Karnataka Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on Wednesday sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa following allegations of sexual harassment against him.
'In Kerala, we are part of the government and our MLA is a minister there. These units understood the situation that made us to go with the BJP and supported our move. Our minister in the Left party's government (K Krishnankutty) in Kerala has given consent to us'
B V Acharya, one of the senior most advocates in Karnataka, resigned as the advocate general on Wednesday. There is no one reason been given for the resignation and the former two time AG also does not spell out the real reason for him quitting.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which pulled off a hat-trick of wins in Haryana by bucking anti-incumbency, managed to make significant inroads into the Dalit seats and Jat strongholds.
Gowda denied BJP had any role in the resignations when asked if it was part of "Operation Kamala".
On Friday night there were reports stating that the CM had called Yediyurappa and assured him that the transfer of power would be smooth and as promised.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said if the Congress had formed an alliance with the Janata Dal-Secular before the election, the results would have been different.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday took on Governor H R Bhardwaj alleging that he was trying to throw the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power and install a Congress government in the state.
Efforts to forge unity in the opposition ranks gained momentum on Monday with the Congress asserting that a 'vast majority' of non-Bharatiya Janata Party outfits will meet soon, after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met its president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi.
"How can I continue in the ministry when the minorities are neglected?" asked Khan, becoming the first minister to strike a discordant note ever since the JD(S)-BJP ministry came to power in February last year.
Caste was always a factor during the Karnataka elections. However, what surprised many was the manner in which the Lingayat vote bank tilted in favour of the Congress which ended up winning 67 out of the 118 areas dominated by the caste group in the state.
Putting the Bharatiya Janata Party in a piquant situation, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur has asked the B S Yeddyurappa government, which assumed office on Friday, to prove its majority in the Assembly before his customary address.The Yeddyurappa-led government had obtained the support of all the six Independent legislators to form the government. The BJP had fallen just three seats short of a simple majority, winning 110 seats in the 224-member Assembly.
Plagued by desertions, internal rifts, and with the image of being a "family party", it remains to be seen how Gowda's son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy would steer the party in the May 10 assembly polls.
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.
Advani retained his predecessor Venkaiah Naidu in the panel and in the parliamentary board.
The Karnataka police do not seem to have learnt its lesson. While there are arguments over the terror alert that was issued four days before Wednesday's blast outside the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Bangalore, the one major aspect that they had forgotten was the Hubli blasts which took place during the 2008 elections.
The joint session of the assembly will start from Februay 24.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar has rejected the report submitted by the National Commission for Minorities in which a three-member commission had held the government of Karnataka responsible for inaction and allowing violence against Christians go out of hands.
Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj on Thursday rapped the Bharatiya Janata Party government over inadequate rehabilitation work in the state's flood-hit northern districts, but Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa disagreed with his view and asserted that relief work was going on a 'war-footing'. Bhardwaj said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conducted an aerial survey of the affected districts and announced an aid of Rs 1,000 crore, "but nothing has been done by the state government". "
The Bharatiya Janata Party's comprehensive defeat to the Congress in Karnataka where the two parties ran a campaign of contrasts has left the ruling party much to ponder as the two rivals are facing a direct contest in three more state polls this year in the run-up to the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He also announced unemployment allowance for the youth, as the party's fourth poll guarantee, on coming to power.
Bowing to pressure from B S Yeddyurappa, Bharatiya Janata Party appears set to replace Karnataka Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda with Lingayat leader Jagadish Shettar and an announcement is expected within a week.
"JD-S will not transfer power to BJP. See what all will happen on October 3," Singh, a former chief minister, told reporters in Bangalore on Thursday.
President Pratibha Patil on Friday signed the proclamation to revoke Central rule in Karnataka. Patil, who is at present on a visit to Shimla, signed the proclamation and sent it to the Union Home Ministry for issuing of requisite orders.The President's rule, which had expired on May 19, was extended by another six months after a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took a decision in this regard.
The second phase election to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly began today at 7am amid tight security against the backdrop of Naxalites killing a school head master and a lecturer in the Naxal-infected Udupi district on Thursday night. Naxals, who were active in Shimoga, Udupi and Chikamagalur Districts, had pasted posters and distributed pamphlets a couple of days back calling for boycott of elections.
"Before January 15 next year, when the election will be one year away, we are planning to select candidates for at least 150 assembly constituencies, so that they can start working," Kumaraswamy told reporters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dropped the plans to have an eight-hour roadshow by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bengaluru on Saturday following concerns expressed by Bengalureans over difficulties that they will face with such a day-long programme.
Lok Sabha member D V Sadananda Gowda was on Thursday sworn-in as chief minister of Karnataka, succeeding B S Yeddyurappa, who quit in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining that indicted him.
In the midst of the all the drama that is taking place with regard to the transfer of power in Karnataka, one thing becomes clear and that is the Bharatiya Janata Party at the moment is in no mood for compromise.
Close on the heels of developments in Karnataka, an uneasy relationship prevails in Punjab where the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party appear to be in sombre mood over certain contentious issues, including the recent proposed hike in power tariff by the state government.
According to the surveys, the Janata Dal-Secular could emerge as the kingmaker in the May 12 election.
The sources told PTI that Shettar flew from Hubballi to Bengaluru on Sunday in a special helicopter and held discussions with Congress general secretary (Karnataka in-charge) Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress state chief D K Shivakumar, former minister M B Patil and veteran Congress leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde told rediff.com that the MLA, Y Sampangi had promised a person named Farooq that he would settle a dispute regarding a site in Bengaluru. He also demanded Rs 5 lakh as bribe towards the same.
The power struggle within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka intensified with sulking former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday taking a dig at his successor D V Sadananda Gowda, saying luck propelled him to the post.
Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party dissidents on Thursday rebuffed Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's efforts to reach out to them by refusing to meet him.
The remarks by Sibal, a noted advocate, came after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has entered rebel mode again. He is holed up with 30 loyal MLAs in a bid to pressurise the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership to make him the chief minister again.
The Prime Minister's charge comes a day after former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi addressed a campaign rally at Hubballi on Saturday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's first government in South India has completed 100 days in office on Tuesday. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa who led the BJP to its first ever victory in the southern part of the country says that he is a happy man and adds that his government has proven to be successful in the past 100 days.
The BJP had earlier demanded that the elections should be held by February 2008. However, the election was delayed as the voters' list in the state had to be revised. The state BJP has said that it will explore all means, including legal ones, to ensure that polls in Karnataka are not delayed beyond May 2008.
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