Armed with a search warrant it obtained on Wednesday night, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) might raid the houses of friends and relatives of Congress leader DK Shivakumar in connection with the demonetized currency notes case, agency sources said.
One bank manager, who was held in the demonetization currency case, has said that he did it at the behest of senior Congress leader DK Suresh. The CBI has obtained search warrant against Suresh and 11 others.
It is yet to be ascertained whether the Shivakumar is one among those 11.
DK Suresh, who got the information on Wednesday night, held a press meet on Thursday morning alleging that it was a conspiracy against him for helping his brother to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power.
While CBI sources from Delhi were yet to confirm about the raid, sources close to DK Suresh said that the raid had begun, but they were yet to search the house of Suresh.
Brothers deplore witch-hunt
At the press meet, DK Shivakumar and his brother Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh deplored the political move by BJP government for “letting loose” the CBI against them to lure them to support the BJP.

The leaders alleged that they were under “constant pressure from the BJP sources” since the days Gujarat legislators landed in Bangalore last year to support the BJP. “But the BJP is making every effort to lure us towards them,” the Congress leaders said.

The brothers expressed confidence they would withstand all the “machinations and temptations” and would remain loyal to the Congress party.
As regards search warrants, DK Suresh asserted his name and that of his brother were included afresh after the BJP government failed to prove majority in the Karnataka assembly. It was evident that BJP has to accept the defeat as DK Shivakumar played a prominet role in keeping the Congress and JD(S) legislators together.
The brothers expressed confidence they would withstand all the “machinations and temptations” and would remain loyal to the Congress party.

The opposition Congress is leading in the Ampati Assembly byelection in Meghalaya on Thursday
The ruling National People’s Party candidate Clement G. Momin is trailing by 2,365 votes to Congress candidate Miani Dalbot Shira, the eldest daughter of Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.

The by-poll was necessitated after Mukul relinquished the seat in March after he was elected from here as well as Songsak assembly constituency defeating senior NPP leader Nihim Dalbot Shira.

The NPP candidate was supported by the coalition partners of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government.

Samajwadi Party’s Naeem-ul-Hasan won the Noorpur Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday with a margin of 6,211 votes, a poll official said.

The bypoll necessitated by BJP’s sitting MLA Lokendra Pratap Singh’s death in a road accident in February, was held on Monday, and saw a 61 per cent voter turnout.

Yoga guru Ramdev’s “swadeshi” messaging app called “Kimbho” that aims to take on WhatsApp and WeChat has suddenly disappeared from Google Play Store.

However, the app launched on Wednesday is still seen on iOS App Store.

Several people who tried to download the app from Play Store were amused at its sudden disappearance.

Kimbho is a Sanskrit word and according to Patanjai’s spokesperson SK Tijarawala, it means “How are you? or What’s new?”

“Now Bharat will speak. After launching sim cards, Ramdev has launched a new messaging application called ‘Kimbho’,” Tijarawala tweeted late on Wednesday.

“Now WhatsApp will be given a competition. Our own #SwadeshiMessagingplatform. Download it directly from Google Play store,” he added.

According to Faisal Kawoosa, Head New Initiatives, CyberMedia Research (CMR), it will not be easy for “Kimbho” to create a space dominated by WhatsApp for just on being “Swadeshi.”

“So far, just around 5k installations and reviews are full of issues and concerns. Nevertheless, seems Patanjali is getting serious about communications,” Kawoosa tweeted.

“Kimbhi is a real time messaging app.

“Kimbho empowers private group chat with free phone and video calling. It has dozens of amazing features to share text audio, photos, videos, stickers, quickies, location, GIF, Doodle and more,” read the description on iOS App Store.

After trailing in the initial round of counting, the opposition RJD has established a comfortable lead over the ruling JD-U in the bypolls to the Jokihat Assembly seat in Bihar on Thursday, according to Election Commission officials.

After 10 rounds of the ongoing ballot counting, Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Shahbawaz Alam established the comfortable lead over Janata Dal-United’s Murshid Alam.

The Jokikhat seat fell vacant following the resignation of JD-U MLA Sarfaraz Alam, who joined the RJD.

