However, it fell nine seats short of a majority.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday hailed the party's performance in the Karnataka assembly polls as the victory of politics that unites the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar supremo Sharad Pawar were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Tuesday to caste their votes in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
Chandrappa's appointment follows the demise of KPCC working president and former MP R Dhruvanarayana.
Unhappy with the Question Hour being stretched, Congress MLA Basavaraj Rayareddy said the Speaker should 'tear' the rule book if he is not following it.
What does election data say about the electoral support the competing parties in Karnataka have? Abhishek Waghmare find out.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress has accused the BJP of carrying out "one of the most heinous" horse-trading the country has ever seen and said it will hold nationwide protests against the "immoral political destabilisation".
Leading the campaign in Bengaluru, MLA and former minister V Sunil Kumar staged a sit-in demonstration near the Sadashivanagar police station, amid chants of "Jai Sri Ram" by BJP workers.
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.
He also asserted that everything has gone smoothly for the party in the assembly polls and the government will be formed soon.
With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's statement that even God can't fix Bengaluru traffic in the next two or three years, has come under severe criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party, with leader of opposition R Ashoka on Friday demanding that the former step down and make way for someone more capable if he is unable to take responsibility and address the city's traffic issues.
If the Cauvery water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- dating back to 1892 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency under the British Raj and the princely Mysore state -- has exploded again into a war, the discord between Karnataka and Goa over dividing the water of the Mahadayi river simmers under the surface.
Stoking a controversy, a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader has threatened to behead Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in public if he consumed cow meat in Shivamogga.
It also requested the police that an 'urgent and immediate' first information report (FIR) be lodged against the former Bharatiya Janata Party chief and others for the 'offences'.
How many more years, how many more states, how many more campaigns, how many more candidates can he ask votes for, before he or the voters or both tire?, asks Krishna Prasad.
Gandhi, who is seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala, in a video appeal said this election is to save democracy and the Constitution.
The 'Overseas Friends of BJP' in the United States has made an elaborate plan to make more than 25 lakh calls to people across India urging them to vote and re-elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The controversy surrounding Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's visit to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha yoga centre in Tamil Nadu for Mahashivaratri celebrations continues to simmer, with leaders within the state Congress unit expressing differing views on the issue. Cooperative Minister K N Rajanna questioned the appropriateness of Shivakumar sharing the stage with those who have been critical of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while former MP D K Suresh defended his brother, emphasizing that Shivakumar has always kept the party informed about his engagements. The incident has sparked a debate within the Congress party, with leaders like Satish Jarkiholi and M B Patil defending Shivakumar's attendance.
They are the contenders, the leaders of parties that will finally form a government in Karnataka.
The BJP won 12 of 15 seats on which bypolls were held. Congress could win only two.
Sitharaman added that no Union finance minister can play with the Finance Commission's recommendations.
Prime Minister Modi will visit RSS headquarters in Nagpur on March 30.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, asserted on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete his full term if elected to power, refuting the Aam Aadmi Party's claim that Modi wants Shah to succeed him after turning 75 next year.
'The wife will not only abuse her husband for giving her less money, but also abuse the government.' 'Look at the price of a cooking gas cylinder, it is Rs 1,200.'
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Karnataka would vote on May 10, and the results will be declared on May 13.
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
Political parties earlier used to seek vote on the basis of caste and religion, said Kejriwal.
Caste census politics took centre stage on Thursday with the Congress terming the government's decision as a 'diversionary tactic' and a move for headlines management and the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it has exposed the difference between the Centre's 'true intentions' and the 'empty sloganeering' of the opposition party.
AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will visit Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh next month to launch his party's foray into these states that are slated to go to polls later this year.
Some politicians were found to sponsor pilgrimage of their voters -- the most preferred destinations being Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Manjunatha Swami temple in Dharmasthala in Karnataka and Shirdi in Maharashtra.
According to him, the purpose behind such allotment was to help these organisations grow and with that its ideologies should also grow.
A day after fielding Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from Shiggaon in Haveri district, the party nominated Yasir Ahmed Khan Phatan in his place.
Pawar has summoned a meeting of party leaders in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise its plans for the assembly elections in Karnataka scheduled for May 10.
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.
