The Election Commission on Thursday said it will take 'immediate consequential steps' on bypolls to 15 Karnataka assembly seats after studying the order of the Supreme Court.
A new cabinet in the state will be in place in the next 48-72 hours.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday said he has been asked by the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership not to contest the May 10 assembly elections, to which he has informed the party top brass of his displeasure with the decision.
Kharge, who was popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat) faced his first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades against BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
It said that increased focus on expenditure monitoring was the reason being the seizures, which included freebies such as sarees, 'food kits', pressure cookers and kitchen appliances.
The BJP in Karnataka has claimed that the Lokayukta probe has cleared the party's previous government from 40 per cent commission charges, calling the allegations by the Congress "false". The BJP leaders claim that the allegations were part of the Congress' "tool kit" and were used during the 2023 Assembly polls to corner the then BJP government. However, the Congress government has stated that they have not yet seen the report and that acquittals happen due to a lack of evidence. The BJP has also alleged that the current Congress government is a "60 per cent commission government" and has cited several scams during their time in power.
With this, the Cabinet will reach its full strength of 34.
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 resolution which also condemned the border dispute 'created' by Maharashtra and moved by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, was adopted by a voice vote.
Security was stepped up in Ramanagara, Shivakumar's home district, on Wednesday as a precautionary measure in light of his supporters staging protests at multiple places after some media outlets claimed that he lost the race for the chief minister's post to Siddaramaiah.
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is the richest chief minister in India with assets worth over Rs 931 crore, while West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee is the poorest with just Rs 15 lakh. The average asset per chief minister is Rs 52.59 crore, and the total assets of 31 chief ministers are worth Rs 1,630 crores. The report also highlights that 13 chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, with 10 of them having declared serious criminal cases.
The BJP is faced with the crucial question of who will lead the party in the four impending state polls this year: In Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
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.
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.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
The Election Commission on Saturday announced extension of polling time by an hour up to 6 pm for Sunday's Karnataka assembly elections, in view of the weather conditions and excessive heat.
There are 18 assembly constituencies in the border district which is a Lingayat stronghold and has been a BJP bastion in the last two decades.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and colleague Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Yediyurappa government has no moral right to continue in office any more.
The Lokayukta police probing the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case on Wednesday said that the charges against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife Parvathi could not be proved for want of evidence.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
Electorally, the yatra seems to have paid dividends in the south, but the march does not seem to be helping the Congress in stopping the BJP's surge in the Hindi-heartland states.
Mayawati said it became necessary for her to make the announcement as the Congress and some other parties, as part of a "conspiracy", are allegedly trying to create an impression that they would be forging an alliance with the BSP.
Amid speculation that he has been asked to come to the national capital by the high command, he said: "I have not received any call yet. Let's see."
A proposal by the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) to rename a stretch of road in the city after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has sparked strong objections from the opposition JD(S) and citizens. The proposal, which calls for naming a stretch of KRS Road as 'Siddaramaiah Arogya Marga', has been met with criticism, with the JD(S) calling it a "betrayal and insult" to the city's history and the state. The proposal has also drawn ire from RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, who alleges that the road holds historical significance and that Siddaramaiah is an accused in the MUDA site allotment case. Citizens have also voiced their objections to the proposal, and Krishna has announced her intention to challenge it legally.
Addressing a public meeting in Bidar, Shah said the Congress always insulted its leaders -- be it S Nijalingappa or former Chief Minister Veerendra Patil.
The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday took a veiled dig at the Congress by asking it to safeguard its newly elected Karnataka MLAs from being poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party as was allegedly done by the saffron party in Goa amidst the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will not be attending the swearing-in ceremony of Congress leader Siddaramaiah as the Karnataka CM and has designated party leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for the programme, a Trinamool Congress leader said.
Karnataka is currently the second largest recipient of foreign direct investment in India, as it approved 934 FDI proposals worth Rs 7826 crore (Rs 78.26 billion) during this year.
There are critics who say the Bommai's government was not able to counter the Congress narrative to paint his administration as corrupt, a factor that helped the Congress surge in the May 10 assembly elections.
Besides, Rs 360 crore will be allocated for Chief Ministers' Special Development Programme and Minorities Colony Development Programme in the year, he said.
The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel.
He termed the allegations as "just random statements" and demanded that people making such allegations should demonstrate how the EVMs can be "hacked"
This is the second movie about Karnataka politics and its release will coincide with the Karnataka assembly elections, slated to be held in early 2008. Another movie which is set to hit the screen soon is Mukhyamantri I Love You, which, according to Janata Dal supremo H D Deve Gowda, attempts to ridicule his family.
With the election campaign in Karnataka witnessing a bitter war of words between the BJP and the Congress, both the parties rushed to the Election Commission, seeking ban on electioneering by top leaders of the other side.
'The central BJP leaders were determined to push Hindutva hard, and it failed.'
Out of 224 seats in the state, the Congress is projected to take 114 seats, a "slender but clear majority", gaining 49 seats over the 2004 assembly elections, the poll says. The poll predicts a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is hoping to capture power in the state, as it projects the party winning only 60 seats, a decline of 19 seats for it from last time around.
The government will introduce a bill in this regard in the upcoming legislature session, which starts on July 3.
Accepting BJP central leadership's directive as part of the truce between Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his detractors, Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar has decided to join the state ministry soon.
Shivakumar said, "Mahayuti leaders should visit my state to see how Congress' welfare guarantees are benefiting people."
'Let anyone in Karnataka come forward and show that we have the licences to even a single square foot of land in the state,' challenges C V Nagesh, the Reddy brothers's lawyer.
