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.
Raut also hit out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, saying the state appeared weak to counter such attacks.
While Shivakumar is as usual contesting from Kanakapura, Siddaramaiah is returning to his home turf of Varuna in Mysuru district, which is currently represented by his son Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar -- contesting on a Congress ticket hoping to reclaim his lost self-respect-- still has photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah hanging on a wall in his home-office and says it is not good to remove them.
Amid mounting opposition pressure for his resignation over the death of a civil contractor, senior Karnataka Minister K S Eshwarappa on Wednesday ruled out stepping down from his post, as he wondered if a Whatsapp message can be treated as a 'death note'.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said no village in Maharashtra has sought merger with Karnataka recently, and there is no question of any border village "going anywhere".
The explosion in a moving autorickshaw in Mangaluru was an 'act of terror,' Karnataka Director General of Police, Praveen Sood said on Sunday.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai held a meeting with experts, and senior ministers and officials of his government to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state and curbs that were put in place to control its spread.
The chief minister, who had on Wednesday expanded his new cabinet by inducting 29 ministers, had played it safe by and large retaining old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous Yediyurappa cabinet, while six were new.
The Congress fielded former Governor Margaret Alva's son Nivedit Alva from the Kumta assembly seat.
'Bommai is everybody's man and nobody's man'
He asked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra to show the 'guts,' shown by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath there.
As Karnataka gears up for D-Day, with most exit poll projections predicting a hung assembly while putting the Congress in the lead, the outcome will boil down to how the battle for some key constituencies play out.
The Supreme Court order directing Karnataka to release 2.44 TMC ft of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu evoked protests from the opposition in the state assembly and the government promised them that legal opinion would be sought before deciding on future course of action.
For the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, the following are the 20 seats to watch out for.
The Karnataka legislative assembly on Monday passed a unanimous resolution condemning the recent defacing of Shivaji Maharaj and Sangolli Rayanna's statues and burning of Kannada flag, and said such incidents will be considered as an act of sedition and strict action will be taken against those involved under 'Goonda Act.'
Nine Karnataka ministers from the B S Yeddyurappa camp withdrew their resignation on Monday after being assured by the central Bharatiya Janata Party to resolve the ongoing crisis.
With the political crisis in Karnataka showing no signs of relenting, all eyes are now on the 6pm meeting between former state chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and Bharatiya Janata Party state in charge Dharmendra Pradhan.
The on-again, off-again political crisis time in Karnataka continued on Friday when nine ministers loyal to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa resigned from the state Cabinet.These include Jagadish Shettar, considered to be the chief-minister-in-waiting, Yeddyurappa's close aide Shobha Karandlage and seven others including Basavaraj Bommai, V Somana, Renukacharya, C M Udasi.
Some leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit are ready to switch their loyalties if the ruling party fails to come back to power.
A first information report (FIR) has been registered against three girl students of a paramedical college in Udupi over the alleged recording of a video of their fellow student in the college washroom recently, police sources said.
"This court requests the students and the public to maintain peace and tranquility. This court has full faith in the wisdom and virtue of public at large and hopes that the same would be put to practice," the single bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit said.
According to state officials, the project envisages lifting of 17.40 thousand million cubic feet of water from river Thunga to Bhadra reservoir and 29.90 TMC from Bhadra reservoir.
His statement evoked sharp reaction from opposition parties.
"This river-like journey will persist and in this river you will not find any trace of hate or violence. There will only be love and brotherhood as this is India's history and DNA," Gandhi told the gathering.
Officials in districts bordering Maharashtra have been asked to maintain contact with their counterparts there regarding the release of water from dams, following reports of heavy rains in the neighboring states.
On one hand Karnataka Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti, Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar are plotting the fall of Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, while on the other hand the state continues to reel under drought with 123 taluks declared as drought hit.
The Congress is not fielding a candidate in Mandya in order to support Darshan and open the constituency up for a direct contest between the SKP and the Janata Dal-Secular which is hoping to retain its seat.
Stepping up pressure on Karnataka Chief Minister D Sadananda Gowda, seven ministers loyal to B S Yeddyurappa have quit the Karnataka cabinet.
Tourism Minister Anand Singh and Municipal Administration and Small Scale Industries' Minister N Nagaraj (MTB) have openly expressed displeasure over their portfolio, and have sought "weighty" ones.
Yeddyurappa will probably leave for New Delhi either on Wednesday or Thursday to hold talks with the party leadership.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday released its first list of 189 candidates for the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls, fielding Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai from his traditional Shiggaon constituency.
He also said former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's younger son and state BJP Vice President B Y Vijayendra is not among the ministers who will be sworn-in.
Nicholas Pooran's sensational late cameo powered Lucknow Super Giants to a seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Bommai, who is on his first visit to the national capital after becoming a chief minister, also said the Karnataka government will further strengthen the state's health infrastructure to combat the current wave of the pandemic.
'There is a conscious move by the BJP to distance itself from the current state leadership.'
With most states on board to raise revenue so that they do not have to depend on Centre for compensation, the GST Council at its meeting next month is likely to consider a proposal to do away with the 5 per cent slab by moving some goods of mass consumption to 3 per cent and the remaining to 8 per cent categories, sources said. Currently, GST is a four-tier structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Besides, gold and gold jewellery attract 3 per cent tax. In addition, there is an exempt list of items like unbranded and unpacked food items which do not attract the levy.
Karnataka Horticulture Minister Munirathna on Thursday said he would be filing a Rs 50-crore defamation case and a criminal defamation case against the Karnataka State Contractors' Association, which has made a 40 per cent commission charge against the government and accused him of collecting money.
Accusing the Congress of also abusing the dominant Lingayat community in poll-bound Karnataka, the prime minister further said the grand old party had even abused Babasaheb Ambedkar and were engaged in abusing Veer Savarkar.
"One thing I want to make it clear that this case will be thoroughly investigated. There will not be any interference or direction from our side. Police will independently investigate the case and truth will come out," Bommai said addressing a press conference in Mangaluru.
