Karnataka election: Congress, BJP in talks with JD(S); top 10 developments

According to most of the post-poll surveys, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in Karnataka, with the JD(S) likely to emerge as the kingmaker

  

With just one more day to go before the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results, BJP president Amit Shah has asserted that his party will form the next government in the state, while the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(s), has claimed that neither incumbent chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah nor BJP chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa will become chief minister of Karnataka. Siddaramaiah, for his part, has exuded confidence that the Congress will get an absolute majority in Karnataka and has ruled out any possibility of a tie-up with the JD(S).

Meanwhile, repolling on three polling booths -- one in north Bengaluru's Hebbal constituency and two in Kushtagi in Koppal district -- was scheduled to be held on Monday, according to the Election 

Commission (EC). The repolling was scheduled to be held from 7 am to 6 pm.

According to most of the post-poll surveys, the BJP is set to emerge as the single largest party in Karnataka, with the JD(S) likely to emerge as the kingmaker. As reported earlier, while most exit polls predicted a hung Assembly with the BJP ahead, two said the BJP would either come very close to or cross the halfway mark of 112 seats. However, the India Today-Axis exit poll said the Congress might bag a majority. No government in Karnataka since the Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party in 1985 has been re-elected.

A single-day polling was held in Karnataka in 222 of the 224 Assembly segments on Saturday, with a record 72.13 per cent voter turnout. The results of the election will be declared tomorrow. The Congress had won 122 seats and the BJP 40 seats in the last Karnataka Assembly election in 2013.

Here are the top ten developments around the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 results:

1) Both BJP, Congress courting JD(S) despite denials: BJP and the Congress leaders, according to a previous Business Standard report, are in touch with the JD(S) leadership, and have proposed power-sharing scenarios that could be acceptable to party leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. The BJP and the Congress, both, have ran coalition governments with the JD (S) 

between 2004 and 2008.

The Congress, for its part, is open to repeating the formula where the chief minister from either party serves for 2.5 years each, and also recognises that Kumaraswamy would never agree to sharing power with current chief minister and friend turned foe Siddaramaiah. The Congress is amenable to making home minister R Ramalinga Reddy its chief ministerial nominee if there is a hung Assembly.

The BJP, meanwhile, has proposed that it might be open to offering Kumaraswamy the first go at the chief ministerial chair.

2) Repolling in three booths today: Repolling on three polling booths -- one in north Bengaluru's Hebbal constituency and two in Kushtagi in Koppal district -- was scheduled be held on Monday, according to the EC. "Repolling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm as an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctioned at a polling booth in Hebbal on May 12, while at two booths in Kushtagi voters' names were wrongly listed," state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar told reporters.

The names nearly 275 voters were mixed up at the two polling stations in Kushtagi, about 400 km northwest of Bengaluru. As a result, voters cast their ballots at the wrong polling booth, Kumar said.

Click Here: Karnaaka assembly election 2018

  

'Siddaramaiah contesting from 2 seats should concern Cong chief, not Modi'

G Parameshwara, a Dalit leader and the Congress' Karnataka unit chief for 8 years, says it is for the Congress legislature party to decide who will be the next chief minister of the state

A Dalit leader and the Congress party’s Karnataka unit chief for eight years now, G Parameshwara has never hidden his chief ministerial ambitions. He was a CM aspirant in 2013, too, but failed to win his Assembly seat of Koratagere.

A state-level sprinter with a doctorate in agriculture from University of Adelaide, Australia, Parameshwara, 66, was the home minister of Karnataka from 2015 to 2017. And this time, he could emerge as a key contender for the top elected post in the state if the Congress fails to win a simple majority but comes to power by forming a coalition.

It will, however, be the Congress Legislative Party’s call to decide who will be the next chief minister of Karnataka, Parameshwara tells Bibhu Ranjan Mishra and Archis Mohan in an interview. Edited excerpts:

What is your assessment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaigning in Karnataka?

The prime minister has not come here with any positive agenda for Karnataka. He has said little about what his government has done for the state in the four years at the Centre. Has there been any special package (announced for the state)? Is there any irrigation project, or any other big project, or national-level project? He has not mentioned anything.

