Siddaramaiah contesting The heritage town of Badami for assembly election
BADAMI:As the countdown for filing nomination papers from Bagalkot’s Badami has started for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, political campaigning is gaining momentum in Mumbai – Karnataka region.

Confusion over his candidature has come to an end, and political parties are in a nervous. Caste equations have come to the fore and a few in the Congress circle believe that his entry would consolidate Kuruba votes, other than the Ahinda votes, in favour of the party candidates in about 25 to 35 constituencies.

Irrigation Minister M B Patil says that the chief minister’s decision will give an edge to Congress candidates locked in a keen contest in various constituencies, and who may have otherwise lost by a narrow margin.

Congress will win 10 out of 18 seats in Belagavi, says Satish Jarkiholi
His candidature has already shaken things up in many constituencies in Bijapura, Bagalkot and Belagavi districts, where Congress members had turned complacent after party president Rahul Gandhi’s visit.

Local party people claim that there was a possibility of infighting otherwise — with differences within the party rank and file, between supporters of sitting MLA B B Chimmankatti and those of Congress ticket aspirant Devaraj Patil.

While in public many maintain that Siddaramaiah’s Badami ticket will help the party’s prospects, privately many express an anger for having to ‘sacrifice’ the constituency to him.

‘CM should not quit once elected’

Sources say that infighting will come to the fore during campaigning, in the absence of Siddaramaiah in Badami. The worst would be if Siddaramaiah resigns, giving way for by polls.

Congress worker Harisha wants Siddaramaiah to promise that he will not resign if he wins from both Chamundeshwari in Mysuru and Badami. “Otherwise it would be a huge let-down to party workers who have sweated to ensure his empathetic victory,” he says.

“We are happy that Siddaramaiah is coming to Badami. We hope that he will bring development here and address many core issues in north Karnataka region,” says voter Asham Peer.

While, roadside vendor Tulsiavva says that he has her vote for giving rice at subsidised rates under `Anna Baghya’. “I would have considered other candidates, if he had not been around,” she says.

Caste comes to centre stage: The JD(S) has found their candidate in Hanumanth Mavina Marad, from a dominant Panchamashali community. He has started consolidating his community members and is playing up Congress’ “divisive politics in the Veerashaiva – Lingayat issue”.

The BJP that is yet to announce its candidates has floated names of industrialist Vijay Sankeshwara and MP Sriramulu among others, so that they can gather Nayaka and a lion’s share of Veerashaiva voters.

The Congress leaders are not worried about Veershaiva votes getting divided, saying that he will win with Kuruba, SC and Muslim votes. Caste calculations are very much on BJP’s mind too, with the party playing its card close to its chest.

Meanwhile, sources in BJP and JD(S) say that they want to pin Siddaramaiah in Chamundeeshwari and Badami, without leaving him time to campaign across the state.

Will he be accessible?: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has to overcome the anti-incumbency wave, with the sitting MLA Chimmanakatti being blamed for underdevelopment, badly managed drought and snail pace of civic work. There is also his ‘outsider’ tag, unlike in Chamundeswari.

“Voters also believe that it would be difficult to reach out to Siddaramaiah sitting in Bengaluru or Sriramulu in Bellary,” says Vadvath H Kulkarni. He says that many working with rival parties may rethink and support Siddaramaiah, if he assures them that he would be accessible.

Ramu Gowda, along with fellow villagers, are worried that without a local leader, their problems will remain unattended.

“We need to learn more about this, and let him know about lack of water for irrigation in drought-hit areas as majority of borewells have dried up in villages. However, we are hopeful that his entry may change the fortunes of people,” says Arun Reddy.

The son of a BJP MP has been arrested in Bihar for consuming liquor in violation of prohibition law.
Rahul Kumar, 18, son of Gaya MP Hari Manjhi, was taken into custody from a village near Bodh Gaya along with two friends on Sunday. Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Garima Malik said he had been sent to judicial custody.

“Police conducted medical examination of Manjhi’s son and it was confirmed that he consumed liquor,” police officer Shuv Kumar Mahto said.

But Manjhi denied the charges and said his son was arrested to defame him ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United are allies in Bihar. Complete prohibition was imposed in the state on April 5, 2016.

The country’s banks received an all-time high amount of fake currency and also detected an over 480 per cent jump in suspicious transactions post demonetisation, a first-ever report on dubious deposits made in the wake of the 2016 notes ban has revealed.

The country’s banks received an all-time high amount of fake currency and also detected an over 480 per cent jump in suspicious transactions post demonetisation, a first-ever report on dubious deposits made in the wake of the 2016 notes ban has revealed. The banks, including those in the private, public and cooperative sectors, and other financial institutions collectively generated 400 per cent more suspicious transaction reports (STRs) at over 4.73 lakh such dossiers during 2016-17, the report said.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), that analyses suspicious financial transactions pertaining to money laundering and terror financing as part of the Union Finance Ministry establishment, reported that counterfeit currency transactions in the banking and other economic channels witnessed an increase by over 3.22 lakh instances during 2016-17 as compared to the last year. This, the report accessed by PTI said, had a link to demonetisaton of two high value currencies of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 which was declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the night of November 8, 2016. “A noteworthy growth was also seen in the number of counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) which increased from more than 4.10 lakh in 2015-16 to over 7.33 lakh in 2016-17, which may also be attributed to the demonetisaton exercise,” it said.

The latest figure is the highest ever since the CCRs were first generated in the year 2008-09. CCRs are “transaction based reports” and they are generated only when a fake Indian currency note (FICN) is detected. As per FIU’s anti-money laundering rules, the banks and other financial bodies are required to report all cash transactions where forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes have been used as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place. The report did not specify the value of such fake currencies detected. The STRs, that are generated when a transaction either indicates that it has been made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity or appears to have no economic rationale or bona fide purpose, also saw a record high rate of detection during the same period and an over 400 per cent jump from the comparative period just before demonetisaton.

“The number of STRs received in 2016-17 is 4,73,006 which is more than four times as compared to 2015-16 and this increase is attributed to demonetisaton exercise…,” the report said. It added that some volume of the increase in the number of STRs can also be credited to the outreach steps taken by the agency in sensitising banks and others to comply with the rule of mandatorily filing these reports under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). “The most notable increase (in generating STRs) was in the category of banks, which recorded almost a 489 per cent increase over 2015-16. The increase was 270 per cent in the category of financial intermediaries,” it said.

During 2015-16, while a total of 1.05 lakh STRs were generated out of which 61,361 were sent by banks it jumped to 3,61,215 post DeMo and 40,033 such reports were sent was by financial intermediaries that shot up to 94,837 post DeMo, the report said. All banks and financial institutions are required to generate STRs and subsequently send it to the FIU under the anti-money laundering law (PMLA). STRs are also generated by the banks for those transactions that give rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may involve financing of the activities relating to terrorism.

Some of those generated post demonetisation, the report said, had “possible links” to terror funding. In the wake of these high numbers of reports CCRs and STRs coming in, the FIU ramped up its efforts in 2016-17 and disseminated 56,000 STRs to various investigative agencies like the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence among others as compared to 53,000 sent in the previous year. “The results of the STRs pertaining to demonetisation period will be seen in the subsequent years,” the report said in an indication towards the quantum of black money that would be unearthed after acting on these classified reports. It added that as it was apprehended that “unscrupulous persons possessing large amounts of demonetised notes may misuse” the window period given by the government to deposit the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currencies in their bank accounts, over 30 new kinds of reports were “designed” to obtain information from the banks on the basis of identified parameters to detect suspicious cash deposits.

As part of FIU’s detection mechanism to check black money generation post demonetisation, the report said that the liberalised scheme of opening bank accounts with minimum KYC requirements, so as to reach banking services to every strata of society was “monitored very closely.” “Abnormal patterns of deposits made by individuals as well as high risk geographical areas were identified and information disseminated to concerned law enforcement agencies for action,” it said.

Bengaluru’s Assembly election candidates have been causing a ruckus and damaging daily life.In the name of filing nomination papers On Thursday, April 19, former MLA, M Krishnappa submitted his nomination papers as BJP candidate.

Accompanying him was a huge procession of party leaders, loyal supporters and family members. Kannada movie stars Ramesh and Tara also took part.
Similarly, Congress candidate MLA Byrathi Basavaraj arrived to the election office with thousands of supporters. They gathered in front of the BBMP office with an entire band. This resulted in a traffic jam as far as four kilometers causing a lot of inconvenience.
Yelahanka’s BJP MLA, S R Vishwanath too filed his nomination papers on Thursday, April 19. Thousands of people gathered near the NES Circle where music and dance ensued in celebration.

Bengaluru police had a hard time controlling the traffic on the Doddaballapur road that was caused due to this.

The Election office however succeeded in maintaining strict prohibitory orders and only let five people enter the office.

Independent candidate L S Krishnamurthy too filed his nomination papers on Thursday.

Surrounded by Nationwide Cash Crunch, Poll-Bound Karnataka Sees a Record Haul of Notes
Other kinds of freebies and gifts like sarees, laptops, household goods like helmets, cookers and mixer-grinders have also been seized and are estimated to be worth over Rs 19 crore.

Amid Nationwide Cash Crunch, Poll-Bound Karnataka Sees a Record Haul of Notes Image for representation purpose only.
Bengaluru: If you thought demonetization would effectively cut down on cash distribution during elections, then Karnataka has proven that you need to think again.

In the 20 days since the model code of conduct kicked in, Karnataka has seen twice the amount of cash being seized across the state compared to what was seized during the entire period of the model code of conduct in the 2013 Assembly and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
This at a time when several states, including neighbouring Telangana, are reeling under a cash crisis and the RBI and finance ministry are working overtime to fill ATMs.

A look at the data from election officials who have declared the seized cash, liquor, gifts and gold shows that politicians in the state have outdone themselves on all parameters. Sample this, three times the number of cases and non-bailable warrants have been registered as of Thursday than what we saw in 2014.

Election officials say that during the entire 50-day period that the model code of conduct lasted between May 20 and May 8 in 2013, they seized more than 67,000 litres of liquor. During the Lok Sabha election in 2014, when there was a 72-day session of the model code of conduct, only about 44,000 litres of liquor that was supposedly meant for bribery of voters was seized.

2018 however takes the cake, as well as the bakery. Over 1.92 lakh litres of liquor has already been seized from different parts of the state. There are still 26 days to go before the code of conduct ends, and who knows what record we will surpass by then.

Coming to the currency front, a nationwide cash crunch notwithstanding, a whopping 34 crore rupees has been seized in the last 20 days, as against 14-plus crore rupees seized during the entire poll code season in 2013 and 28 crore rupees in the significantly longer poll-code season in the 2014 general elections.

Other kinds of freebies and gifts like sarees, laptops, household goods like helmets, cookers and mixer-grinders have also been seized and are estimated to be worth over Rs 19 crore. This was nil in 2013 and Rs 6.7 crore in 2014.

Seized gold, which election officials say has hitherto not been seen in the previous two elections, has been valued at over Rs 3 crore. Around 15 kg gold has been seized from different districts in just the last two days.

Officials say they are yet to understand why there is such a spurt in the free flow of cash and liquor – is it just a case of better enforcement because of more officials on the ground or is it because there is a surge in the freebies that netas are offering.

The number of cases booked and non-bailable warrants issued has also seen a three-fold increase – from 8,871 cases in 2013 to 27,754 this election.

Again, remember, there are still 26 more days to go before this poll session is done and dusted with.

The Karnataka Assembly election is likely to set the tone for the big 2019 Lok Sabha election as well, and it is crucial for both the Congress and the BJP. The Congress is trying to retain its hold over the only large state it still wields power over, while the BJP trying its best to wrest control to make its presence felt in south India.

For the regional party Janata Dal-Secular too, it has to win a sizeable chunk of seats this time to remain in the reckoning in the political scene at all. No wonder then that desperate times call for desperate measures.

It’s raining money, liquor and freebies in poll-bound Karnataka, these days. However, what is worrying officials are the rumours of drugs and ganja being given to voters by political parties ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in the state.

The rumours of drugs being distributed among the voters got some amount of credence when on Wednesday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Bengaluru seized about 117 kg of ganja from Bellary Road in the city. The NCB said that the ganja was sourced from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and was meant for local consumption in Bengaluru.

Two persons have been arrested in the case and sent to judicial custody. The officials of the NCB refused to say whether the seized ganja was meant to entice voters before the elections. The Assembly elections in Karnataka are scheduled on May 12. The results will be out on May 15. A total of 224 seats are up for grabs for political parties in the elections.

A few days ago, on April 4, one person was arrested for possessing ganja from the Bengaluru International Airport by sleuths of the NCB. The arrested person was carrying 4,700 kg of ganja from Bengaluru to Doha, stated a report by the NCB.

The amount of liquor and cash seized by the officials in poll-bound Karnataka since the model code of conduct was put in force on March 27 has really baffled one and all. Since March-end, 1.92 lakh litres of liquor have been seized from different parts of the state. Reports added that a total of Rs 34 crore has been seized by the officials in the last 20 days.

The huge amount of unaccounted money has been seized at a time when several parts of the country have been facing a cash crunch. Apart from cash and liquor, the officials have also seized Rs 19 crore worth of freebies and gifts like sarees, helmets, laptops and cookers from various parts of the state.

Regarding drugs, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recently alleged that the incumbent Congress has failed to stop the free flow of banned substances in the state.

“Failing to curb growing Drug Mafia in B’luru has been one of many failures of the Siddaramaiah govt. City is now infamously identified as drug capital of south India. Will Rahul at least address the drug problem in Bengaluru? Or is it wrong of us to expect this from him?” tweeted the Karnataka BJP.

The Belagavi city police busted a fake notes racket and arrested a person on Wednesday, April 18. They also confiscated counterfeit notes worth face value of Rs 7.10 crore.

Ajit Kumar Nidoni, a resident of Sadashiva Nagar here is the arrested person.

It is believed that the notes were stocked for distribution among voters on the eve of the polling day.
Acting on the credible information received, police raided an abandoned Public Works Department (PWD) quarters building in Visvesvaraya Nagar. The fake cash was kept in a cupboard that was meticulously packed.

The police seized Rs 5.84 crore fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 face value and Rs 1.26 crore fake currency of Rs 500 notes face value. The total value was Rs 7.10 crore in fake money.

The Congress’ first list for Karnataka Assembly elections has ruffled quite a few feathers. After Anajanmurthy’s aides burnt tyres and shouted slogans against Rahul Gandhi on the highway near Nelmangala, supporters of party leader Ravikumar have vandalised the party office in Mandya district. Another rebuffed party leader Brajesh Kalappa expressed displeasure on Facebook.

The dissident Congress workers in Karntaka’s Mandya vandalised Congress office for denying ticket to Ravikumar. Congress has given ticket to sitting MLA, actor Ambarish from Mandya. Ravikumar, who was also ticket aspirant, did not get the ticket. The supporters of Ravikumar went on street condemning the move. They attacked Congress office and smashed the chairs and doors. They demanded to change the list and give ticket to Ravikumar from Mandya.