Mr Pradhan's understanding of realpolitik and organisational dynamics makes him the ultimate party man, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'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.
Five Congress legislators on Wednesday threatened to resign if senior party leader and minister K H Muniyappa's son-in-law Chikka Peddanna was given a ticket to contest from Kolar in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, bringing into open the divisions in the outfit.
Shivakumar also claimed that the BJP wanted to call for elections in Karnataka soon after the 2022 Gujarat poll results were out but backtracked on the move.
According to the sources, the meeting will be held at 10 am on Thursday in the chamber of Rajya Sabha LoP.
The cobbler also said officials from various government departments also reached out to him to enquire about his problems ever since the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha made a surprise visit to his humble shop in the Vidhayak Nagar area on outskirts of Sultanpur, turning Chet into a local celebrity.
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.
The electoral fortunes of top leaders-- Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, Congress heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar and JD-S' H D Kumaraswamy, among many others will be known on Saturday.
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.
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''.
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.
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.
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.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
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.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said more than 40 miscreants have been arrested in connection with the stone-pelting incident in Shivamogga and cases booked against them.
"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.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
Children, women and men lined up the streets of Bengaluru as Captain M V Pranjal's cortege made its way on the final 23 km journey from his home to the crematorium.
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.
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 61-year old leader will take oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka from Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday at 11 am.
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 Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea challenging a Bombay high court verdict upholding a Mumbai college's decision to ban hijabs, burqas and naqabs inside the campus.
The BJP shifted Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje, who is currently representing Udupi Chikmagalur Lok Sabha segment, to contest from Bangalore North.
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.
Ending days of suspense, the Congress on Thursday announced Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister of Karnataka and D K Shivakumar as his only deputy in the soon-to-formed cabinet.
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.
Bharatiya Janata Party's national leaders would meet senior party leaders of Karnataka on October 30 in New Delhi to work out a strategy to placate disgruntled party strongman B S and ensure that he does not quit the party, BJP state president K S Eshwarappa said on Saturday.
Yeddyurappa is planning his strategy quietly as he doesn't want to be blamed if the government falls before the end of its tenure, reveals Vicky Nanjappa
Questioning Bharatiya Janata Party's locus standi to make such a demand, he asked the opposition party as to why it doesn't trust the police.
Neerja Chowdhury spoke to former prime minister and JD-S H D Deve Gowda about the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka.
Almost three months after announcing his new party, former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on Monday announced 'football' as its poll symbol, the first list of candidates, and also manifesto, ahead of the assembly elections due by May.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
The future course of Karnataka politics may be decided on Monday by a three-judge bench of the high court comprising Justices Abdul Nasir, Mohan Shanthan Goudar and A S Bopanna. The bench will deliver a verdict on the validity of the suspension of five independent Members of Legislative Assembly by Speaker K G Bopaiah.
Sankeshwar, who represent the Dharwad north constituency, has decided to float a regional political outfit.
While some of the senior Congress leaders are sending feelers to the JD-S regarding power sharing in the seat, a host of other Congress legislators feel that any sort of alignment with the JD-S will spell doom in Karnataka.
Three former Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, who lost their jobs over watching porn film clippings on mobile when the assembly was in session, on Thursday submitted their replies to the show cause notice slapped on them by Speaker K G Bopaiah.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur immediately call the BJP to form the government as they had the required strength. Referring to reported statements by senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, that the governor had sent a "statement of facts" to the Centre, the BJP wondered how this was made known to him as the report has not been made public.
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