Moreover, the PM has not proposed any new projects, either. He barely has a year left in office. What can he do? Of the precious little he can do, he has said he will see that five river projects will be taken up. (Karnataka election)Please tell us which river projects he is talking about. The existing river water-sharing projects are in a shambles. We have the Mahadayi river issue. It is not resolved. We have Cauvery. It is not resolved. This is despite the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal having given its final judgement. The PM could have just called the three chief ministers and said: “Look this is a drinking water issue, and not an irrigation issue, so please resolve this amicably, and this is the formula that the Government of India has worked out; you follow it.”

This is exactly what Indira Gandhi had accomplished with the Cauvery water issue for the Chennai city. I don’t think Modi has come to Karnataka with any positivity. Let him (Modi) come here a hundred times. The people are with us. They know what he has done, and they also know what we have achieved.

The PM has questioned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah contesting from two seats? Do you think that decision of the Congress party has given political rivals an opportunity to embarrass your party?

Let me ask the PM: Where is the justification in him raising the issue when he himself contested from two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections? He lacks the credibility to ask that question.

But the move has led to a perception that Siddaramaiah is nervous about the Chamundeshwari seat, so he is contesting from Badami as well…

Fair enough. But what has that go to do with the BJP. It is the Congress party’s decision. I was afraid that everyone would get together and defeat me, so I wanted to go contest from another seat – what is wrong in that? It is our internal party matter.

If our high command did not want… it would have said that we (the Siddaramaiah government) ran the government (in Karnataka) for five years; now why was he is contesting from two seats? That question should have been asked by our high command, not you (the PM).

Read full story Karnataka Assembly Election  2018

Karnataka polls: Over 9,000 voter IDs seized from Bengaluru house; updates

Three days before Karnataka Assembly election 2018, a 'fake' voter ID row has erupted in the poll-bound state, with BJP and Congress accusing each other of involvement. Catch all the update here

Just three days before Karnataka Assembly election 2018, the Election Commission of Karnataka on Tuesday confirmed that its officials recovered 9,746 Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) from an apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli area of the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency. Reacting to the development, the BJP demanded cancellation of polling in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar, accusing the Congress of trying to "rig" the polls. Congress hit back, saying that a BJP leader was the owner of the Bengaluru flat from where the 'fake' voter cards had been found.

The development came hours after former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced off against each other while campaigning in Karnataka. The prime minister and the UPA chairperson attacked each other with stinging barbs, with Modi accusing Gandhi and her son (Congress President) Rahul Gandhi of destroying Congress to save the "dynasty", and Gandhi saying Modi's speeches alone could not "fill empty stomachs".

Polling in the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 will be held on May 12 and the results will be out on May 15.

Here are the top 10 developments around the 'fake' voter id issue in Karnataka and the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 campaign:

1) Nearly 10,000 voter IDs seized from a Bengaluru flat: The Election Commission of Karnataka on Tuesday confirmed that they recovered 9,746 electors photo identity cards from an apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli area, which falls under the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency. In a midnight briefing on Tuesday, Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka Sanjiv Kumar said that according to the preliminary verification, the ID cards were of actual electors and appeared to be prima facie genuine.

According to the state election commission, the voter ID cards were kept neatly in small bundles that were wrapped in paper, with some names and phone numbers on the paper.

The recovery was made during a surprise visit to Parkview apartment in Jalahalli area, which belongs to Manjula Nanjamuri and was allegedly rented to a person named Rakesh.

Apart from the IDs, five laptops, one printer, and two large steel trunks with counterfoil strips resembling acknowledgement slips of Form 6 used for addition of names onto the electoral rolls were also recovered from the apartment during the raid. Kumar added that the significance of the counterfoils can only be verified after due investigation.

"These may be numbering around a lakh. There is a need for further verification and inquiry. These have photographs and a printed number in magenta colour which is different than the officially available Form 6 which has no printed number," Kumar said.

The state election commission added that an FIR has been registered in the matter and further investigations will be conducted on the same. It further assured that in the next 24 hours, when more information is available, firm action will be taken.

Read the previous day's developments in the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 campaign: Karnataka election: Modi besotted with Congress-free India, says Sonia

2) BJP demands countermanding of polls in Raj Rajeshwari Nagar constituency, blames Congress for 'fake' voter IDs: After the state EC's announcement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday night demanded that elections in the Raj Rajeshwari Nagar constituency of Karanataka be countermanded in the light of the revelation of seizure of 'fake' voter IDs.