A third Independent candidate Mohammad Shabbir is also in the fray.

Voting for the seat took place on Monday.

The JD-U was backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the RJD had the support of the Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of former Chief Minister of Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Jokihat is a Muslim-dominated Assembly constituency, considered stronghold of former Union Minister and Shahnawaz Alam’s father Mohammad Taslimuddin, who died last year leading to bypolls in Araria Lok Sabha seat.

CPI-M candidate Saji Cherian, with a lead of around 12,000 votes as counting crossd the halfway mark in the Chengannur Assembly bypoll in Kerala, was heading towards a comfortable victory on Thursday.

In the 2016 assembly polls the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, K.K. Ramachandran Nair, had an overall lead of 7,893 votes.

He had defeated sitting two-time Congress legislator P.C. Vishnunath, while BJP candidate P.S.Sreedharan Pillai, had come a close third with 2,305 votes.

Celebrations have already begun at the CPI-M candidate’s residence with sweets being distributed. His wife came out and thanked the electorate.

Cherian said that it’s a reward for his four-decade of active public life. “My party has been the source of my strength and this is a really good victory. It is a stamp of approval for the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government,” said Cherian.

Cherian was able to get a firm hold in more than 95 per cent of the booths where vote counting was underway.

Cherian is leading with 77 votes from the booth from where former Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s father hails. The Congress said it had not expected this outcome.

Congress candidate D. Vijayakumar is in the second position followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pillai, who has been fielded again.

“I had told soon after the elections that the Left has purchased votes, and all that can be seen now,” said Pillai.

Voting for the seat took place on Monday.

DK Shivakumar,former minister and KPCC Campaign Committee chairman today alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amith Shah,BJP national President are trying to unleash a regime of terror by threatening him,DK Suresh,his MP brother and 11 accomplices through Central governmental agencies like Income Tax,Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation.
He and DK Suresh claimed in a hurriedly called press conference here early in the morning:We have information from well informed sources in various departments that preparations are over to carry CBI raids on 11 accomplices of us and search warrant could be issued any time.
DK Shivakumar alleged:We are continuously being targeted for no fault of us and cannot be cowed down by such threats and tactics.We’ll continue to resist them and surge ahead for serving the people who have entrusted so much of hope with us.
We also have tion from top officials that several meetings are going on at various places to nail us so that we can wiped off politically.But we are least deterred by such threats and have all the strength to face any number of such searches and raids,challenged DK Shivakumar.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti\

The ruling Congress built a formidable lead of over 16,000 votes in the Shiromani Akali Dal stronghold of Shahkot in Punjab after seven rounds of counting in the by-election to the Assembly seat on Thursday.

Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia was leading over his Shiromani Akali Dal rival Naib Singh Kohar after the first few rounds of counting.

Ladi received over 34,000 votes while Kohar got only around 18,000 votes.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Rattan Singh was trailing fair behind. He got just over 1,100 votes.

The seat fell vacant following the death of sitting Akali Dal legislator Ajit Singh Kohar in February.

Kohar, a former minister, was elected five times from this seat. His son Naib Singh Kohar was fielded by the Akali Dal.

The Shahkot seat remained a stronghold of the Akali Dal for over two decades in the past.

There were 12 candidates in the fray this time. A total of 76 per cent voting was reported on May 28.

Punjab has a Congress government since March 2017.

The results of the Rajarajeshwarinagar constituency are out and Congress candidate Munirathna is leading by excess of 31,000 votes against BJP’s Muniraju Gowda.

After the 6th round of counting Muniratna has secured 52,285 votes, trailed by BJP competitor with 20858 votes and the JD(S) has secured 10123 votes. In the interim independent candidate Huccha Venkat has secured 192 votes.

The election were postponed because of the seizure of 9,564 Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) from a flat at Jalahalli.

The constituency has 4.71 lakh voters including 2.25 lakh women. There are 421 polling stations in the constituency. After the May 12 election, the conditions have changed significantly with political opponents Congress and JD(S) getting to be coalition accomplices in the legislature. Be that as it may, senior pioneers of both the parties held road shows looking for votes in favor of their applicants.