'The wife will not only abuse her husband for giving her less money, but also abuse the government.' 'Look at the price of a cooking gas cylinder, it is Rs 1,200.'
Shivakumar has got the all-important Major and Medium Irrigation and Bengaluru City Development, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
Several loyal party old guards were unhappy and had expressed their displeasure openly about "migrants" scuttling the chances of them becoming ministers.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
The then disqualified Congress-JDS MLAs who had shifted loyalty to the BJP and won the December by-elections, were sworn-in at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan with Governor Vajubhai Vala admistering oath of office and secrecy.
With the D-day for the polls drawing closer, Modi upped the ante against the Siddaramaiah government addressing four back to back rallies at Gadag, Tumakuru, Shivamogga and Mangaluru.
Rahul Gandhi deliberately kept himself in the background, because he knew he is yet to achieve the stature to talk to a politician as senior as Deve Gowda.
Modi's gestures have fuelled speculations that the BJP wants to bring Yediyurappa into the centre-stage of its campaign plank leveraging his mass appeal for the Assembly elections, due by May.
Siddaramaiah asserted that the Karnataka government was a 'strong' one and ridiculed state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for repeatedly claiming that the coalition will collapse.
'If, in the first 48 to 72 hours, they are just on a wild goose chase, then Gauri Lankesh's murder will not get solved.'
Indicating the imminent replacement of D V Sadananda Gowda as Karnataka chief minister, State Bharatiya Janata Party president K S Eshwarappa on Friday said he believed that the party has solved the leadership issue and would abide by their decision.
' Modi is for the entire country, not just for Karnataka. He had come for campaigning here. The Congress might have won in Karnataka but has seen defeat across the country. Is it the win of local leaders or state leaders?'
With the election campaign in Karnataka witnessing a bitter war of words between the BJP and the Congress, both the parties rushed to the Election Commission, seeking ban on electioneering by top leaders of the other side.
Both of them said, the legislature party meeting has been called, most probably on Thursday, as part of a routine exercise to discuss various programmes and policies of the government, and to ensure coordination between government and party MLAs.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi's Goshamahal in-charge Nanda Kishore Vyas is pitted against Raja Singh from Goshamahal segment.
'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.'
The Congress now knows that it is the only force -- however weakened it might be -- that stands between the BJP and India's evolution into a single-party Republic. Because, once it is out of the way, the BJP could sort out the other regional powers: Co-opting some, demolishing others, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
If she cannot recast the party, bring together the factions opposed to her, and present herself as her brother's true challenger, there will be little left for her in politics, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Among the three Deputy Chief Ministers are Govind Karjol, who has also been given the charge of PWD and Social welfare; Ashwath Narayan the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology; and Laxman Savadi with Transport department.
"Karnataka has always forged inclusive economic development and we must not allow such communal exclusion- If ITBT became communal it would destroy our global leadership. @BSBommai please resolve this growing religious divide," Mazumdar-Shaw said.
The winning momentum is important for the BJP as the crucial state of Karnataka is next headed for assembly polls, expected in May, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year.
In Karnataka, the BJP lost the elections because of multiple poles of power, a problem the central leadership could not sort out in time. Could the same happen to the Congress in Rajasthan? asks Aditi Phadnis.
Top leaders of Opposition parties will brainstorm at a meeting in Patna on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with sources saying that they would look to avoid the prickly leadership question and emphasise on common ground.
For the first time, a presiding officer was declaring in public what decision he will be taking, the Rajya Sabha member said.
There appears to be no solution in sight to the ongoing crisis in the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party with the Reddy brothers -- comprising state Tourism Minister G Janardhan Reddy and Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy, who are spearheading a faction to oust BS Yeddyurappa from the CM's chair -- refusing to settle for anything less than a leadership change in the state.
'Farmers have been sent notices in which the government is threatening that if you will join the movement, then we will impound your ancestral properties.' 'We will seal your bank accounts.' 'We will revoke the passports of your kids.'
B Y Vijayendra said power and position itself are not the ultimate objectives in politics.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
"The Congress have gone and made promises in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that they never fulfilled," Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed.
All the action from political crisis in Karnataka has now shifted to New Delhi, with both the camps -- led by former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and current CM Sadananda Gowda, respectively -- in the Bharatiya Janata Party scheduled to meet with the top leadership in a bid to end the row.
The Chief Minister has been under intense pressure for some time now, over expansion and rejig of the Cabinet not taking place, to make way for the fresh faces, ahead of Assembly elections by April-May next year.
'He was a cricketer who come once in a lifetime...'
According to Congress sources, few ministers from the party have even offered to step down in the larger interest and to keep the coalition intact.
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.
Accepting BJP central leadership's directive as part of the truce between Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his detractors, Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar has decided to join the state ministry soon.
If the party's members aren't sure what it stands for, see no path to wealth or power, and endure control by a dynasty, which, almighty as it is within the party, cannot get them the votes, they are likely to explore options, notes Shekhar Gupta.
According to sources in the Congress, eight legislators are likely to be sworn in as ministers along with them.
The JDS group, which was opposed to forcing a snap poll on the people of the state in the event of its coming out of the government, is likely to rope in Bharatiya Janata Party support to form an alternative government.
Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party vice president and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa's son BY Vijayendra on Monday said he will contest the 2023 state assembly polls if the party's central leadership gives its nod.
