U T Khader of Congress on Tuesday won the Ullal Assembly seat in Karnataka, defeating his nearest rival Chandrasekhara Uchil of Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 8,032 votes, official sources said.
Rebel Janata Dal-Secular leader M P Prakash on Monday held consultations with party legislators supporting him to chalk out the strategy of the group, which is opposing the renewed ties with Bharatiya Janata Party on government formation in Karnataka.
There seems to be a wave of uncertainity in the state of Karnataka on whether JD-S will hand over power to its coalition partner, the BJP on October 3.
With parliamentary elections round the corner, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka 'poached' two MLAs each from the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) in the last three days. While the number of new entrants into the BJP stands at four, party sources told rediff.com that the number is likely to go up to at least 10 as feelers have already been sent to the Siddaramaiah camp.
There appears to be no solution in sight to the ongoing crisis in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party with the Reddy brothers -- comprising state Tourism Minister G Janardhan Reddy and Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy, who are spearheading a faction to oust BS Yeddyurappa from the CM's chair -- refusing to settle for anything less than a leadership change in the state.
In his report, he blames the Karnataka government entirely for the church attack fiasco. In this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Justice M F Saldanha says that there is not a single incident of conversion that has taken place in Karnataka. He further goes on to add that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa holds a public office and cannot continue to behave like a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha pracharak.
To keep the flames under check, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the supply of Nandini ghee to make Tirupati laddus was suspended one-and-half years ago, during the BJP government's tenure.
Union minister Bhupender Yadav, who led the BJP delegation, told reporters that Kharge's comment was not merely a slip of the tongue but part of the Congress' "hate politics".
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka over the border row, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Friday said Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is heaping 'grave atrocities' on Marathi people in the neighbouring state."Marathis are being assaulted with sticks and guns and beaten up like cattle. If the Karnataka government wants to display its masochism by attacking Marathi people, it should remember that Maharashtra is land of Shivaji Maharaj," fumed Thackeray.
Dhananjay Kumar questions the functioning of the BJP, and alleges that the party is being selective. He questions why a senior leader such as Ananth Kumar not been acted against when he so easily took down Yeddyurappa on mere allegations, in this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
It is not clear whether Kumar would continue in the Union Cabinet or resign to take up party work.
A last-ditch attempt to retain former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party has failed.
The move by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son Rahul Kharge comes close on the heels of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi returning the 14 sites to Mysuru Urban Development Authority after the Lokayukta police registered a case against Siddaramaiah, his wife and brother-in-law.
It said two of the key accused were Islamic State of Iraq and Syria radicals, who used fraudulently obtained "Indian SIM cards and Indian bank accounts" besides "various Indian and Bangladeshi Identity documents downloaded from the dark web (which is accessible only through specialised browsers) in carrying out their nefarious activities.
Addressing a press conference in Bangalore after the Congress comfortably gained majority in Karnataka in the assembly polls, state party chief G Parameshwar did not look all that elated as he had lost at his constituency, though he thanked the people who had voted for the party. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
If you want to know what just happened in the state but were lost in the political quagmire, do not worry.
Stung by the internal revolt within the party against his style of functioning, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday vowed to 'work together' in the future for the development of the people and the state. "You will see a different Yeddyurappa from tomorrow," he told reporters at midnight at his residence, on arrival from New Delhi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party evolved an 'amicable settlement' to end the two-week long stalemate following the revolt.
"There is no crisis in Karnataka. Our government will complete its term. There is nothing to suggest anything to Jagadish Shettar as he is a very intelligent person," BJP president Rajnath Singh said.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he will not hesitate from facing investigation in a site allotment issue but added that he would consult legal experts to find out whether such a probe is allowed under law.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party deciding to move its Karnataka battleground to Delhi to parade its 105 MLAs before President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday, the Congress core committee, which met on Monday evening, decided to wait and watch the situation and not take any decision in haste.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party sits in dharna, the Congress plans to go ahead with a rally to expose the Janata Dal-Secular and BJP, who they claim, have entered into an unholy alliance.
Sources say that 8-10 Members of the Legislative Assembly from the party are set to quit, thus reducing the BS Yeddyurappa-led government to a minority.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
The fate of the first independent Bharatiya Janata Party government in South India will be decided on Friday, with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa all set to take the floor test. Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur will address the joint session of the state legislative assembly and council at 1215 hours. This would be followed by a debate and later the floor test will be held. The entire process is expected to be completed by 1700 hours on Friday.
The Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party, which was stung by cross voting during the Presidential election on Sunday, has decided to set up a committee to look into the matter. Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told mediapersons in Bengaluru that the committee would go into the matter and appropriate action would be taken against MLAs who cross voted.
As B S Yeddyurappa is all set to launch his party on Sunday, the BJP's focus is on legislators who will attend his rally defying orders from the party. Vicky Nanjappa reports
There are lots of predictions ahead of the Karnataka elections as to who the winner on May 5 would be, says Vicky Nanjappa.
Against the backdrop of the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand that the Centre should not postpone Assembly polls in Karnataka, state Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Wednesday said the elections are likely to be held in May.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition ministry headed by H D Kumaraswamy in Karnataka was expanded Friday with the induction of 20 ministers.
"You are made to read lies, so please don't read it," BJP members said.
The current public mood is that it will be a hung assembly. No one, not even in the BJP, is talking about even a simple majority for the party.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, briefed the top party leadership about the crisis in the state following the suspension of talks between the BJP and JD (S) abt the impending power transfer
'Karnataka's finances are much healthier than the Union government's, which is indebted to nearly twice the extent of the state.'
A court in Hyderabad on Friday granted mining baron and former Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party Minister Janardhan Reddy conditional bail in the in the Obulapuram mining case . He will however remain in jail as he has been granted bail only in one of the two cases pertaining to illegal mining.
The Minister under the scanner, Katta Subramanya Naidu, insisted that his hands were clean and said there was no question of resignation.
The Congress, by and large, focused on local issues in this election and its campaign also was run by state leaders initially.
Eager to stall the presentation of an election budget by the state government headed by Jagadish Shettar, B S Yeddyurappa's Karnataka Janatha Party is holding its executive committee meeting in Bangalore on Friday to finalise 'an action plan' to bring down the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in the south.
The bomb blast near the state Bharatiya Janata Party city office that left at least 16 people injured indicated the hand of terrorists and state police has set up a special team to investigate the attack, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said on Wednesday.
The suspension came minutes after the party core committee that met in Hubballi recommended his suspension to its national president and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who is also Revanna's grandfather.