He also announced unemployment allowance for the youth, as the party's fourth poll guarantee, on coming to power.
Amid row over wearing hijab in classrooms in some colleges in Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel said the state government will not allow 'Talibanisation'.
"The Congress have gone and made promises in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that they never fulfilled," Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's comprehensive defeat to the Congress in Karnataka where the two parties ran a campaign of contrasts has left the ruling party much to ponder as the two rivals are facing a direct contest in three more state polls this year in the run-up to the all-important 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
As Congress launched its 11-day padayatra seeking early implementation of the Mekedatu drinking water project on Sunday, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar stirred troubled waters for himself as three FIRs have been filed against him on allegations of flouting COVID-19 norms.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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.
Amid demands from a section of right-wing organisations for 'bulldozer'-kind of action to those involved in the Hubballi violence, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said those involved in the incident will be tried as per the existing laws.
Peace prevailed in Karnataka's Hubbali town on Monday, a day after a mob went on the rampage over a social media post that saw a police station and a Hanuman temple coming under attack, even as the police arrested 89 persons in connection with the incident.
In a mistaken zeal to bolster the BJP's electoral base, the party - or at least its rabid followers - appear to have convinced themselves that the Hindu rashtra is already here. It's grave mistake, warns Amulya Ganguli.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the family, he said, as MLA of the locality, Arvind Limbavali is said to have tried to settle things.
The 'Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill' was passed by the Legislative Assembly in December last.
Pradeep (47) was found dead in his car at Nettigere near Bengaluru on Sunday evening, they said, adding that he had allegedly shot himself in the head.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed to people to celebrate Hindu new year Ugadi and 'Hosa Tadaku' festivals peacefully without disturbing law and order.
Despite his statement that the word 'Hindu' is Persian and it has a 'dirty' meaning drawing widespread criticism, Karnataka Congress Working President Satish Jarkiholi on Tuesday sought to defend himself saying he was only referring to what has been written and published.
The finance ministry has set up two committees of state finance ministers which would rework rate slabs, review GST exempt items and identify potential evasion sources. Four years after the roll out of the national Goods and Services Tax (GST), which replaced the complex indirect tax structure, the centre and states have started work on moving towards a "simpler rate structure in GST" by reviewing the current rate slabs, including special rates and merger of rate slabs. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation would also review items under inverted duty structure to help minimise refund payout, and review the supply of goods and services exempt under GST with an objective to expand the tax base and eliminate breaking of input tax credit (ITC) chain.
A day after two cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus was detected in the state, the Karnataka government on Friday ordered a probe into test reports of the 66-year-old South African national, that allowed him to leave the country.
Bikers pushing their two-wheelers that were stuck and pedestrians struggling to navigate through knee-deep water was a common sight in some places.
While former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi announced his decision to resign from primary membership of the party, minister and six-time MLA S Angara from Sullia constitiuency in Dakshina Kannada district announced his retirement from politics.
Condemning the incident, Bommai said, "Being in favour of community is not secularism, that is communalism. I condemn this, we all should stand together. The government will condemn this."
The GoM is likely to submit an interim report to the Council on pruning the list of items that at present do not attract the levy.
Claiming that the cultural values among children were taking a beating, the minister said many people have demanded that moral science should be introduced.
A prominent seer in Karnataka booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on Monday broke his silence over the issue, claiming it was part of a long drawn conspiracy against him, indicated an inside job and vowed to come out clean in a case of sexual abuse of high school girls.
The current public mood is that it will be a hung assembly. No one, not even in the BJP, is talking about even a simple majority for the party.
BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had stepped down as minister on March 3 following allegations of sexual harassment against him, said on Tuesday that the videos purportedly showing him with a woman were fake and vowed to send the 'conspirators' behind bars.
The GST Council in its next meeting may look at raising the lowest tax slab to 8 per cent, from 5 per cent, and prune the exemption list in the Goods and Services Tax regime as it looks to increase revenues and do away with states' dependence on Centre for compensation, sources said on Sunday. A panel of state finance ministers is likely to submit its report by this month end to the Council suggesting various steps to raise revenue, including hiking the lowest slab and rationalising the slab. Currently, GST is a four-tier structure attracting a tax rate of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.
Pawar claimed that since the last few weeks, conscious attempts were being made by the Karnataka CM to take the situation in a different direction.
Racting sharply to the statements made by Tamil Nadu on the Hogenakkal water project, Karnataka on Monday said that it is not right to go ahead with the project unless and until the border row is resolved.
The Congress legislators have been camping in the Vidhana Soudha inside the Assembly Hall and have been sleeping there in the night.
Three people were killed after police opened fire on the night of August 11 to quell a mob that went on a rampage in a city locality, irked over a social media post allegedly put out by a Congress legislator's relative.
The Central Crime Branch probing the August 11 violence in Bengaluru over an alleged inflammatory social media post, has filed a preliminary chargesheet in a local court, naming former Congress mayor R Sampath Raj as an accused.
He also said that a decision regarding reopening of pre-university and degree colleges will be taken after assessing the situation.
He said the objective of the prime accused Mohammed Shariq was to create a divide between communities.
The killing led to tension and protests at several places in the coastal district on Wednesday with instances of stone-pelting and police lathi-charge.
As he completed one year in office on Thursday, the Chief Minister also gave a hundred out of hundred score for his government's performance.
On his sixth visit this year to Karnataka, where assembly elections are due by May, he also asserted that the 'double engine' government is a necessity for the fast-paced development of the state.
Karnataka Congress working president Satish Jarkiholi, who is in the eye of a political storm for his statement on the origins of the word 'Hindu' and its "dirty meaning", on Wednesday withdrew the remark and expressed "regret" if it has hurt anyone's sentiments.
The minister also said the Bengaluru-specific anti-terrorist squad (ATS) probably will be operational in November first week.
The decision was taken at a meeting headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai with senior ministers, officials and the COVID-19 technical advisory committee consisting of experts in Bengaluru.
The COVID-19 experts in Karnataka expect that the state may witness coronavirus infections touching the peak on January 25 before coming down gradually, Karnataka revenue minister R Ashoka said on Monday.
