Here's how the prominent leaders in the fray in Karataka elections have performed.
Badava Shramika Raitha Congress founder B Sreeramulu on Tuesday appeared before the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau in Hyderabad in connection with the ongoing probe in the cash-for-bail scandal involving jailed former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.
Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Saturday charged the Congress with having struck a secret pact with mining baron G Janardhana Reddy and his associate and independent candidate B Sreeramulu to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.
In an attempt to placate mining magnates Reddy brothers who failed to get ministerial berths in Karnataka, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Friday told them that "a ministerial post is not permanent in politics". Gadkari, who inaugurated a mass marriage programme organised by the district BJP unit in Bellary under the leadership of former minister B Sreeramulu, exhorted the Reddy brothers to devote their energies to the service of the people.
In the second expansion in three days, Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Thursday inducted five ministers of cabinet rank into his ministry, but kept out the controversial Reddy brothers.
Polling began on Wednesday morning for by-elections to Adampur and Ratia assembly constituencies in Haryana, Bellary (rural) in Karnataka and for the Lok Sabha seat of Kolkata Dakshin in West Bengal.
Rebel leader B Sreeramulu, a close associate of jailed mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, on Monday announced plans to float a new political party in Karnataka, three days after Bharatiya Janata Party suspended six of its elected representatives including two MPs for anti-party activities.
In a stern message to the powerful Reddy brothers, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka on Friday slapped show cause notices on three members of Legislative Assembly and a member of Legislative Council loyal to them for alleged anti-party activities in backing rebel candidate B Sreeramulu for the bypoll to Bellary rural assembly segment.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday ruled out possibility of mid-term assembly polls following political turmoil in Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit in the wake of Bellary strongman B Sreeramulu's decision to quit the party and contest the bypoll as an independent.
Former Karnataka minister B Sreeramulu, a close associate of former minister G Janardhana Reddy, on Saturday charged the Central Bureau of Investigation with "acting in a hurry" in arresting the mining baron in an illegal mining case. "I am confident that Janardhana Reddy will come clean of the charges of illegal mining levelled against him. The CBI acted in a great hurry in arresting Reddy. We would have cooperated in the investigation," he said.
The development, however, is unlikely to have any immediate fallout for the one-month-old cabinet headed by D V Sadananda Gowda.
The Election Commission has served notices to three Karnataka ministers, including Reddy brothers, on a petition seeking their disqualification as MLAs on grounds of alleged amassing of wealth and misuse of power.
A day after coming under attack from BJP leaders in the run up to the Nov 30 bypoll for the Bellary Rural seat, rebel leader B Sreeramulu on Thursday declared he would "wipe out" the saffron party base in this district.
With the Congress' 'Bellary Chalo' march in protest against the BJP government's "failure" to check illegal mining entering the fifth day, three Karnataka ministers today launched a counter rally challenging the Opposition to prove its charge.
The point of contention is that the three ministers are holding office of profit being the ministers in the state cabinet.
Sleuths of the Income Tax department on Monday conducted raids on the residences and offices of two Member of Legislative Assembly of the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to sources. Raids were conducted at the residences and offices of Suresh Babu and Nagendra. According to sources, raids were conducted in 60 different places including their offices at Bellary and Bengaluru. Their residences were also searched by I-T department officials. I-T sleuths have seized black money
The three Karnataka ministers, who are in the midst of illegal mining controversy, on Monday contended before the Election Commission that Governor H R Bhardwaj had no authority to refer to it the petition seeking their disqualification from the state legislature.
Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj on Wednesday said he has a list of corrupt people in the state and offered to furnish it to those interested. "I have given the list to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa also," Bhardwaj said. Bhardwaj's remarks came just a few days after he shot off two letters to Yeddyurappa seeking his response to land scam charges against him and on illegal mining allegedly involving three ministers -- G Janardhana Reddy, G Karunakara Reddy and B Sreeramulu.
12 years after he was sacked form JD-S, Siddaramaiah, offered Karnataka's CMship to his political foe Kumaraswamy.
The Congress's new treasurer Ahmed Patel has been meeting industrialists and businessmen. He met one of the biggest industrialists of the country last week, but the assurance of any significant donation was half-hearted from the other end. Business houses aren't exactly queuing up to offer donations, reports Archis Mohan.
In the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 23, 116 seats spread across 13 states and two Union Territories, will go to the polls.
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