Congress's Sampath Raj was elected the 51st Mayor of Bengaluru while Janata Dal-Secular's Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy, the deputy mayor.
'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.
Voting came to an end for the Karnataka assembly elections on Wednesday at 6 pm with data showing a voter turnout of 65.69 per cent an hour ago.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
He said he would continue to support the ruling coalition.
With Janata Dal-Secular state president H D Kumaraswamy repeatedly attacking him and his son Yathindra, a former Congress MLA, accusing them of a 'cash for transfer' racket, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said he will retire from politics, if proved that he has taken money, even in a single transfer case of government officials.
The BSP is contesting on 20 seats in Karnataka election with an alliance with Janata Dal-Secular while the SP is contesting on 27 on its own.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
"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.
The Congress urged Chief Justice Dipak Misra to hold an urgent hearing on Wednesday night itself.
Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy also dismissed reports that a section of MLAs of their parties were unhappy over their joining hands in government formation.
The BJP and Congress have already launched spirited campaigns for the elections.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
' Modi is for the entire country, not just for Karnataka. He had come for campaigning here. The Congress might have won in Karnataka but has seen defeat across the country. Is it the win of local leaders or state leaders?'
Congress Legislature Party leader and Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah said no one would leave the Congress and there was no disgruntlement either.
Sources said that despite senior leaders making serious attempts to convince him to rethink on his decision, Gandhi is said to be unfazed.
With this, the Cabinet will reach its full strength of 34.
Both the Independent legislators were absent on the first day of the session.
Amid speculations of Operation Hasta' going on in Karnataka to woo Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to join the Congress, former BJP minister B C Patil and ex-MLA Narasimha Naik met Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar during the birthday party of noted Kannada film actor Sudeep Sanjeev, who is popularly known as Sudeep.
Rediff Labs analysed the past performance of the parties to develop this Sentiment Meter for the 2016 Kerala election.
The BJP leadership knows it can't boast of governance in the state as the Bommai government has little to show. So, the game plan is to project Modi, who will reiterate how important it is for a state to have the same party ruling in power at the Centre, observes Ramesh Menon.
Karnataka Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on Wednesday sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa following allegations of sexual harassment against him.
The Congress fielded former Governor Margaret Alva's son Nivedit Alva from the Kumta assembly seat.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
Kumaraswamy rejected a charge by the saffron party that he was trying to poach their lawmakers.
Azad and Gehlot have reached Bengaluru and have met chief minister Siddharamaiah and other party leaders.
The MLAs visited the famous Siddhivinayak Temple after which they had their lunch at south Indian restaurant-bar "Dakshin Culture Curry" and a typical Marathi/ Konkani food Junction "Diva Maharashtracha". Both restaurants are adjacent to each other and are owned by Dr Suhas Awchat.
"The central paramilitary forces have arrived in the city. One is from Bengaluru, another being grouped from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Mysuru," Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (West division) Sanjeev M Patil said.
The cabinet expansion is on the cards for nearly two months ever since the BJP won the maximum number of seats in the December 5, 2019 bypolls and got a majority in the Karnataka assembly.
"A new era of development will start from now onwards," said BJP's Karnataka president B S Yeddyurappa soon after the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government lost the confidence vote.
Accusing the Congress of also abusing the dominant Lingayat community in poll-bound Karnataka, the prime minister further said the grand old party had even abused Babasaheb Ambedkar and were engaged in abusing Veer Savarkar.
With most exit polls predicting a tight contest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls in Karnataka, leaders of the two parties seem 'jittery' over the outcome, while the Janata Dal-Secular appears to be expecting a hung verdict, which would enable it to play a role in government formation.
The Rajya Sabha elections have again highlighted dissension and lack of cohesion in the opposition ranks from Maharashtra to Karnataka and Haryana.
"Is being part of Modi's 'political family' a 'guarantee of protection' for criminals?" Rahul Gandhi asked.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said if the Congress had formed an alliance with the Janata Dal-Secular before the election, the results would have been different.
Both the eight-time MLA Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have made no secret of their ambition to become CM and had been involved in a game of political one upmanship in the past.
Asked by reporters if there will be surprise candidates in the fray from the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said: "Certainly, there is a plan for new experiments in certain constituencies and they will happen."
The joint statement was issued by senior leaders of 13 opposition parties, including interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi, the Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar, and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
It was meant to be a healthy debate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections but had to be called off due to a major verbal duel.
