Amid tight security polling in Rajarajeshwarinagar assembly constituency got underway on Monday morning. The elections to the assembly segment were deferred due to the seizure of 9,564 Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) from an apartment at Jalahalli.

The polling officers had also found a huge cache of freebies belonging to a political party. Following the directions of the Election Commission, police investigated the matter and registered a case against many people, including the Congress candidate Munirathna.

The office of the chief electoral officer stated in a press release that all the EPICs seized have been returned to the owners.

With the Congress and the JD(S) not tying up for the election despite a coalition government Munirathna will vie for the seat against JD(S) candidate GH Ramachandra. The BJP, which has fielded Muniraju Gowda, would be hoping to win the seat as a consolation price after losing out on power despite emerging as the single-largest party in the Assembly elections.

Besides the three, 11 other candidates are in the fray.

The constituency has 4.71 lakh voters including 2.25 lakh women. There are 421 polling stations in the constituency. Ten companies of CASF and 10 platoons of KSRP have been deployed to ensure free and fair poll, police said.

After the May 12 assembly elections, the equations have changed dramatically with political rivals Congress and JD(S) becoming coalition partners in the government.

However, senior leaders of both the parties held road shows seeking votes for their respective candidates.

BJP too put in all its efforts to ensure the victory of their candidate Muniraju Gowda.

Urging the Centre to “act” on the surge in domestic petrol prices, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said agriculture and the common people were suffering because of the spike.

“Fuel prices are increasing again and again. All are being badly affected: agriculture, transport and common people are being forced to bear burden,” Mamata tweeted.

“In spite of the grim situation, why isn’t the Central Govt taking any serious steps to find a solution? They need to act,” she wrote.

Starting from Delhi, prices of fuel in Mumbai and Chennai have already reached record levels and are only reaching new highs every single day.

This surge in fuel prices is largely attributed to the recent rise in crude oil prices and the high excise duty on the fuels in the country.

The price Brent crude oil, however, has declined around $3 per barrel in the last two days, which raises hopes of easing fuel prices in the country. Brent crude is currently priced around $76 per barrel.

Prices of diesel, the key transportation fuel, which are already at record levels across the major cities rose to Rs 68.90, Rs 71.45, Rs 73.36 and Rs 72.74 a litre on Saturday in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai respectively.

Amid similar efforts being made by other states, the Madhya Pradesh government too is trying hard to get a patent for basmati variety of rice, Chief Minister Shiraj Singh Chouhan has said.

Chouhan said that Madhya Pradesh was strongly contesting the claims made by other states on the issue.

He also said that a law had been made in the state to regulate contract farming, which will help both landowners and lessees.

He was addressing farmers at an event here on Sunday.

Close to 25 per cent polling was registered in Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly seats on Monday, a poll official said.

In the first five hours the voter turnout has been 23 per cent in the crucial Kairana seat, while that in Noorpur was 24.6 per cent since polling began at 7 a.m., the poll official said. Voting will continue amid tight security till 6 p.m.

Both the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have filed complaints alleging that over 100 voting machines were malfunctioning.

In a letter accessed by IANS, the BJP has written to the State Election Commission that a large number of the EVMs were out of order forcing hundreds of voters to remain standed outside polling booths in the scorching heat.

It also put the reason for the sluggish pace of voting on the EVM-malfunction and said that booth officers have refused to accept their complaints.

In Kairana, the main contest is between Mriganka Singh of the ruling BJP and the RLD candidate Tabassum Hasan.

Singh, daughter of the late BJP MP from Kairana, Hukum Singh is counting on the sympathy wave in the name of her father and the power of the Yogi Adityanath government to win the election, while Hasan is pinning her hopes on the opposition unity as the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nishad Party, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have extended their support to her.

In all there are 16,09,628 voters in Kairana of which 8,73,120 men, 7,36,431 women and 77 of the third gender.

In Noorpur, BJP’s Avni Singh is pitted against Naimul Hasan of the SP. There are 3,06,226 male voters, 1,41,924 women and 10 from the third gender.

The Election Commission official said there are 2,056 polling booths and 1,094 polling centres. To ensure free, fair and peaceful elections, it has deputed three general observers and two expenditure observers, besides 53 companies of the para-military forces and 10 companies of the provincial armed constabulary (PAC).

All the electronic voting machines (EVMs) being used in the two bypolls have VVPAT machines to enable the voter to see for whom he or she has voted.

A total of 2,651 EVM control units, 2,651 ballot units and 2,596 VVPAT’s are being used in the polling process, the official told IANS.

The statewide bandh urging waiver of farmer’s loans as promised by HD Kumaraswamy,chief minister in the manifesto of Janata Dal-Secular has turned violent at many places across the state.

It may be recalled here that BS Yeddyurappa, leader of the opposition had threatened in the state Assembly on last Friday:The Bharatiya Janata Party will call for a statewide bandh if the chief minister HD Kumaraswamy doesn’t announce waiver of 55,000 crore farmer’s loans availed from nationalised banks,district cooperative banks and rural credit societies.

