A contractor who had accused the Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister K S Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per cent commission for a contract, was found dead in a lodge in the coastal town of Udupi on Tuesday morning.
Shettar alleged that he had been humiliated by the BJP by denying him a ticket and that party is today in the control of "very few people."
'People of the state who bless me will give a befitting replay to the Congress.'
The coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections -- the choice of candidates, the campaign strategies and the negotiations with other Opposition parties --0 represent the real test for Mallikarjun Kharge.
Congress legislators spent the whole night inside the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Council, escalating demand for the dismissal of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa over his statement regarding the national flag.
Congress leaders and workers continued their protests in several states on Thursday against Rahul Gandhi's questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald money-laundering case with many of them taken into preventive custody including former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury in Hyderabad after she allegedly grabbed the collar of a police official.
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.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
Nearly 2,000 Congress workers participated in the 'Bellary chalo' rally on Sunday from the press club at Bengaluru to demand a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the illegal mining scam that has rocked the Karnataka legislative assembly for over a week.The 15-day rally will end at Bellary where a massive public gathering will be held. The Congress members plan to cover 20 kms everyday on foot across the state.
Congress legislators will spend Thursday night inside the Karnataka legislative assembly and council, demanding the sacking of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa and also that he be booked for sedition for his statement about the national flag.
State Congress president D K Shivakumar even tore papers on his table, in protest against the introduction of the bill, which his party called 'draconian and anti-constitution'.
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.
'There must be ideological differences but Savarkar is a freedom fighter, then ask Siddaramaiah, whose poster must be put, of Dawood Ibrahim?'
Following the party's sweep of assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states against the odds, the BJP's brain trust is now busy game-planning as to how it can improve on its 2019 Lok Sabha election tally of 303 seats.
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.
There is no mention of Kolar, the second seat from where senior party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, wants to contest, in addition to Varuna, where his name is already cleared.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said he has given details about the state's stand and facts regarding the raging border dispute with Maharashtra to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is likely to call a meeting of chief ministers of both states next week.
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Why weren't the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana -- all of which have borders with Karnataka -- not invited to Saturday's swearing-in ceremony, asks Shyam G Menon.
'Rahul Gandhi never gets firsthand information. He does not know what is good or bad going on in the party.'
Several activists of pro-Kannada organisations were also whisked away by the police at Town Hall, as they gathered there to stage a protest.
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.
While the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the MLA and the Congress government, Shivakumar seeking to clarify, said no guarantee scheme will be stopped and it will be continued for five years.
The assembly also saw the passage of four bills amidst the din, and Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri taking strong exception to Congress members "unnecessarily" bringing in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's name during their protest in the well of the House.
'We try to connect people, but they disconnect people.'
The Congress seems to be heading for the Karnataka polls so far on the strength of its local leadership and focusing on issues concerning the state, making corruption a central theme of its campaigning.
He also announced unemployment allowance for the youth, as the party's fourth poll guarantee, on coming to power.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It looks like he struck an instant chord with the people, with the voters rewarding the Congress with a comfortable majority of 136 seats in the 224 member Karnataka Legislative Assembly for which elections were held on May 10, and the votes counted on Saturday.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was also in Karnataka on Thursday to take part in a programme for the 115th birth anniversary of Sri Shivakumara Swamiji at the Siddaganaga Mutt in Tumakuru.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been in poor health, walked a few kilometres in Mandya, Karnataka.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
He also asserted that everything has gone smoothly for the party in the assembly polls and the government will be formed soon.
The two main factions in Karnataka's Congress party -- one led by Siddaramaiah and the other by D K Shivakumar -- are both contenders for the chief ministership. Both groups have fought hard to get their choice of MLAs the party ticket, notes Aditi Phadnis.
The bill known as the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill-2020 seeks a total ban on the slaughter of cows in the state and stringent punishment to those who indulge in smuggling, illegal transportation, atrocities on cows and slaughtering them, Bharatiya Janata Party sources said.
The Congress, by and large, focused on local issues in this election and its campaign also was run by state leaders initially.
The 79-year old leader, who served as the chief minister of Kerala twice, breathed his last in a private hospital in Bengaluru at 4.25 am. His end came while undergoing treatment for cancer, party sources said.
In the manifesto for the polls released in Bengaluru by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the presence of the state unit chief D K Shivakumar and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah and others, the party reiterated its five guarantees: Gruha Jyothi, Gruha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, Yuva Nidhi and Shakti.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
Savadi would now be the grand old party's candidate in Athani in Belagavi district, Congress leaders said.
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