Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar visit New Delhi amid speculation about a cabinet reshuffle, meeting with Rahul Gandhi and fueling political buzz.
Savadi would now be the grand old party's candidate in Athani in Belagavi district, Congress leaders said.
The government also termed the alleged insult to the farmer as an infringement on "dignity and self-respect", and said it cannot be tolerated.
The three seats fell vacant following the resignations of Baburao Chinchansur, R Shankar and Laxman Savadi to contest the assembly elections.
After a series of deliberations, the BJP on Tuesday announced its first list of 189 candidates and a second list of 23 on Wednesday night.
There are 18 assembly constituencies in the border district which is a Lingayat stronghold and has been a BJP bastion in the last two decades.
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.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday condemned the demand made by some Karnataka leaders that Mumbai be declared a Union Territory.
Former Karnataka chief minister Jagdish Shettar, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year, rejoined his old party on Thursday.
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.
A video released on Monday, the second in two days, shows the two leaders presenting a united front in the polls and exchanging notes on the Congress campaign.
Here's how some of the heavyweights fared in the Karnataka elections.
Weighed down by anti-incumbency, the BJP heavily banked on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal appeal to enable it to sail through in the assembly elections but it was not to be.
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the incoming government in Karnataka would not only give its stamp of approval for the five pre-poll guarantees announced by the party in the first cabinet meeting itself but also pass an order to this effect immediately.
The victim's kin have alleged that Chidanand Savadi was behind the wheels and he even asked the locals to delete videos recorded at the site, from their mobile phones or face consequences, a charge denied by the latter.
The election was necessitated as the term of office of seven members expires on June 14.
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.
"The Congress have gone and made promises in Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that they never fulfilled," Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said if the Congress comes to power in Karnataka, dynastic politics will be at an all-time high in the state and it will be 'afflicted with riots'.
Multiple challenges, particularly with regard to cabinet formation, stare at Siddaramaiah as he takes over as the new chief minister of Karnataka, nudging out party colleague and state Congress president D K Shivakumar -- who will now be his deputy.
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 Congress fielded former Governor Margaret Alva's son Nivedit Alva from the Kumta assembly seat.
He said the state unit only sends the recommendation but does not take sides as to who should be given the ticket.
The Congress, by and large, focused on local issues in this election and its campaign also was run by state leaders initially.
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.
B Y Vijayendra said power and position itself are not the ultimate objectives in politics.
The committee probing the porn scandal in the Karnataka assembly has recommended action against Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Lakshman Savadi.
The Congress on Saturday made a stunning comeback in Karnataka ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its lone southern citadel with a comfortable majority in a morale booster win that will be key for reviving its electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Shettar alleged that he had been humiliated by the BJP by denying him a ticket and that party is today in the control of "very few people."
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 30 of the total 50 seats in the region in the 2018 assembly polls, followed by Congress 17, Janata Dal-Secular 2, and others (KPJP-Shankar) 1.
'They sent a message that I will not be given the ticket and ordered me to issue a statement -- Gujarat style -- that with immediate effect I was retiring from politics.' 'They were treating me like a political novice who would be pushed around on the order of vested interests.' 'This rude behaviour hurt a lot. It was then I spontaneously decided that I will challenge this dictatorial order and expose all those who want to hurt Lingayat pride in Karnataka.'
Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Monday said the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has agreed to campaign and spend time in the state, for the assembly elections next year.
Among the three Deputy Chief Ministers are Govind Karjol, who has also been given the charge of PWD and Social welfare; Ashwath Narayan the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology; and Laxman Savadi with Transport department.
Ignoring the recommendation of the state unit to field Vijayendra for the June 3 biennial elections to seven seats of Karnataka Legislative Council, the party central leadership on Tuesday announced names of four candidates, hours before the deadline for filing of nominations ended.
This is the first Cabinet expansion after he assumed office on July 26 and proved his government's majority on the floor of the assembly on July 29.
Anna Hazare on Wednesday demanded that the three Bharatiya Janata Party ministers who were caught watching porn inside Karnataka assembly be dismissed from the House
Thackeray said on Sunday his government is committed towards incorporating into the state the areas of Karnataka where Marathi-speaking people are in majority.
Vicky Nanjappa talks to Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi, who resigned on Wednesday, after he was 'caught' viewing an alleged pornographic clip on a mobile phone during state assembly proceedings.
Bowing to the directives of the party central leadership, three Bharatiya Janata Party ministers in Karnataka on Wednesday resigned after they were engulfed in a row over watching sleazy clippings during the Assembly proceedings.
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