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.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Yadav and Jabbar, the All India Congress Committee said in a release.
The Karnataka legislative assembly on Wednesday witnessed chaotic and unruly scenes as angry Bharatiya Jansata Party legislators tore copies of bills and the agenda, and threw them at the deputy speaker, who was presiding, following which Speaker U T Khader suspended 10 of them for the remainder of the session.
Kharge also urged voters to take pride in the fact that he as a bhoomi putra of Karnataka had been made All India Congress Committee president, and sought a win for the Congress in that name.
In Telangana, for more than two months, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao ran his government with just one cabinet colleague Mohammed Mahmood as Home Minister.
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.
Senior politician Basavaraj Horatti, who recently resigned as the chairman of Karnataka legislative council and MLC, on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'The Muslims in Karnataka are safe and secure. The state government belongs to everybody.'
The rift within former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's family over the Hassan ticket for the May 10 assembly polls widened on Tuesday, with Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy invoking the battle of 'Kurukshetra' in the epic Mahabharata to allege that some 'Shakunis' were trying to brainwash his brother H D Revanna.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said he has given details about the state's stand and facts regarding the raging border dispute with Maharashtra to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is likely to call a meeting of chief ministers of both states next week.
The Cabinet held a detailed discussion regarding the five guarantees and its implementation, and has arrived at decisions, Siddaramaiah who headed the meeting told reporters.
A senior TMC leader will be present at the proposed meeting, he said.
Thackeray announced "complete support" to Rao's "fight" against the Bharatiya Janata Party's alleged anti-people policies and to uphold federal spirit, it said.
The meeting between the two leaders, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as 'positive'.
In an election where every seat will matter, micro-strategising is going to be the order of the day. And in such a situation, party infighting - in all parties --could lead to unpredictable results.
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.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
For the May 10 assembly elections in Karnataka, the following are the 20 seats to watch out for.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
The implementation of the five 'guarantees' announced by the Congress may cost the state exchequer an estimated Rs 50,000 crore annually.
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.
Karnataka Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar on Tuesday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi separately and discussed the modalities of government formation in the southern state.
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.
Amid the raging controversy regarding Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, the Vokkaliga chieftains who according to a section allegedly killed erstwhile Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, a prominent seer of the community on Monday urged putting an end to the issue, citing lack of historical evidence in this regard.
With the election campaign in Karnataka witnessing a bitter war of words between the BJP and the Congress, both the parties rushed to the Election Commission, seeking ban on electioneering by top leaders of the other side.
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.
Within a week of assuming power, the Congress government in Karnataka has expanded its cabinet on Saturday, filling all posts.
The leader, who has been sulking for some time now due to repeated denial of election tickets, said he would convene a meeting of his supporters next month to announce his decision on whether or not he will stay with the Congress.
For the BJP, the RSS' organisational heft is a prized asset, considering the slew of elections it faces this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources for 2020-21 stands at Rs 690.67 crore.
"The Congress have gone and made promises in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that they never fulfilled," Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed.
Why did Karnataka's economic prosperity fail to influence the nature of electoral promises made by political parties in the run-up to the assembly elections? asks A K Bhattacharya.
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav died in Medanta hospital of Gurugram on Monday. He was 82.
'There is a conscious move by the BJP to distance itself from the current state leadership.'
The Congress, by and large, focused on local issues in this election and its campaign also was run by state leaders initially.
'There are many options before opposition parties and this nation has a wealth of leadership.'
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
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.
Can Nitishbabu create an anti-BJP phalanx like Jayaprakash Narayan did in 1977 or will his efforts come undone by Opposition leaders' political ambitions and, of course, the BJP's agency-aided campaign of intimidation?
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