BENGALURU: With the BJP making a clean sweep in four of the five state Assembly elections, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai took a jibe at the Congress, saying that the party’s debacle in the polls shows that it is losing its existence in the country.  

The results in Uttar Pradesh and other states will have a “positive impact” on the BJP in Karnataka as this will boost the morale of party workers and the BJP will emerge stronger, he said and expressed confidence that they will come back to power in 2023. 

The CM noted that the BJP’s performance in the polls to these states has increased the responsibility of the party’s Karnataka unit. “We have tabled a pro-people budget in Karnataka and have directed our officials to start working on implementing the budget announcements. Files will be ready by April-end,’’ he said. 
This has to reach out to every person and that’s where party workers have to work, even more effectively from now on, Bommai said adding, “We will take our works to the people and win elections in 2023. We will build a stronger Karnataka.”  

Pointing out that the results shows that direction where the country is heading, he said this is a victory of the common man. “The people trusted the Prime Minister and his policies. Modi’s programmes in the last seven years, like Kissan Samman, Atma Nirbar, Ujwala, has reached people. People who benefited from these initiatives will not vote for any other party but the BJP,” he added.

“Modi also carries weight. Neither the US nor China could talk to both the Russian and Ukraine presidents, but Modi did.”  Referring to goodies being offered by Congress to its workers to enroll more members into the part in Badami Assembly constituency, Bommai said this is nothing new to the grand old party. 

Bommai, BSY to tour state after session
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, along with former CM B S Yediyurappa and Union ministers, will tour the state after the ongoing session ends on March 28, to strength the party from the grassroots.   Disclosing this on Thursday, the CM said, “We will build a stronger party. Wherever we have a base, we will make it stronger, and wherever the party has no presence, we will build a base.”  Earlier in the day, Bommai told media persons that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visit Karnataka in April. 

Parmesh S Jain

A couple and their 13-year-old son were killed on the spot when a speeding private bus knock down their scooter they were travelling in the outskirt of Chikkaballapura on Monday.

The deceased have been identified as Mohammed Ghouse, 37,his wife Amma jaan, 33 with their only son Rehan.

While Ghouse is from Hosapepte Ammajaan was from Kadri in AP.

The couple stayed in Chikkaballapura as Ghouse was running a second hand vehicle business.

On Monday the couple was heading to visit their relative and reached Honnaahalli cross to take U turn to go to a roadside hotel.

While they are taking a U turn,a speeding bus heading from Bagapalli to Chikkaballapura ran over the scooter killing them on the spot.

The impact of the accident was so high that the trio along with the scooter was mangled beoynd recognition.

The bus driver stopped the bus few yards away and escaped leaving around 40 passengers inside the bus .

Many of the passengers too left the place before the police could reached the spot.

The Chikkaballapura traffic police registered a case of hit and run and efforts are on to trace the driver .

Mangaluru: The dead body of a 16-year-old boy who went missing on Sunday was found on Monday at Nethravathi River at Hoigebazar here in the city.

The deceased boy has been identified as Drishyanth (16), a 9th-grade student of Rosario School in Pandeshwar. Drishyanth is the son of Asha and Chinappa, residents of Mahakali Padpu in the city.

According to the reports, Drishyanth was last seen commentating at a cricket match at Mahakali Padpu ground on Sunday afternoon around 3:30 pm. He reportedly left from the ground along with some of his friends.

When he did not return home till evening, his parents enquired about him to his friends who were clueless about his whereabouts. The parents then filed a complaint at Mangaluru South Police Station.

His dead body was found on Monday evening. Reports further added that the boy was wearing pants when he went missing but his dead body was found only with underwear. A case in this regard has been registered at the local police station and further investigations are underway.

Yadgiri: Sangh Parivar activist Chaitra Kundapur was on Monday stopped by police and sent back while she was enroute to Kalaburagi district through Yadgiri.

She was on her way to Kalaburagi to participate in the Aland Chalo program organized by Sangh Parivar to go to Ladla Mashak Darga in Aland for the purification of Shivalinga at the Dargah site on the occasion of Shivratri.

