Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday said he wanted to bring in a "change" in his style of functioning in politics as he was a "victim of conspiracy hatched by the Congress, the Janata Dal - Secular and detractors within the Bharatiya Janata Party". "I am a victim of conspiracy scripted by Congress, JD-S and detractors with my party. To avoid getting victimised in the future, I have to be changed, I need to be changed and I will be changed," he said.
Party members of the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular staged a dharna in the Karnataka legislative assembly on Tuesday, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the alleged 'kickbacks' received by a trust run by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's sons, in return for Government favours. Congress leader Siddaramaiah also demanded Yeddyurappa's resignation.
The Congress leader later tweeted an apology.
Both the BJP and the Congress have their share of challenges, with finding winning horses on top of this list.
Brushing aside reports of differences between 'third front' partners, Janata Dal-Secular chief H D Deve Gowda on Monday said no one can prevent the emergence of a political "force" against Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. Gowda said he is closely watching the situation in the country and political compulsions will create a "force" against the Congress and the BJP.
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.
As soon as the assembly met, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda informed the members about the resignations of the three ministers, caught on camera watching sleazy clippings on their mobile phone in the House on Tuesday evening
'Siddaramaiah was openly taking on the BJP's communal agenda, which very few non-BJP politicians do.'
Karanatka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party toll early leads in the crucial zilla and taluka panchayat elections on Tuesday by emerging victorious in 12 out of the 30 districts in the fray. However, party insiders say that the results were below their expectations.
A senior TMC leader will be present at the proposed meeting, he said.
The poll process began in Karnataka on Wednesday for the May 5 assembly polls with the notification being issued, paving the way for candidates to file nominations.
In 2019, actor turned-politician Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent backed by the BJP, won by defeating then Kumaraswamy's son and joint candidate of the then ruling Congress-JD-S alliance Nikhil by 1,25,876 votes.
The newly elected Congress legislators, who are staying at a resort on the city outskirts, also joined the protest.
The Karnataka Legislative Assembly Committee probing the porngate episode involving three former BJP ministers on Wednesday began its three-day sitting, amid continued boycott by Congress and Janata Dal Secular members, saying it would try to submit its report by the March 13 deadline set by the speaker.
The Congress-JD-S government slumped into a minority earlier this month following the resignation of several dissident MLAs. Sixteen MLAs from the ruling coalition, including thirteen from Congress and three of the JD-S, have resigned.
D V Sadananda Gowda who replaced B S Yeddyurappa as the chief Minister of Karnataka won the elections to the Karnataka legislative assembly on Thursday.
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
Parliament failed to function for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday with the Opposition insisting on a joint parliamentary committee probe into 2G spectrum allocation and Congress and Janata Dal Secular hitting back, alleging land scams involving the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Karnataka. Rajya Sabha adjourned almost immediately after it met for the day with Opposition members creating an uproar, while Lok Sabha was first adjourned till noon.
There is no mention of Kolar, the second seat from where senior party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, wants to contest, in addition to Varuna, where his name is already cleared.
After losing both the seats in the by-polls of the Karnataka legislative assembly, state Pradesh Congress Committee's working president D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition Siddaramiah resigned from their posts on Thursday. The two leaders resigned after accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in Kadur and Gulbarga. The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Kadur seat while the Janata Dal Secular won the Gulbarga seat.
Janata Dal-Secular chief HD Kumaraswamy alleged "horse-trading" in the Karnataka Rajya Sabha elections claiming that Congress leader Siddaramaiah was pressurising JD-S MLAs to not vote for their own party but that of the candidate of the grand old party.
In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit, Pranab Mukherjee, United Progressive Alliance's candidate who was on Sunday elected President of India, got more votes than expected in the BJP-ruled state.
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.
In the byelections held on September 13, the BJP's Y C Vishwanath, a medical practitioner, won by over 13,000 votes in Kadur, held earlier by the Congress. But the BJP failed to retain Gulbarga South, with the JD-S candidate Aruna Patil romping home by over 3,000 votes over the Congress's Ajay Singh, son of former chief minister Dharam Singh
Triggering a heated debate over her candidature, actress Hema Malini on Monday entered the fray from Karnataka for the lone Rajya Sabha seat, even as the opposition joined hands to support noted writer K Marulasiddappa for the position.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists seven states where the Grand Old Party suffered a severe setback.
"There are clearly two sides. On one side, there is an organisation of patriots in the form of BJP and on the other side, tukde-tukde gang have come together under the leadership of the Congress. It is for the people of Karnataka to decide now whether they are with the patriots or those who support people who want to divide this country," he added.
HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, will contest from Channapatna where he had won the election defeating local heavyweight CP Yogeshwar in 2018.
While some of the senior Congress leaders are sending feelers to the JD-S regarding power sharing in the seat, a host of other Congress legislators feel that any sort of alignment with the JD-S will spell doom in Karnataka.
The BJP state unit is banking on the party's central leadership to shore up its prospects in the May 10 assembly polls as it fights anti-incumbency.
'Some of his ministers have performed abysmally, and Bommai has faced an unwanted campaign of religious polarisation imposed by national BJP leaders.'
JD-S leaders are in constant touch with several candidates of both the Congress and the BJP and are hopeful that these candidates would agree to join their party. The Congress and the BJP have recently pocketed several JD-S candidates and now Deve Gowda's party has the opportunity to return the favour. To tackle the JD-S, the Congress is trying to delay the announcement of its final list, while the BJP is trying to downplay the widespread resentment among its party members.
Under attack from the Congress and the Janatha Dal Secular, while also battling threats of being ousted, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Monday said his government enjoyed majority. He said there was no need for 'Operation Lotus' under which opposition members of the legislative assembly were lured to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The report of the Karnataka minorities commission on the alleged Rs 2 lakh crore Wakf property scam generated considerable heat in the Legislative assembly, where an agitated opposition demanded a thorough enquiry and punishment to those found guilty.
The Supreme Court order directing Karnataka to release 2.44 TMC ft of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu evoked protests from the opposition in the state assembly and the government promised them that legal opinion would be sought before deciding on future course of action.
"I will personally on Friday, May 31 at 10 am will come before the SIT and will cooperate with the investigation and will respond to it (charges). I have faith in court and I am confident I will come out of false cases through court," Pajwal said in a video statement aired on Kannada TV channel Asianet Suvarna News.
A day before counting of votes polled in the Karnataka assembly elections, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Friday went into a huddle and held strategy sessions on ways to keep their flock together.
He claimed that people from all walks of life across the state were angry against this BJP government.
The incident led to a political confrontation between the government and Opposition in the state.
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