Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting 'Operation Kamala' to destabalise his government, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday asserted that they will not be successful in their efforts, as none of the Congress legislators will fall victim to it.
Cricket climate change to medical practice, dropped candidates have their non-political life sorted.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Both the BJP and the Congress have their share of challenges, with finding winning horses on top of this list.
"Yediyurappa's yesterday reaction is his personal reaction. Until now, there has been no discussion on seat sharing or anything. We have met cordially two or three times. Later on, let us see what is going to happen," Kumaraswamy told ANI.
The BJP Legislature Party meeting is scheduled for Friday, during which the election of its leader, who will also be the Leader of Opposition in the assembly, is likely to be announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a strong team of Union ministers figure in the list of the party's 40 star campaigners for Karnataka assembly elections next month.
Nikhil Kumaraswamy is Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy's son. He is also former prime minister H D Devegowda's grandson. Nikhil will contest the May 10 assembly election in Karnataka from the Ramanagara constituency.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
The BJP is focusing determinedly on the seats it lost in 2019, with the hope of winning these either independently or with the aid of its allies.
Shivakumar was scheduled to leave for Delhi on Monday but cancelled the travel plans citing ill-health.
The incident led to a political confrontation between the government and Opposition in the state.
The ruling Congress posted a video along with a statement on social media platform X, criticising the Janata Dal-Secular leader and son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
Security was stepped up in Ramanagara, Shivakumar's home district, on Wednesday as a precautionary measure in light of his supporters staging protests at multiple places after some media outlets claimed that he lost the race for the chief minister's post to Siddaramaiah.
With Janata Dal-Secular state president H D Kumaraswamy repeatedly attacking him and his son Yathindra, a former Congress MLA, accusing them of a 'cash for transfer' racket, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said he will retire from politics, if proved that he has taken money, even in a single transfer case of government officials.
Creating a positive reform that does away with an official who constitutes a flawed aspect of Indian democracy will allow the BJP to rightfully claim this as one of its positive legacies, suggests Karan P Shah.
The Congress' victory in the Karnataka assembly polls is likely to help the party get its candidates elected in three of the four Rajya Sabha seats from the state falling vacant next year.
Siddaramaiah even said that he would retire from politics if even one instance is presented with proof that he had made money by transferring officials.
Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna had on Saturday floated the idea of having three more DCMs in Karnataka and said he would discuss it with the Congress high command, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
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.
A meeting of the Congress legislature party (CLP) on Thursday formally elected Siddaramaiah as its leader and the next chief minister of Karnataka.
Ending days of suspense, the Congress on Thursday announced Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister of Karnataka and D K Shivakumar as his only deputy in the soon-to-formed cabinet.
As many as 13 Congress and three Janata Dal-Secular MLAs had resigned from the Karnataka Assembly in 2019 thus bringing down the 14-month-old coalition government of the Congress and the JD-S led by H D Kumaraswamy.
While the party's vote share jumped by more than four per cent, the Janata Dal-Secular saw a sharp fall of more than five per cent, according to Election Commission data on the assembly elections.
On whether injustice has been done to Dalits by not giving a DCM post to the community, he said the people, especially the Dalit community, have huge expectations.
Security was beefed up on Monday a day after a row broke out over the removal of a saffron Hanuman flag from Keragodu village in Mandya, with protests demanding its restoration and the incident sparking a political confrontation between the Congress government and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular).
A day after fielding Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from Shiggaon in Haveri district, the party nominated Yasir Ahmed Khan Phatan in his place.
Senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh will now occupy front-row seats after their reallocation by the party.
Uday K M, also known as 'Kadalur Uday Gowda, was welcomed into the party fold in the presence of state Congress president DK Shivakumar.
"We have a commitment before the people of Karnataka. Parliament elections are ahead. So, I have to bow to the AICC president and the Gandhi family. In the larger interest of the party (I have agreed to the formula) and why not, because sometimes the ice should break. Ultimately, there is a responsibility towards what we have a commitment to the people of Karnataka and we have to deliver," he said.
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.
Pawar has summoned a meeting of party leaders in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise its plans for the assembly elections in Karnataka scheduled for May 10.
Speaking to reporters after attending the MVA meeting at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence 'Silver Oak' in Mumbai, Patil said the MVA -- comprising the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, the NCP, and the Congress -- will work out a seat-sharing formula ahead of the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra assembly elections, due in the second half of the next year.
Raut said that the victory of the Congress in Karnataka has opened a door for the party in the whole country and the election results show that dictatorship has been defeated.
Kumar Bangarappa and Madhu Bangarappa are pitted against each other in Soraba constituency in Shivamogga district, which was represented by their father from 1967 to 1994 till his election to the Lok Sabha.
Banners have come up in front of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar's residences in Bengaluru, erected by supporters, congratulating them for Congress win and projecting them as "next CM".
Here's how some of the heavyweights fared in the Karnataka elections.
The Opposition Congress on Saturday seemed to be on course to breach rival Bharatiya Janata Party's lone southern citadel Karnataka, inching towards the magic figure of 113 needed to form a government on its own.
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.
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