Ever since his elevation as the chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has been dilly dallying on the issue and the main opposition BJP is making the issue a ploy to hammer the ruling party and the CM.

Initially BS Yeddyurappa had claimed that his party will call for the bandh and later changed his stance by proclaiming that it would be a self declared bandh but supported by the BJP.

Prathap Simha,Mysuru MP and Mysuru BJP MLAs’ A Ramdas and L Nagendra have been arrested for protesting against the state government in Mysuru.

Yadgir BJP MLA Mutnal is under attack from the television media for allegedly threatening the local hoteliers to close down the shutters to support the bandh.

Meanwhile a Indira Canteen has been vandalised allegedly by BJP sympathisers at Chitradurga. The movement of government buses came to a standstill in Dharwad while Karadi Sanganna,Koppal BJP MP led the procession in Koppal.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

Keshava Vitla,senior press photographer died at the Wenlock government hospital in Mangaluru today.He had lost both his kidneys and was being treated for issues related to renal failure.A vegetable seller for living turned professional cameraman,Keshava Vitla had stints with Mungaru,Kannada Prabha of The Indian Express,The Telegraph and Hindusthan Times among many other newspaper publications.

His latest work on the facets of the state had become quite popular and the coffee table book had made him well known in the journalistic circles and elsewhere.He had also won many journalistic awards to his credit.He was unmarried.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

 Senior Congress legislator Siddu Bhimappa Nyamgoud from Karnataka’s Bagalkot district died in a road accident near here on Monday, police said.

He was 71 and leaves behind his widow, two sons and three daughters.

“The accident occurred near Tulasigiri village when the car in which Nyamgoud was traveling crashed into a divider after the driver lost control while trying to avoid a head-on collision with a truck,” Tulasegiri police inspector M.B. Biradar told IANS.

Bagalkot is 530 km from state capital Bengaluru and 20 km from Tulasegiri.

Four persons, including the driver, were injured. They have been admitted to a hospital here.

“The legislator was traveling to Jamkhandi via Bagalkot from Panaji in Goa upon his return from Delhi on Sunday night,” Biradar said.

Nyamgoud was re-elected to the state Assembly in the May 12 election, defeating BJP’s Kulkarni Shrikant Subrao by 2,795 votes.

The veteran party leader was a Union Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao cabinet in 1990-91.

Chief MinisterH.D. Kumaraswamy and many Congress leaders mourned his untimely death.

Polling in the Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly constituency in the city has begun on a slow pace as reports last ame in.The polling began at 7 am in the morning and is scheduled to continue till 6 pm in the evening.But only six percent of voters had polled so far according to reports.

The elections to this constituency was deferred following seizure of around 10,000 voter IDs’ belonging to the constituency in a apartment block.Though FIRs’ were lodged against 14 people including Muniratna,previous Congress MLA and present Congress party candidate the Congress nominee however was granted bail.

Both the ruling partners Janata Dal Secular and Congress parties are fighting against each other while the Bharatiya Janata Party has also ensured that the contest is triangular by being in the field.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

BJP President Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Narendra Modi-led government has “zero tolerance” towards national security but “a war with Pakistan is the last option”.

“We have zero tolerance for national security. The maximum number of militants have been killed in the state in last four years of our government. War with Pakistan is the last option,” he said addressing a press conference on the completion of four years of the NDA government.

He was replying to a question over the repeated ceasefire violations by the Pakistan on the international border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and whether war with Pakistan was an option.

When asked about the Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacking the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in his report card, Shah said, “What do you expect from the opposition?”

“I have given the facts and figures of the works of the (Narendra) Modi government in last four years. And we are ready to debate on the basis of the these facts and figures with them on any platform,” he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President also dubbed as “false” reports of Modi government spending over Rs 4,600 crore on advertisements to mark the completion of four years in office.

“These figures are not correct,” he said without elaborating.

Shah also said that there is “no atmosphere of fear” in the country as alleged by the opposition.

“But there is fear among those who are holding benami properties, those who are holding black money as the government has brought bills against them,” he said.

Shah also described south as an important area for the saffron party’s expansion. “South is an important area for the BJP. The party winning 104 seats in Karnataka assembly polls, I think, is a good symbol for the party to flourish in the southern states.”

Shah also said that the BJP government brought political stability in the country.

“There was a time when the national dailies were filled with news of corruption. But after this government came to power, no such news of corruption came,” he said.

“Modi brought political stability. He took the country forward from the era of policy paralysis to policy driven development,” he said.

Describing Modi as the most popular Prime Minister, Shah said, “For the first time after 30 years, a government with full majority came to power in the Centre. And Modi is the most hard working and popular Prime Minister of the country. He is a visionary.”

“And it is his work that people have chosen the BJP government in 20 states of the country. The BJP is currently ruling over 65 per cent of the total population,” he added.