Multiple challenges, particularly with regard to cabinet formation, stare at Siddaramaiah as he takes over as the new chief minister of Karnataka, nudging out party colleague and state Congress president D K Shivakumar -- who will now be his deputy.
Stirring up controversy, a Lingayat seer on Monday alleged that mutts (monasteries) are equally affected due to rampant corruption prevailing in Karnataka as they too pay a commission of 30 per cent to get the sanctioned grants released for them.
The leader, who has been sulking for some time now due to repeated denial of election tickets, said he would convene a meeting of his supporters next month to announce his decision on whether or not he will stay with the Congress.
More than ever before, women voters can make or mar a political party's electoral fortunes.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the two aspiring CMs.
The announcement came after the chief minister held a high level meeting with senior government officials on Thursday to discuss the implementation of both schemes, which are part of five poll guarantees of the Congress.
Gowda said he would not comment on or criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi unless the latter traded charges against him.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 30 of the total 50 seats in the region in the 2018 assembly polls, followed by Congress 17, Janata Dal-Secular 2, and others (KPJP-Shankar) 1.
Today, with the Lok Sabha polls only months away, any inter-state dispute over the Cauvery water dispute has the potential to take more political turns than otherwise, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Asking people to cooperate by wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing, he said officials have been instructed to take strict measures against those not wearing masks from Tuesday itself.
For the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, the following are the 20 seats to watch out for.
Karnataka Minister K S Eshwarappa, who is facing charges of abetment to suicide in connection with the death of a civil contractor in Udupi, on Thursday announced stepping down from his position.
What some of our leaders were up to on Tuesday.
The chief minister met Shah on Wednesday night and held discussions regarding the supply of rice to the state, for its Anna Bhagya scheme, which provides an additional 5 kg of rice for each member of below poverty line families.
'There is a conscious move by the BJP to distance itself from the current state leadership.'
Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Sunday said the state would get a new Lokayukta in the next 15 days.
CM Siddaramaiah called it a 'politically motivated' move.
The DMK leadership may now have to deal with a demand for more seats from its Congress ally in the Lok Sabha polls, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 40 per cent commission charge has once again come to the fore to haunt the Basavaraj Bommai-led government in Karnataka, with the state contractors association on Wednesday stating that they will be writing another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
Former Karnataka chief minister Jagdish Shettar, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year, rejoined his old party on Thursday.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday hit out at the BJP-led government at the Centre, alleging the delay in giving approval to the construction of the Mekedatu balancing reservoir over the river Cauvery, and accused neighbouring Tamil Nadu of causing "unnecessary nuisance" on the issue.
Parameshwara said the chief minister had written a letter to the prime minister on the issue, and added that cancelling Prajwal's passport after a warrant is issued against him is the Centre's duty.
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.
Kateel too rejected talks about changing the CM by stating that Bommai would complete his tenure.
The deputy chief minister, he told his voters that their desire (to see him as chief minister) will never be false, and asked them to wait with patience.
"Gruha Lakshmi" scheme, rolled out amid fanfare, is one of the five pre-poll 'guarantees' of the Congress, which ousted the Bharatiya Janata Party from power in the May assembly elections.
The meeting came in the backdrop of protests by farmers bodies against the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.
Claiming taxes collected from the south were being distributed to north India and that the former were not getting their due share, Congress MP D K Suresh on Thursday said the southern states will be forced to demand for a separate nation if the 'injustice' was not rectified.
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
"K C Venugopal is a buffoon, I feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for my leader Sri Rahul Gandhi ji," Baig told reporters.
He claimed that people from all walks of life across the state were angry against this BJP government.
Karnataka, by reposing its faith in BSY, remains a Hindutva stronghold, reports R Rajagopalan.
The Congress claimed that the BJP was "trying hard" to get their party's MLAs on their side".
All the issues around which the grand old party wanted to fight the May 10 assembly elections have been put on the backburner as party state president DK Shivakumar in damage control mode took up a temple run.
The Congress victory in Karnataka, its first big state since 2018, puts the party back in the game for general elections as it re-establishes primacy in the opposition space that is currently vastly fragmented despite efforts to cobble up a united front against the BJP.
The behaviour and conduct of certain ministers has upset some legislators, Patil said, as he warned that their fight would continue, if it is not corrected.
He said, the fresh budget of the new Congress government, which he will be presenting on July 7, is likely to be of the size Rs 3,35,000 crore.
The school authorities immediately alerted police, who reached the institutions concerned with the bomb disposal squads and anti-sabotage check teams, they said, while indicating the bomb threat could be a hoax.
Amid speculation about the number of MLAs supporting him and senior party colleague Siddaramaiah for the post of Karnataka chief minister, state Congress president D K Shivakumar on Monday said his strength is 135, as under his presidency, the party won the said number of seats in the assembly polls.
Karnataka chief minister-designate Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister-designate D K Shivakumar on Friday discussed the modalities of cabinet formation in the state with the party leadership in Delhi and are learnt to have shortlisted some names of ministers and their portfolios.
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