She was stopped after the District Administration had barred her entry into the district from February 27 – March 3 in the wake of the event. The DC had issued the orders after the SP submitted a report in this regard seeking a ban on entry of Chaitra and Sri Ram Sene Chief Pramod Mutalik in the district as it could disturb peace and harmony.

She was stopped by a team of Dy.SP Umesh Chikkamath, PI Santosh Hallor, PSI Mahantesh Patil while she was trying to go to Aland through Yadgiri on Monday evening. She was later sent back by the police party.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met senior party leaders from Karnataka and discussed the political situation in the state and preparations for next year’s assembly elections there.

AICC general secretary in charge for Karnataka Randeep Surjewala said the party would launch its 100-km ‘Mekedatu Yatra’ in the state from February 27.

The party had stalled the yatra in January because of rising Covid cases and some of its leaders contracting the disease.

Surjewala said the party has also decided to launch a series of agitations highlighting unemployment, price rise, corruption and scams in Karnataka.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi met with many senior party leaders from Karnataka, including the leaders of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly and Council, state unit chief and many other senior office bearers.

“We had a detailed discussion on the state of political affairs in Karnataka. How the (Basavaraj) Bommai government is mired in deep-rooted corruption, it is a 40 per cent tender commission government and how the crypto-currency scam has reached the highest echelons of power and the government being completely mum,” Surjewala told reporters.

He said the Congress also discussed how “misgovernance and maladministration have become the buzzwords of the BJP dispensation in Karnataka and how price rise and complete mal-governance have impacted the state government.

“Consequently the Congress has decided to launch public agitations on each of these facets — unemployment, price rise, misgovernance and maladministration and complete abdication of authority and complete corruption in the government.

“Now that the assembly polls are only 14 months away, those issues as preparations for the elections were deliberated upon,” Surjewala said.

He added that Rahul Gandhi had a free and frank discussion with the leaders and took their suggestions some of which will be implemented in the next few days.

Mangaluru: Two Mangaluru students are among thousands of Indians who are stranded in Ukraine amidst the threat it faces of military action by Russia and rebels backed by Russia.

According to the details, two students from Mangaluru are stranded in Ukraine. One of the two students has been identified as Cleton D’Souza, son of Marvin D’Souza, a resident of Padil in the city.

Cleton is reportedly an MBBS student in Ukraine and is stranded with another student from the city.

“He is safe. There is no information on him facing any trouble.” Marvin D’Souza has said.

Parmesh S Jain

Many have been arrested and they are being interrogated in the case related to the murder of Harsha in Shivamogga.Investigation is on.

Based on the outcome of the investigation we will decide as to which agency should be assigned the task of further investigation,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Speaking to media persons he said,maintaining peace,law and order is our priority.Curfew is in force in Shivamogga.

Reacting to Congress leaders’ charge that Harsha’s funeral procession was a government sponsored event violating section 144,Bommai said,Congress leaders are used to government sponsored programmes in the past.They are saying this based on their own experience.”

Replying to a question on his Delhi trip, the Chief Minister said that he had no such plans for now.

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Wednesday said it does not appear to be a simple case of murder.

‘We are looking into the angle of how these elements got emboldened to carry out a crime like this. I have written to the DG for audit of crime in Kote and Doddapet police stations in last five years,’ he said.

‘We will examine the role of officers who have worked in these police stations for five years. Police negligence will be probed,’he said.

The arrested persons are criminals who have committed serious offences.How they have been not monitored by the local police will be probed, he said.

BJP MP and President of BJP National Yuva Morcha,Tejasvi Surya has demanded the government to consider it as an act of terror.

He also urged a ban on the SDPI, PFI and CFI. After visiting the family of deceased Harsha, Tejaswi Surya said,Ours is not a ‘haram’ government like Congress,FIR’s have been changed when Hindu activists were killed during the time of Congress rule in the state.

Our government will see to it that the people behind this murder are hanged, this is the message we will give to the people of the state,” he said.

However, SDPI Karnataka State President Abdul Majeed squarely blamed the role of Sangh Parivar behind the murder of Harsha.

Murders like this are not new in the state. Whenever, there is a murder of Hindu leaders, it is blamed on Muslims and SDPI. 

