There has been an absolute decline in voters aged between 20 and 39, compared with 2018, and there has been a huge increase in voters aged over 50.
M P Veerendrakumar, former state president of the Janata Dal - Secular, who quit the party following differences of opinion with the Communist party of India - Marxist over the allocation of Lok Sabha seats, has lashed out at his former ally.Veerendrakumar, who is also the managing director of leading daily Mathrubhumi, stated that the CPI-M leadership has become pro-capitalism and alleged that the party was trying to promote five-star hotels.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
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 Janata Dal - Secular on Monday released its first list of 64 candidates for the first phase of Assembly polls on May 10, nominating former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and his elder brother H D Revanna to contest again from Ramanagara and Holenarasipura seats, respectively. Former ministers who secured nominations include N Cheluvarayaswamy (Nagamangala), B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamarajpet) and H K Kumaraswamy (Sakleshpur-reserved).
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Yadav and Jabbar, the All India Congress Committee said in a release.
Senior JD-S leader G T Deve Gowda has shown interest in joining the BJP. Gowda said there was no freedom in the JD-S with H D Deve Gowda heading it.
While all political parties in Karnataka have entered into poll mode, the Janata Dal-Secular, a key player is yet to sort out plenty of problems with the rebels in the party getting more rebellious.
The day began with the Congress meeting with Governor Rameshwar Thakur and telling him that they did not intend supporting any party in the state and had no intention of forming the government.
The Janata Dal-Secular said it will transfer power to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka only if it acts against Tourism Minister, B Sriramulu. The 2 parties formed the govt with an understanding Kumaraswamy will hand over power to BJP on Oct 3.
The meeting will take place at Krishna, the chief minister's official residence on Saturday at 8 am.
'There cannot be an alliance with Congress that does not honour the coalition dharma'
As Karnataka gears up for D-Day, with most exit poll projections predicting a hung assembly while putting the Congress in the lead, the outcome will boil down to how the battle for some key constituencies play out.
Mudigere's Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, M P Kumaraswamy, on Thursday announced his resignation from the party, after he was denied ticket to contest the Karnataka assembly polls, and blamed national General Secretary C T Ravi for not getting nominated.
Several activists of pro-Kannada organisations were also whisked away by the police at Town Hall, as they gathered there to stage a protest.
The school authorities immediately alerted police, who reached the institutions concerned with the bomb disposal squads and anti-sabotage check teams, they said, while indicating the bomb threat could be a hoax.
Political temperatures were soaring in several states that could see close contests, with parties trying to keep their flock together and trading accusations of poaching of MLAs.
Despite improving its tally by 12 seats in Karnataka, the poll verdict indicates that the Janata Dal-Secular will have to stay out of power for the next five years. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
None of the major political parties in Karnataka have announced their list of candidates despite the elections being barely a month away. The two major parties -- Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are both facing dissidence within their ranks. This has delayed the process of finalizing candidates for the polls.
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.
Amid the raging controversy regarding Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, the Vokkaliga chieftains who according to a section allegedly killed erstwhile Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, a prominent seer of the community on Monday urged putting an end to the issue, citing lack of historical evidence in this regard.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Mandya to inaugurate the 10-lane Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway, independent MP Sumalatha Ambareesh on Friday extended her complete support to the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre.
Forced to lie low after their dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections, parties like Samajwadi Party, Janada Dal - Secular, Lok Janshakti Party and the Left Front have come together in Maharashtra to contest the assembly elections. Having formed the Republican Left Democratic Front in the state, these parties claim that the alliance is only for the assembly elections in Maharashtra, which are scheduled to be held on October 13.
"The Congress have gone and made promises in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that they never fulfilled," Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed.
'There is a conscious move by the BJP to distance itself from the current state leadership.'
The list does not include Jagadish Shettar who met BJP president J P Nadda earlier in the day to stake his claim to contest from his Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency.
Shankar went to Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti's office and tendered his hand-written resignation.
Chandrappa's appointment follows the demise of KPCC working president and former MP R Dhruvanarayana.
Vast experience in running the government and mass appeal across the state have favoured Siddaramaiah in the tightly contested race for Karnataka chief minister.
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.
According to Congress, the five schemes are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).
The new entrants will be welcomed into the party by All India Congress Committee general secretary Prithviraj Chavan in the KPCC office, party state general secretary M Ramachandrappa told PTI in Bangalore.
He said he will be soon taking a decision on his political future and wants to contest the assembly polls from Kunigal seat.
'We will win all the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.'
The 85-year-old JD-S patriarch had earlier expressed doubts about contesting the polls, saying he was thinking about his "usefulness" in the national capital.
The Congress and JD-S have made much of Amit Shah's remarks about milk co-operatives. 'If the Opposition harps on the statement, it could add to the narrative that Gujarat was trying to take over Karnataka.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka on Friday made a clean sweep in the bye-elections held on April 9, winning all the three seats by comfortable margins. The BJP wrested Bangarapet and Jagalur seats from the Congress and Chennapatna from the JD-S
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the two aspiring CMs.
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.
