Party hoppers are having a good time as political parties have thrown principles and ideologies to the wind in search of strong candidates to beat political rivals. It will actually be defector versus defector in several constituencies.

Within 48 hours after six-time Congress MLA from Afzalpur in Kalaburagi district Malikayya Guttedar joined the BJP, the grand old party hit back by netting senior BJP leader from the same constituency — M Y Patil. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who has vowed to ensure the defeat of Zameer Ahmed Khan in Chamarajpet, has poached senior Congressman Altaf Khan.
M Y Patil, a two-time MLA from Afzalpur, quit the BJP and joined Congress in Bengaluru on Monday. Congress is almost certain to field him against Guttedar.“I have been fighting against Guttedar’s illegal liquor and sand business in Afzalpur for the past 30 years. I am hurt by BJP’s decision to give ticket to Malikayya Guttedar,” M Y Patil said. He joined the Congress in the presence of KPCC president G Parameshwara. “I rejected the BJP’s offer to make me an MLC,” he added.

The search of Deve Gowda for a candidate to “teach a lesson to Zameer Ahmed Khan,” who quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress recently, ended on Monday with Gowda netting Altaf Khan, a Congres ticket aspirant from Chamarajpet constituency. Speaking on the occasion Altaf Khan accused Zameer of betraying Deve Gowda and the JD(S). “I will expose the shady deals of Zameer and how he made `300 crore out of it,” Altaf said.

‘Chotu Sachin is more popular than lambu Bachchan’
Vowing to defeat Zameer, the well-built Altaf said, “You (Zameer) are just four-and-a-half feet, I am six-and-a-half feet. I will crush you.”An angry Zameer hit back within a few minutes, “Altaf has mocked me as a four-and-a-half foot short man. What is the height of Sachin Tendulkar? How tall is Amitabh Bachchan? Isn’t Sachin more popular than Bachchan,” Zameer countered.“No Muslim from Karnataka could beat me. I will win even if former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir is fielded against me,” Zameer declared.

‘I WILL CHOP MY HEAD off IF DEFEATED’
Hitting out at JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda, Zameer said,”I will chop my head and place it at his (Gowda) feet if I am defeated in Chamarajpet.” He also challenged Altaf to prove his charge of `300 crore illegal deals. “I am ready for a CBI probe in this regard,” he said. Replying to a question, Zameer said the Congress high command will give ticket for all the seven JD(S) rebel MLAs who joined it recently.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi arrives in Shimoga, the hometown of state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, on Tuesday. After his well-attended public meetings in Hyderabad-Karnataka, Mumbai-Karnataka, Coastal Karnataka and South Karnataka, the star campaigner of the party would be travelling across Shimoga, Davanagare and Chitradurga districts in central Karnataka on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Congress did quite well in one time socialist bastion of Shimoga in the 2013 Assembly polls by winning three out of seven seats. Surprisingly, the JDS also won three seats and B S Yeddyurappa, who had floated his own party KJP, won his seat Shikaripura. The BJP had failed to open its account there.
After Yeddyurappa returned to BJP, the saffron brigade is hoping to restore its lost pride in Shimoga in this election. Even though the BJP is not actually in a formidable position here, it is confident of beating both Congress and JDS, riding on Yeddyurappa ‘wave’.

BJP chief Amit Shah has already addressed a public meeting in Shimoga. The Congress has now taken the battle directly to Yeddyurappa’s door by bringing party supremo to Shimoga. After landing at Hubli airport, he will take a helicopter ride to Shimoga in the morning.

He will participate in a roadshow in the central Karnataka town before entering the neighbouring district of Davanagere. He is scheduled to address public meetings at Honnali, Harihara and Davanagere before evening.

Davanagere is a stronghold of Lingayats and a powerful section has backed Siddaramaiah government’s decision to accord minority status to them.

On Wednesday, Congress president will fly to Holalkere in Chitradurga district, another Lingayat stronghold. Amit Shah addressed a mega public meeting at the same place a month ago.

From there, Rahul Gandhi will fly to Tumkur to meet the 111-year-old seer of Siddaganga Mutt Shivakumara Swamy, a revered Lingayat pontiff.

The Supreme Court (SC) today agreed to hear the Centre’s urgent plea seeking a stay on its ruling that changed certain provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The hearing is scheduled for 2pm. The Chief Justice of India has constituted a special bench to hear the petition. This bench will comprise Justice AK Goel and UU Lalit, the judges who last month made the ruling on the SC/ST Act.
The Centre yesterday filed a review petition in the SC against its March 20 ruling that there would be no automatic arrest on any complaint filed under the SC/ST Act. Its petition came even as a Bharat Bandh called yesterday to protest the SC ruling turned violent in parts of India, resulting in the deaths of nine people.
Dalit groups, the Centre and several opposition parties believe the SC ruling dilutes the SC/ST Act. The SC last month ruled that instead of an immediate arrest in a case of alleged harassment, a preliminary inquiry must first be conducted by police within seven days of an incident before taking any action.
Speaking for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal told an SC bench headed by Justice A K Goel today that there is an emergency situation in the country as thousands of people have come out on the streets to protest the changed provisions of the Act. Therefore, he said, it is necessary to stay the verdict to maintain law and order..

The Supreme Court (SC) today agreed to hear the Centre’s urgent plea seeking a stay on its ruling that changed certain provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The hearing is scheduled for 2pm. The Chief Justice of India has constituted a special bench to hear the petition. This bench will comprise Justice AK Goel and UU Lalit, the judges who last month made the ruling on the SC/ST Act.
The Centre yesterday filed a review petition in the SC against its March 20 ruling that there would be no automatic arrest on any complaint filed under the SC/ST Act. Its petition came even as a Bharat Bandh called yesterday to protest the SC ruling turned violent in parts of India, resulting in the deaths of nine people.
Dalit groups, the Centre and several opposition parties believe the SC ruling dilutes the SC/ST Act. The SC last month ruled that instead of an immediate arrest in a case of alleged harassment, a preliminary inquiry must first be conducted by police within seven days of an incident before taking any action.
Speaking for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal told an SC bench headed by Justice A K Goel today that there is an emergency situation in the country as thousands of people have come out on the streets to protest the changed provisions of the Act. Therefore, he said, it is necessary to stay the verdict to maintain law and order.

Justice Goel, who wrote the verdict on the SC/ST Act last month on behalf of a bench comprising himself and Justice U U Lalit, said that he had no problem in hearing Centre’s review petition today itself but said that the case has to be decided by the same bench that delivered the verdict.

However, senior advocate Amrendra Sharan, who assisted the SC as Amicus Curiae, told the court that an SC order cannot be stayed because of law and order problems and it is for the government to take steps to control th situation.
According to government sources, the decision to petition against the top court’s ruling was taken after a discussion among the ministries of law and social justice. The social justice ministry filed the review petition.

Minister of state (MoS) for External Affairs General VK Singh, who brought back the mortal remains of 38 of the 39 Indians killed in war-torn Iraq, said that Indian embassy did not have any record of the 40 Indians captured by the terror group ISIS in Iraq in 2014 as they had gone there through illegal travel agents.

Addressing reporters at Amritsar in Punjab, the Union minister said had the government had any information about these people being in danger, it would have rescued them as it had done in case of over 45 Indian nurses in 2014.

Thirty-nine of the 40 Indian labourers were killed by the terror group, while one of them managed to escape posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh. Out of the 39 killed, 27 hailed from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal.

The bodies of the Indians were brought back on Monday in a special aircraft and handed over to their relatives or local authorities in Amritsar, Kolkata and Patna.

Talking to reporters, VK Singh emphasised that both the state and Central governments should work collectively to check illegal travel agents.

“We have told each state that law and order is their responsibility and they should catch illegal agents in their respective states and take action against them… We do not want anybody to go abroad illegally. We want people to go legally so that we have their record,” he said.

The minister also said it was not possible to ascertain when the Indians were killed.

“But we were told that it could be about one year (ago). But it is very difficult to say whether it is more than a year or less than a year (ago),” he said.

To a question, VK Singh said that the Iraq-based Martyrs Foundation had advised against opening of the caskets.

“The Martyrs Foundation has told us that the way toxic contents were found (from where the mortal remains were taken out) and the way all this was done (embalming of bodies) when you open the casket it may pose danger and that is why they said it is better not to open it,” he said.

Asked how they were killed, the Union minister, a former Army chief, said that some of the people were killed by bullets.

“When tests were conducted (on mortal remains) it was found that some persons were killed by bullets and however, in some cases, it is very difficult to say as to how they were killed,” he said.

To a question on jobs being demanded by the kin of the victims, the minister said the union external affairs minister had already told them to provide detailed information about persons who were eligible for jobs.

The minister was also criticised for his reported “insensitive” remark comparing the demand for compensation to the families of 39 Indians killed in Iraq to demanding “biscuits”, and said it was “heartless, shameful and reprehensible”.

Also Read: Not like biscuits: VK Singh criticised for comment on 38 Indians killed in Iraq

“This is not like distributing biscuits, I do not have like a box of money in my pocket that I’ll just declare the compensation right now, this matter concerns people’s lives,” he responded when asked whether he can give an estimate of the compensation the families will receive.

With reports rife about former BJP minister Hartalu Halappa’s plans of hopping over to Congress, BJP Karnataka state president B S Yeddyurappa held mediation with Halappa, who is angry at the fact that the party is not in favour of issuing him ticket for the Assembly election this time.

During the conciliation talks between the two, Yeddyurappa felt that he had succeeded in convincing Halappa not to desert the party. However, Halappa himself remained tight-lipped about the outcome of the effort.

The meeting between the two leaders was brokered by BJP MP, Shobha Karandlaje.

It is said that Yeddyurappa explained to Halappa, who has been demanding party ticket from Sagar constituency, about the current conditions in this constituency, and vote calculations. He also told Halappa that as per the internal survey conducted by the party, Halappa does not have a bright chance of winning. Yeddyurappa also requested Halappa to work for the party in spite of who is fielded by the party, and assured him of a bright future in the party.

Halappa was reminded that the party had stood by him firmly during the critical period of his life and that if he crosses over to some other party now, voters will form a wrong opinion about him. Yeddyurappa told him that politically also this move might backfire. Halappa however, remained non-committal and returned after saying that he would work for the party. Based on this reaction, BJP camp feels that there are bright chances of him remaining with the party.

Halappa said that he was happy with the discussion he had with Yeddyurappa, and that he will give his reaction after Yeddyurappa speaks about it. He also refused to speak anything about the ticket for the Assembly election.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has challenged BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa to contest from Varuna Assembly if he is so sure of victory.

Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yathindra, is likely to be the Congress candidate from Varuna to facilitate which the CM will compete from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru.

When reporters asked the CM about the speculations that BJP is in discussion to field Yeddyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra from Varuna constituency, he replied that the people vote for those who have worked for the constituency and no one else. People think before they vote.

He said that if his son Dr. Yathindra stood for elections, the people will not vote for him only because he is a CM’s son, but they will vote for the work done by me for the segment as the CM.