Speaking to media over the matter, BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "Congress is losing public support and they are trying hard to rig the upcoming elections in Karnataka by undemocratic ways. So, we demand countermanding of polls in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency."

3) Congress says the owner of the Bengaluru flat from where voter cards were found is a BJP leader: The Congress Party refuted the 'fake' voter ID cards allegation leveled against it by the BJP and alleged that the flat from where the documents were recovered belonged to a BJP leader. Addressing the media, Congress spokesperson in-charge Randeep Surjewala claimed that Manjula Nanjamuri, who owned the flat from where the identity cards were recovered, is a BJP leader and an ex-corporator.

He alleged that Nanjamuri rented her own flat to her son Rakesh, who contested an earlier corporation election on a BJP ticket in 2015. "The BJP enacted this drama in an apartment belonging to their own leader, Manjula Nanjamari. She has rented the apartment to her son who contested the 2015 BBMP elections on a BJP ticket," Surjewala said.

 

Karnataka poll updates: Manmohan attacks Modi for 'economic mismanagement'

With the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 days away, the BJP and Congress are running fierce campaigns. Catch today's latest Karnataka election campaign updates here

 

 

As the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 draws closer, top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress leaders are holding back-to-back rallies in the state to boost their respective parties' chances of securing a win in the crucial election.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, too, joined the Congress election campaign in the state on Monday, addressing a press conference in Bengaluru. Singh attacked the Modi government for its economic policies, saying that the country was facing a crisis that was avoidable.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Karnataka BJP Yuva Morcha workers. Addressing Karnataka BJP workers via NaMo app on Monday, the Prime Minister accused the Opposition of being against new technologies promoted by the central government.

Looking to dethrone the Congress-led government in Karnataka, Modi kick-started a series of election rallies in the poll-bound state on May 1, with a total of 21 rallies scheduled. On Sunday, he addressed rallies in Chitradurga, Raichur, Jamakhandi, and Hubli.

As the Karnataka election inches closer, a political slugfest has erupted in the state, with parties firing a barrage of barbs at one another. Gandhi has advised Prime Minister Modi to "copy" and implement at the Centre the Karnataka government's plan for the welfare of Dalits and Adivasis. Modi, for his part, reminded voters that United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party chief Rahul Gandhi were out on bail in connection with a Rs 50-billion (Rs 5,000-crore) scam.

Karnataka will go to the polls on May 12 to elect its representatives for the 224-member Assembly. 

The results will be out on May 15.

Here are the top 10 developments in the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 campaign by 

Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi:

1) Manmohan Singh attacks Modi, BJP: Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, former PM Singh accused the Modi government of hurting the economy with moves such as demonetisation and the hasty implementation of goods and services tax (GST).

" Two major avoidable blunders of the Modi govt have been demonetisation and hasty implementation of GST. The losses the economy suffered due to these blunders have severely hurt our micro, small and medium enterprise sector and resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs," Singh said.

Singh also attacked the government over a series of banking sector frauds, saying that swindled money almost quadrupled from Rs 284.16 billion in September 2013 to Rs 1.11 trillion in September 2017.

"Perpetrators of these frauds, meanwhile, escape with impunity. The economic mismanagement of the Modi government, and I say this with great care and responsibility, is slowly eroding the general public's trust in the banking sector," he said.

2) Modi interacts with BJP Yuva Morcha workers: Prime Minister Modi on Monday interacted with the Karnataka's Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha Karyakartas (workers) via the Narendra Modi (NaMo) App.

In his address, Modi hit out at the Opposition for questioning technology – from Aadhaar to EVMs – and said the BJP wanted to promote a modern India by giving importance to skill development and innovation.

The PM said if BJP came to power in the state, 60 state-of-the-art Namma BPO complexes would be established across the state with a corpus of Rs 2.5-billion low-interest loans to encourage local entrepreneurs to set of BPO business.

He also appealed to BJP workers not to indulge in violence. "Violence in any form should not be allowed by any political party or ideology in democracy and I appeal to BJP’s youth karyakartas in Karnataka not to act in vengeance, even when they have lost several of their karyakartas in political violence," Modi said.

Modi has been using the NaMo app increasingly to reach out to party workers. Before Monday's interaction, he had interacted with the Kisan Morcha workers and women's wing members of the BJP state unit using the app.

Click here: Manmohan singh attacks Modi