Lingayats are said to constitute about 17 per cent of Karnataka's population, and the community has dominance in as many as 100 out of total 224 constituencies, majority of these seats being in north Karnataka region.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to form 50 states in the country after the 2024 elections. I came to know that he is mulling over it," Umesh Katti, who holds the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, told reporters in Belagavi.
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.
Amid the simmering border dispute, Maharashtra minister Shambhuraj Desai on Wednesday said if Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai does not stop making irresponsible statements, Maharashtra will have to rethink about water supply from its dams to the neighbouring state.
The move was also seen as placating the Lingayat community, which is considered to be the core vote base of the party with some exceptions in the previous Assembly polls, and also to keep party strong man and octogenarian leader B S Yediyurappa in good humour.
Savadi would now be the grand old party's candidate in Athani in Belagavi district, Congress leaders said.
He claimed that people from all walks of life across the state were angry against this BJP government.
Amul's move is being seen by many, especially opposition parties, as a threat to KMF's famed dairy brand 'Nandini'.
A local leader of Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction confirmed they painted the buses.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said the government is trying to find out details about the student from Haveri district who was reportedly injured due to the shelling by Russian forces in Ukraine's Kharkiv city.
Senior politician Basavaraj Horatti, who recently resigned as the chairman of Karnataka legislative council and MLC, on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'I fear that Karnataka is going to the polls next year and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has staked claim to Akkalkot and Solapur'
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.
Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a "poisonous snake", drawing strong rebuke from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said "hate is coming out" with such comments and sought an apology from the veteran leader.
The police which are probing the matter on Bommai's instruction had arrested B R Naidu, the former chief of Congress' Karnataka unit social media team, on Wednesday night from his residence.
Hectic parleys were on between Bommai and central leaders in Delhi during the last couple of days, to finalise the cabinet expansion.
According to a video which has gone viral on social media, the Muslim students, a few of them wearing skull caps, offered Friday prayer inside a classroom in the afternoon.
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
Where does Basavaraj Bommai stand three months after he assumed the reins of power in Karnataka?
A Karnataka government circular on selecting students with knowledge of Hindi for a tour of Uttarakhand has sparked a 'Hindi imposition' row, with the government clarifying there was no such direction either from the state or the Centre on the matter.
As the tenth standard examinations began on Monday, Karnataka ministers said anyone violating the high court ruling on hijab will not be permitted to write the tests.
Five people who were radicalised to carry out terror attacks have been arrested by the Central Crime Branch with firearms and ammunition along with 12 mobile phones confiscated from them, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda said on Wednesday.
"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.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice BR Gavai sought a report from the Cauvery Water Management Authority on the amount of water released by Karnataka, after additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati informed the court that a meeting of the authority is scheduled for Monday.
Tragedy stuck a family of four here on Tuesday when an under-construction Bengaluru Metro pillar collapsed on them, leaving a woman and her toddler son dead while her husband and another child escaped with injuries.
The chief minister, who met the bereaved family of the medical student Naveen Ranebennur, handed over a cheque for Rs 25 lakh as compensation and assured his brother of a job.
According to the party sources, the preparations are in full swing and seasoned BJP workers are being deployed on more than 50 seats.
The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states.
Top state leaders--Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress' Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and Janata Dal-Secular leader HD Kumaraswamy are contesting from different seats.
We will do whatever we can for the justice of the Marathi-speaking population in Karnataka, said Fadnavis.
In the wake of the Aazan versus Hanuman Chalisa row in Karnataka, the state government has issued a set of directions on the use of loudspeakers and to remove them if they were not authorised by the 'designated authority.'
Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been imposed in sensitive areas in the districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, and Bengaluru.
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.
BJP Karnataka strongman B S Yediyurappa on Thursday dismissed reports he is being neglected in the party and said he has his own strength and no one can finish him off politically.
Though largely seen as an official visit, with less than a year for elections, Shah during this trip is likely to meet senior party leaders including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, veteran leader B S Yediyurappa among others
Chief pontiff of Murugha Math Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of two minor girls, was on Friday remanded to police custody till September 5.
Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Wednesday indicated that the state government is contemplating strong action against those involved in rioting similar to the situation in Delhi where bulldozers were used to raze down alleged illegal structures.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, which is likely to meet in the third or fourth week of June, is set to clear the operational framework of the much-awaited GST appellate tribunal, which will deal with tax disputes and streamline resolution. "The final blueprint, mainly the operational part, is expected to be presented in the GST Council meeting for approval. "This will pave the way for the tribunal to be functional, both at the central and state levels," said a senior government official, who expects the tribunal to be up and running by November.
Premises of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa's close aide Umesh were among those raided by Income Tax sleuths in the State on Thursday.
'Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Where should we send Tipu Sultan? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? In the same way he should be knocked out and sent off'