“There is a hand of Sangh Parivar behind Harsha murder.There is a role of Sangh Parivar behind 36 murders.

Harsha’s murder is a conspiracy. Ruling BJP and Sangh Parivar both have their role behind the act. To hide this, they blame it on SDPI and talk about banning it,” he said. 

On Sunday, February 20 night, Bajrang Dal activist Harsha was stabbed to death near Kamat petrol bunk in the Shivamogaa district of Karnataka. The Hindu activist was rushed to Mc Gann district hospital,where he succumbed to his stab injuries.

In a press briefing held on Tuesday, the Shivamogga SP, Laxmi Prasad informed that six people involved in the murder have been arrested.

Those arrested include, Mohammad Kashif, Sayed Nadeem,Asifulla Khan,Riyan Shariff,Nihan, and Afnan.

As per the Police,Mohammad Kashif, Asifulla Khan and Nihan have been arrested for murder while Sayed Nadeem and Afnan have been arrested for conspiracy. As per the police, the accused came in a car, chased Harsha and killed him he added.

UDUPI: After a gap of about 10 days, classes in MGM College, Udupi where the showdown over hijab and saffron shawl was witnessed, resumed peacefully on Friday.

Hijab row that had ‘polarized’ students in Udupi had reached a peak with many wearing saffron shawl and turbans creating commotion inside the MGM College campus in Udupi on February 8. As the situation was going out of control, Principal Dr Devidas Naik had approached the students to convince them not to get provoked by ‘outside elements’.

But students were already firm in their decision to not to remove the saffron shawls and turbans. This made the principal Dr Devidas Naik to declare holidays for an indefinite period.

On Friday, the situation was normal. Additional SP Siddalingappa present at the venue told reporters that all students were following the court order and there was no space for any confusion, he said.

PU college students also appeared for the examination. The second PU chemistry practical examination is being held on Friday. The situation at other colleges was normal on Friday.

Mangaluru: The new Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mangaluru City Corporation will be elected on March 2. The election process will begin at 1 pm on March 2, Wednesday.

According to a press statement issued by the Mangaluru City Corporation’s Commissioner, the election process will be held MCC’s Mangala Auditorium.

It further added that the election process will be chaired by Mysuru Division’s Regional Commissioner.

Apart from Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the elections will also be held for electing Chairmen to four Standing Committees of the corporation.

BENGALURU: The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party allegedly shared the personal details of the girls from Udupi including their residential addresses who had approached the Karnataka High Court against the ban on wearing of hijabs in classrooms.

Apparently after coming under criticism, the party deleted its tweets in English as well as Kannada.

The party had tweeted, “Five of the students involved in #HijabRow are minors. Don’t CONgress leaders Sonia, Rahul & Priyanka have any guilt for using minor girls to stay relevant in politics? How low will they stoop to win elections? Is this what “Ladki hoo lad sakti hoon” means, @priyankagandhi?” Along with the tweet, the party put out the personal details of the girls from Udupi, who had filed petitions in the High Court.

Taking a strong view against BJP’s Karnataka unit, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted, “Shameless @BJP4Karnataka tweets the addresses of the minor girls in order to attack the opposition. Do you’ll realise how insensitive, sick and pathetic this is? I request @DgpKarnataka and @TwitterIndia to take action and take down the tweet. Also seek @GoI_MeitY intervention.”

The Rajya Sabha member also demanded that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights take this up immediately.

“This is a criminal act to share names and addresses of minors. This is unacceptable,” Chaturvedi further tweeted.

Karnataka is witnessing a row over Hijab versus Saffron scarves, which started since December end in Udupi in coastal Karnataka.

On January 1, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom by wearing Hijab.

This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear Hijabs in classes which was not allowed.

Till then, students used to wear Hijab to the campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.

“The institution did not have any rule on Hijab-wearing as such and since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces,” Rudre Gowda had said.

The full bench of the Karnataka High Court where the girls had petitioned is hearing the matter on day-to-day basis.

The Court, in its interim order pending consideration of all petitions related to the hijab row, last week restrained all the students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom.