Extensive arrangements have been made due to the COVID-19 pandemic including personal protective equipment kits for election staff, more polling booths, thermal screening, sanitisers, masks and gloves for voters and markings to ensure social distancing, officials said.
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Thaawarchand Gehlot on Sunday took oath as the 19th Governor of Karnataka succeeding Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala.
The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
Siddaramaiah asserted that the Karnataka government was a 'strong' one and ridiculed state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for repeatedly claiming that the coalition will collapse.
In a Facebook post, Jaleel himself confirmed that he had put in his papers. "I am happy to say that those who had been baying for my blood can be relieved for now. I have submitted my resignation to the chief minister. Since the past two years, I have been facing a media onslaught," Jaleel, second minister in the LDF ministry to resign on nepotism charges, said in the post.
Among the three Deputy Chief Ministers are Govind Karjol, who has also been given the charge of PWD and Social welfare; Ashwath Narayan the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology; and Laxman Savadi with Transport department.
On Friday, four of the 14 legislators had visited the Siddhivinayak temple in central Mumbai and offered prayers to Lord Ganesh.
The legislators were camping in Mumbai since Saturday evening after resigning and withdrawing support to the 13-month-old Janata Dal-Secular-Congress government in Karnataka, bringing it on the verge of collapse.
The BJP MLC, who had switched his loyalty from the Janat Dal-Secular to the BJP two years ago, alleged that the "entire state" including ministers, had been talking about Vijayendra's interference in the administration.
"The government should handle it delicately and follow what was done in Hyderabad," former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Karnataka, by reposing its faith in BSY, remains a Hindutva stronghold, reports R Rajagopalan.
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut were among the 16 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from four states where polling was held on Friday after tussle over cross voting and alleged breach of election rules delayed the counting by around eight hours in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy held discussions with Congress leaders after the meeting.
Speaking after the core committee meeting, Yediyurappa said the disqualified MLAs have expressed intention to join the party on Thursday and they would be given the membership.
Unfazed by Yeddyurappa's unceremonious exit, the BJP on Thursday fielded its senior leader S Suresh Kumar, a fifth term MLA, for the post of the Speaker whose election will precede the trust vote.
The missive to the chief minister came as the MLAs were reportedly shepherded to Mumbai last night and kept in a five-star hotel to apparently prevent them from being poached for the June 11 biennial polls to four RS seats from the state.
'The Congress must honour the mandate. The mandate is clearly for the BJP.'
The Congress said that a chief minister "has to be always happy".
'The BJP had no traction in Karnataka and Siddaramaiah would have scraped through if he had not done all that he did.' 'When you pander to one community, the other community gets irritated.' 'Then, when you make fun of the cow and the treating of the cow as sacred, in your effort to belittle the Sangh Parivar and its obscurantism, you are hurting your normal voters too.' 'It is okay to make fun of the Sangh Parivar, but it is not okay to make fun of all Hindus.'
Congress partly vehemently opposed the bill, calling it "anti people", "inhuman", "anti constitutional", "anti poor" and "draconian", and urged that it should not be passed for any reason and should be withdrawn by the government.
Kumaraswamy predicted that the political instability would continue in the state.
The confidence motion moved by Kumaraswamy was defeated with 99 members voting for the motion and 105 against it in a House of 225 including speaker P R Ramesh Kumar and a nominated member.
If it splits now, who takes what away and leaves what behind? asks Shekhar Gupta.
The apex court made it clear that it would deal with the constitutionality of the Governor's letter inviting Yeddyurappa to form the government later.
"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.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
According to some accounts, internal Congress surveys indicated a tough battle for the chief minister in Chamundeshwari.
Another disqualified rebel MLA from Maski, Pratap Gowda Patil, asked the voters in a video message not to panic and said they were confident of emerging victorious in the Supreme Court.
He also said that the bypolls results of this state are a message for all those states where anyone betrays public mandate.
What kind of chowkidari is Narendra Modi doing, asks Rahul.
Kumaraswamy rejected a charge by the saffron party that he was trying to poach their lawmakers.
Sources close to the CM, however, say he would not be too interested in such an offer as it would look as though he is desperate to cling on to power.
In a notice issued to Congress MLAs, CLP leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah warned that absence of MLAs at Friday's meeting would be viewed 'seriously'.
According to Congress sources, few ministers from the party have even offered to step down in the larger interest and to keep the coalition intact.
Kumaraswamy, who also holds the finance portfolio, said he has limited the loan amount to Rs 2 lakh, as it was 'not right' to waiver higher value crop loan.
The names of both Maregowda and Puttaraju had figured in the list of missing Janata Dal-Secular workers tweeted by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday.
Mayawati on Sunday had directed Mahesh to vote in favour of the Kumaraswamy government, after he had said that he would skip the trust vote in the absence of any clear instructions from the high command.
'It must have stung Devendra Fadnavis to see Modi asking MPs at the BJP parliamentary party meeting to give Yediyurappa a standing ovation for his victory in the by-elections that has resulted in pulling the BJP government in Karnataka off the ventilator,' notes Aditi Phadnis.
In the next two years, reveals says R Rajagopalan, Modi-Shah will make a strong effort to woo the south.
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