'You don't need massive industry or huge energy resources.' 'You could start with just 3 or 4 people in a coffee shop and invent the world.'
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the disqualification of Janata Dal-Secular MLA D C Gowrishankar Swamy from the Tumkur Rural constituency in Karnataka and allowed him to contest the upcoming assembly polls in the southern state.
Neerja Chowdhury spoke to former prime minister and JD-S H D Deve Gowda about the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP presented a surplus, farmer friendly budget for Rs 18.85 crore for the year 2008-09. Emphasis was also given to Bengaluru city with Rs 36,000 crore being allocated for infrastructure development. In his budget speech, Yeddyurappa said that the main intention was to improve the image of Bengaluru and put it on the global map. For this to take place the development of infrastructure was the key.
The Opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular members continued their protest in the Karnataka legislative assembly for the third straight night demanding a CBI inquiry into the alleged illegal mining scam.
Amid stepped-up pressure on him by the BJP-JD(S) combine to consider its claim for government formation in Karnataka, Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Sunday said he was yet to take a decision in this regard
Sniping at the BJP senior leadership has reached a new high in Karnataka. For the moment, there is a truce, but the party knows the damage it could do ahead of the polls.
After losing both the seats in the by-polls of the Karnataka legislative assembly, state Pradesh Congress Committee's working president D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition Siddaramiah resigned from their posts on Thursday. The two leaders resigned after accepting the moral responsibility for the party's defeat in Kadur and Gulbarga. The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Kadur seat while the Janata Dal Secular won the Gulbarga seat.
The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday took a veiled dig at the Congress by asking it to safeguard its newly elected Karnataka MLAs from being poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party as was allegedly done by the saffron party in Goa amidst the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Mudigere's Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, M P Kumaraswamy, on Thursday announced his resignation from the party, after he was denied ticket to contest the Karnataka assembly polls, and blamed national General Secretary C T Ravi for not getting nominated.
With Bharatiya Janata Party facing 'dynasty politics' criticism, following the appointment of veteran leader B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Vijayendra as its Karnataka unit president, party's senior leader C T Ravi on Saturday tried to dodge related questions, and in a cryptic remark said he too is being haunted by certain 'questions'.
According to police, a first information report (FIR) was registered under Sections 384 (punishment for extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Enforcement Directorate officials, office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party at state and national level, based on the order of a special court.
Top state leaders--Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress' Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and Janata Dal-Secular leader HD Kumaraswamy are contesting from different seats.
The court directed the Congress to explain whether they were adhering to COVID norms such as wearing face masks, and maintaining social distancing.
The BJP and Congress have already launched spirited campaigns for the elections.
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.
Raut said that he did not need anyone's 'permission' regarding the issue.
Key states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana would go for polls this year, besides states from the North-East.
In its exit poll released after the voting on May 10, India Today-Axis My India predicted a clear majority for the Congress with 122-140 seats and gave the BJP 62-80 seats. It gave 20-25 seats to the JD-S.
A day before counting of votes polled in the Karnataka assembly elections, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Friday went into a huddle and held strategy sessions on ways to keep their flock together.
Even if Kumaraswamy gets the support of independents and the Janata Dal-United, he will not be able to form the government as he needs to have at least 113 of the 226 seats in the Assembly. The JD-S now has 57 seats in the Legislative Assembly, which means it will need another 56 seats to gain a majority. Even with the support of independents and the Janata Dal-United, the JD-S will only have 70 seats, thus falling short of 43 seats.
"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.
The governor has also started using a bullet-proof car since Tuesday morning, the sources told PTI.
He also charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with being silent on price rise, unemployment and corruption in the state during his series of public meetings while campaigning for the elections taking place today.
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.
Kumaraswamy alleged that 25,000 pen drives were distributed in the entire state, and cited a report in a regional daily to support his claim.
Shankar went to Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti's office and tendered his hand-written resignation.
According to Congress, the five schemes are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).
The state government proposes to undertake more reforms in the police department, he said, as he also highlighted the need for equipping police personnel with sophisticated weapons.
The Congress, by and large, focused on local issues in this election and its campaign also was run by state leaders initially.
The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to promulgate an ordinance to give effect to the contentious law against religious conversions.
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.
Amid protests and anger in some quarters against observing 'Hindi Diwas', Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Wednesday his government is bringing in a legislation to make Kannada "mandatory" in the state.
More than Rs 8 crore unaccounted cash has been seized in subsequent raids at various locations by Lokayukta. The arrested officer's father is Madal Virupakshappa, the MLA representing Channagiri constituency in Davangere district of the state.
Allowing 12-hour shifts for all and night-time work for women was meant to benefit software firms, but is said to have clinched Foxconn's Rs 80 billion investment.
The BJP legislature party in Karnataka will meet in Bangalore on Wednesday for the first time after the party's central leadership brokered peace between Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and dissidents recently.
He is expected to be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court on Saturday where the ED will seek his remand for custodial interrogation.
Bommai on Friday met BJP veteran B S Yediyurappa along with other party leaders, including ministers Murugesh Nirani, Byrathi Basavaraj, party MP Lehar Singh Siroya and A T Ramaswamy, at the former chief minister's residence.
A case is filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit for issuing "defamatory" advertisements in mainstream newspapers.
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