submitted the petition seeking, under the anti-defection law, disqualification of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday.
Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Hooda are the members of the pro-reform G23 group who wrote a letter to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi.
Ramesh Jarkiholi got the plum portfolio of major and medium irrigation which he was eyeing. Anand Singh got food, civil supplies and consumers affairs portfolio, Srimant Patil was given textile while K Gopalaiah has been assigned small scale industries.
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
Out of the 25 seats, five seats each are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
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