Siddaramaiah, who hails from the shepherd Kuruba caste, holds the record for presenting the highest number of Budgets in Karnataka -- 13 so far. He has often spoken about how he was mocked in 1994 before he presented his first Budget. 'Some people asked, "Can he count sheep?",' Siddaramaiah told a regional news channel.
With the Supreme Court reversing the action of the Karnataka Speaker who disqualified 16 MLAs of which 11 were from Bharatiya Janata Party, the B S Yeddyurappa government finds itself in fresh trouble.
While there are some new faces in the cabinet, leaders such as BJP president JP Nadda and Jual Oram have returned as ministers.
It was the end of the road for Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, who tendered his resignation to Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi. He will be replaced by Jagadish Shettar. Gowda is expected to return to Bangalore and hand over his resignation to the Governor.
The Governor's report comes four days after the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (S) staked a claim to form a coalition government. Congress has been pushing for dissolution of the assembly and holding of fresh elections. It is learnt that the Governor in his status report apprising the President, has referred to the petitions received by him from political leaders since October 7, the day BJP withdrew support to the JDS-led government.
The BJP is readying to run a tech savvy campaign in Karnataka to counter anti-incumbency, while the JD-S is also exploring using social media to promote its message. The Congress will only rely on star power to woo the voter. Vicky Nanjappa looks at how the campaign will pan out.
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the appointment of a few Governors and changes in portfolios of some others.
Close on the heels of Congress axing Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from the post in the wake of Adarsh Housing Society scam, five disqualifed Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs asked their high command to apply the same yardstick to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and seek his resignation.
RSS ideologue M G Vaidya on Wednesday said it was beyond their imagination that the Bharatiya Janata Party will be decimated in Karnataka Assembly elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party was on Wednesday decimated in the Karnataka assembly elections with Congress set to form a government, may be on its own, wresting power after a gap of seven years.
Despite the national executive's decision to suspend him, Kumaraswamy said he continued to be the legislature party's leader.
Asserting that his government still enjoyed a majority even after 13 Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Legislative Assembly announced their resignations, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Sunday said he was ready to face a No-Confidence Motion moved by the opposition. "I have majority. There is no threat to the government. I am ready to face a No-Confidence Motion if the opposition moves it," he told reporters.
Arun Jaitley, in-charge of Assembly elections in Karnataka for the Bharatiya Janata Party, has indicated that at least 20 per cent of its MLAs in the outgoing Assembly may be changed during the next elections. He said the party was confident that the party would win the elections and form the government under the leadership of B S Yeddiyurappa.
The exit polls on Saturday predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance winning most of the seats in Congress-ruled Karnataka in the Lok Sabha elections and the Congress not putting up a good show.
Rebel leader B Sreeramulu, a close associate of jailed mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, on Monday announced plans to float a new political party in Karnataka, three days after Bharatiya Janata Party suspended six of its elected representatives including two MPs for anti-party activities.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Power minister and former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa loyalist Shobha Karandlaje is all set to announce her exit from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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.
Karnataka may well see the return of a coalition government, thanks to the existing crisis. Sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party say that even if the high command manages to find a solution to this problem, it will be short-lived and the crisis could commence after three months.
"We have a commitment before the people of Karnataka. Parliament elections are ahead. So, I have to bow to the AICC president and the Gandhi family. In the larger interest of the party (I have agreed to the formula) and why not, because sometimes the ice should break. Ultimately, there is a responsibility towards what we have a commitment to the people of Karnataka and we have to deliver," he said.
'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.
A meeting that was meant to layout the roadmap for the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party ended abruptly on Friday with some tough talk by party president Nitin Gadkari aimed directly at former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
Cracks in the JD-S were evident when H D Revanna, who is the son of JD-S chief H D Deve Gowda did not go to Rashtrapathi Bhavan where both the JD-S and BJP MLAs were paraded before President Prathibha Patil.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Friday met Governor H R Bharadwaj at the Raj Bhavan reportedly to put an end to the bitter feud between them. A war of words had ensued between the CM and the governor after the latter asked Yeddyurappa to take a second floor test to prove his majority in the assembly. He had also pulled up the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government for not taking any action against its allegedly corrupt ministers.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Following the Cabinet reshuffle in Karnataka, a major revolt has broken in the Bharatiya Janata Party with the powerful Reddy brothers terming Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa a "betrayer''.
Expressing grave concern over the luring of teenaged girls under the guise of 'love jihad", the Karnataka government on Friday said it would initiate a probe into the matter. Love jihad refers to the incidents of young non-Muslim girls allegedly being lured into marriage and then converted to Islam.
In an attempt to placate mining magnates Reddy brothers who failed to get ministerial berths in Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Friday told them that "a ministerial post is not permanent in politics". Gadkari, who inaugurated a mass marriage programme organised by the district BJP unit in Bellary under the leadership of former minister B Sreeramulu, exhorted the Reddy brothers to devote their energies to the service of the people.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka has taken its tally to 116 with one more Independent MLA joining them. Yet, the party is not taking any chances. Worried about possible horse-trading, the party has packed off all MLAS to an unknown destination and they will be directly presented moments before the swearing-in ceremony. Interestingly, all the six have been assured of ministerial berths and will be sworn in Friday along with the rest of the BJP MLAs.
The electoral predictions made by the various exit polls about the outcome of the Karnataka election seem to have hit bull's eye. The Congress has, expectedly, taken a major lead within the first couple of hours of counting of votes. But the trend that has surprised pundits and politicians alike is the revival of the Janata Dal - Secular, which has relegated the Bharatiya Janata Party to the third position.
"Reddy brothers are holding the point that they have not violated any rules of mining. We are sure Janardhan Reddy will come out clean...As long as they are associated politically with us, we will own them up," Dhananjay Kumar, Karnataka government's special representative in Delhi, said.
Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar on Monday quit the post, paving way for his induction into the ministry on Tuesday as part of a compromise formula evolved to end the recent dissidence against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the driver's seat in national politics.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray launched a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), questioning the outcome of the recent Maharashtra assembly elections and alleging hypocrisy in the BJP's stance on corruption. He also hinted at internal changes within the MNS, emphasizing the need for discipline and a renewed focus on the party's goals.
Jagadish Shettar, a Lingayat leader backed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader B S Yeddyurappa, was on Thursday sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka. The swearing-in ceremony took place in the absence of the entire Opposition, which decided to stay away.
The Vokkaliga community, which was upset after D Sadananda Gowda was replaced by Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar as chief minister, has now asked all ministers and MLAs belonging to the community in the BJP to resign immediately.
The Congress seems to be heading for the Karnataka polls so far on the strength of its local leadership and focusing on issues concerning the state, making corruption a central theme of its campaigning.
With October 3 being the official date for the Janatha Dal-Secular to transfer power to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, it becomes more and more confusing whether the transfer of power will be a smooth affair or not.
Congress leaders and workers from Kolar have been exerting pressure on the Congress legislature party leader to contest from there.
The B S Yeddyurappa faction within the Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party has threatened to pull down the government if the chief minister is not changed by July 5.
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