Announcing its first list of 189 candidates on Tuesday, the BJP pitted senior Minister R Ashoka against Siddaramaiah in the Varuna Assembly segment, while V Somanna would take on Shivakumar in Kanakapura.
Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday took charge as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka, ending months of speculation about the change of guard in the state.
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.
The case relates to protests near the I-T office in Bengaluru by the leaders including the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy against the income tax raids at the residence of Congress and JD-S leaders.
Shivakumar has got the all-important Major and Medium Irrigation and Bengaluru City Development, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken a jibe at Kumaraswamy over his Singapore visit to celebrate the new year, at a time when most parts of the state are reeling under drought.
He gave the time-line while taking note of the adjournment of the House till Friday after it took up the confidence motion moved by Kumaraswamy in the backdrop of rebellion by a section of ruling Congress-Janata Dal (Secular).
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday charted out a bigger role for his son and Bharatiya Janata Party state vice-president B Y Vijayendra to make a dent into the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular citadel in old Mysuru region.
The Congress on Saturday demanded the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka following leak of an audio clipping in which Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa purportedly can be heard mentioning the disqualification of rebel Congress-Janata Dal-Secular MLAs and alleged involvement of the saffron party's central leadership. "How the BJP misused power and money was exposed yesterday. Now people have to judge them," he said. Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah also attacked the BJP, saying what the party had done was "a conspiracy to murder democracy and a violation of the Constitution".
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.
Parameshwara said the chief minister had written a letter to the prime minister on the issue, and added that cancelling Prajwal's passport after a warrant is issued against him is the Centre's duty.
Dubbing as 'farcical' the time of 15 days given by Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala to Yeddyurappa to prove his majority, the Tamil superstar, who is set to enter politics, said that it should not have been done.
Cricket climate change to medical practice, dropped candidates have their non-political life sorted.
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.
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.
'Why is the entire Cabinet running around in Bangalore?' 'Why are they making arrangements for horse-trading?' 'Is this not the BJP's greed for power?' 'They have won the entire country. Why are they so desperate for Karnataka?'
The order came after the Congress-JD-S combine had challenged the appointment of K G Bopaiah as the pro tem speaker by Governor Vajubhai Vala.
12 years after he was sacked form JD-S, Siddaramaiah, offered Karnataka's CMship to his political foe Kumaraswamy.
The MLAs were upset ever since the cabinet reshuffle and expansion on December 22 that saw removal of Jarkiholi.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
Congress leaders were in for a rude shock on Monday when the media sidelined their much-touted Jawaharlal Nehru birth anniversary event, and instead turned its full attention to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was addressing thousands of supporters in Sydney's Allphones Arena
The move was also seen as placating the Lingayat community, which is considered to be the core vote base of the party with some exceptions in the previous Assembly polls, and also to keep party strong man and octogenarian leader B S Yediyurappa in good humour.
Plagued by desertions, internal rifts, and with the image of being a "family party", it remains to be seen how Gowda's son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy would steer the party in the May 10 assembly polls.
According to reports Sumalatha, an independent MP, is likely to announce her decision to join the BJP in a press meet at Mandya on Friday.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday had pitched for Hindi as a common language for the country, reigniting the debate on the issue as a section of political parties in South India said they would oppose any attempt to "impose" the language.
Members of the Karnataka legislative assembly on Monday demanded a thorough probe into the death of chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat along with his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu's Coonoor on December 8.
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.
Should the anti-defection law in India exist only to prevent democratically elected governments from being toppled?
Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
He said he will be soon taking a decision on his political future and wants to contest the assembly polls from Kunigal seat.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka had the last laugh as it won all the three Rajya Sabha seats it had contested in, out of total of four from the state that went for polls on Friday, while the Congress managed to win only one of the two seats to which it had fielded its candidates.
"I seek support of all legislators and I ask them to vote for me by exercising their conscience just as Indira Gandhi did in a Presidential election," he said.
With the Congress down in the dumps and the BJP juggernaut on a roll, 'secular' parties are attempting to revive the Janata Parivar coalition to fill the vacuum.
The BJP requested Rahul Gandhi to admit Hariprasad to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru for treatment.
The party managed only 52 seats on its own and many of its top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia were defeated in the polls.
Deve Gowda indicated on Sunday that they were ready to compromise.
'I came to politics accidentally. I became the chief minister accidentally. God gave me the opportunity to become the chief minister twice'
According to several Congress functionaries, Suresh filed his papers as a "backup plan" in the event of the nomination of Shivakumar getting rejected.
Many in the party feel it has played a critical role in boosting the Congress' electoral fortunes in the state and its impact is there for everyone to see.
"Before January 15 next year, when the election will be one year away, we are planning to select candidates for at least 150 assembly constituencies, so that they can start working," Kumaraswamy told reporters.
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