Seven men who allegedly barged into a hotel room and attacked an interfaith couple during their stay in Haveri district of Karnatka have been charged with gangrape after the victim complained that she was sexually assaulted by them, the police said on Friday.
What does Siddaramaiah need to do if he has to continue as the chief minister of Karnataka? He has to win the Congress 20 seats, and sources within the party tell Rediff.com, and that he is under a lot of pressure. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
An official direction, authorising government and aided schools to purchase a book on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's political life and achievements for their libraries by the education department has stirred a controversy.
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.
If the flag comes into being, Karnataka will be the second state to have its official flag after J&K.
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.
'Destabilising the Yediyurappa government is not a cakewalk.' 'If he is destabilised, then the BJP will have problems in Karnataka.'
'For short-term gain, the BJP makes extraordinary promises, they take extraordinary decisions, but in the long term it is going to impact both them and the country.'
Security was beefed up on Monday a day after a row broke out over the removal of a saffron Hanuman flag from Keragodu village in Mandya, with protests demanding its restoration and the incident sparking a political confrontation between the Congress government and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular).
Congress Legislature Party leader and Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah said no one would leave the Congress and there was no disgruntlement either.
Strongly defending the move to revise school textbooks, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Monday alleged that confusion is unnecessarily being created among the people and students, along with attempts to create communal hatred by spreading falsehood.
Pandemonium prevailed in the Karnataka assembly on Wednesday with Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K S Eshwarappa and State Congress president D K Shivakumar charging towards each other stopping short of coming to blows.
According to official sources, images of the suspect's movement have been captured by the CCTV cameras at the Rameshwaram cafe in Brookefield area and those nearby.
The term of the 224-member Karnataka assembly ends on May 28 this year.
From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.
Police sources said that four persons have been detained for questioning in connection with Friday's low-intensity bomb blast at The Rameshwaram Cafe.
"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.
Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days.
Rejecting media reports, Siddaramaiah said he had not slapped any official and some electronic media were carrying out "false" propaganda against him.
Providing succour to distressed farmers, the Karnataka government on Saturday announced waiver of interest and penal interest on crop loans from cooperative banks for the current fiscal and hike in compensation from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to families of farmers who had committed suicide.
At this moment it is not possible to say whether any organisation or an individual was involved, the home minister said. There were certain theories during his visit to the cafe on Friday night, expressing suspicion that someone might have done it out of 'heartburn', unable to digest the cafe's success and expansion.
Karnataka, by reposing its faith in BSY, remains a Hindutva stronghold, reports R Rajagopalan.
Kanugolu had also made forays in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh following a directive from the party's central leadership but regional satraps Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath reportedly were not on the same page as the poll strategist.
The 'sex scandal' allegedly involving Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi rocked the Karnataka Assembly again on Tuesday, with the Opposition Congress protesting in the well of the house, demanding an inquiry monitored by the Chief Justice of the high court.
Sidda launches free bus travel scheme for women
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.
The 33-year-old grandson of JD-S supremo H D Deve Gowda is expected to land in Bengaluru in the small hours of May 31.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
The meeting was convened by the party to assess whether its flock was intact amid speculation that some of the MLAs had switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing a BJP rally, Modi said after he levelled the "10 per cent commission" charge against the Siddaramaiah dispensation recently, he received many calls, with people disputing his information about the cut it received, and claiming it was much more.
Jagadish and Anukumar were taken into custody from the district headquarters town of Chitradurga by a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dinakar.
Bommai alleged that in the name of providing insurance to the people on Karnataka's side of the border, the Maharashtra government is taking declaration letters from them stating that they belong to Maharashtra. "This is condemnable."
The chief minister on Monday held consultations with senior officials of finance, transport, food and civil supplies, energy and other departments and asked them to prepare a report on the implementation of the guarantees.
He asked if DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, "who speaks of Tamil culture, such a serious allegation has been made--will DMK snap ties with Congress, for Tamil pride and the Tamil people."
Stung by an alleged sex CD scandal, Karnataka Excise Minister H Y Meti resigned on Wednesday with government ordering a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department into the entire purported episode over the charge that he sought sexual favour from a woman in return for help.
Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy claimed on Tuesday that he was not in touch with his nephew Prajwal.
'Free this and free that, and the voters were with them.'
Jayalalithaa was disqualified following her conviction in the Rs 66.66 crore disproportionate assets case by a trial court in Bengaluru on September 27
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.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
