Category: Politics

Releasing its third list of candidates on Friday for the upcoming Karnataka polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lifted the suspense on who would challenge the incumbent chief minister by fielding Gopal Rao from Chamundeshwari against Siddaramaiah. In the latest list of candidates for 59 seats, the party also changed the existing candidate in Kolar Gold Field (SC) seat.

The 3rd list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections is here.

We wish candidates the very best! pic.twitter.com/DoB0cXaRwy

— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 20, 2018

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There appeared to be confusion over who the party would pick to contest from Udupi as it did not name a contestant from Udupi in the first two lists of candidates released.

But the party has finally revealed that former MLA Raghupathi Bhat will be returning to politics to set up a straight fight against current MLA and Minister of Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports Pramod Madhwaraj of the Congress.

According to BJP’s Udupi District President Mattaru Ratnakar Heggade, Raghupati was always going to be the leader to challenge Madhwaraj in Udupi. In 2008, Raghupati Bhat won over Pramod Madhwaraj by a margin of 2,479 votes but since then, the political fortunes of the two leaders have gone in opposite directions.

Madhwaraj succeeded Raghupati as the MLA of Udupi after the BJP leader did not contest the 2013 Assembly elections. A video clip of Raghupati with an unidentified woman was leaked to TV channels in March 2013, just before elections in the state. This lead to Raghupati withdrawing his candidature, citing ‘personal reasons.’ Senior BJP leader B Sudhakara Shetty contested in his place and was defeated by a whopping margin of 39,524 votes by Pramod Madhwaraj.


Meanwhile, another former MLA Lalaji Mendon will contest from Kaup constituency. Like Raghupati, Lalaji had won in the constituency in 2004 and was then re-elected in 2008 before he was defeated by Vinay Kumar Sorake of the Congress by a margin of 1,855 votes in 2013.

The Gandhi Nagar seat in the capital city of Bengaluru has been given to Saptagiri Gowda who is BJP State Youth wing in Karnataka. While, the Mandya seat which was in news for actor Ambareesh’s tussle with Congress over his candidature, has been handed over to Basavegowda.

The Hunsur seat which was once represented by former chief minister D. Devaraj Urs for six terms is now under the command of Ramesh Kumar.The party also announced a replacement for the Kolar Gold Field (SC) seat which will now be represented by S. Ashwini.

BJP on Monday had released its second list of 82 candidates for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly polls which included names like G. Somashekar Reddy who is the younger brother of Bellary mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy.

Other prominent candidates in the second list were former BJP ministers Murgesh Nirani, Hartalu Halappa, MP Renukacharya, Krishnaiah Shetty, and K. Subramanya Naidu and Kumar Bangarappa, who switched over from the ruling Congress and is the son of former chief minister S. Bangarappa.he party had released its first list of 72 candidates, including three women on 8 April.

Bantwal: The flying squad of the Election Commission’s Bantwal Assembly Constituency on Thursday seized 1,222 saris stocked at the South Canara District Central Cooperative Bank’s B.C. Road branch.

On the complaint, the flying squad personnel and the Bantwal Town Police went to the bank and seized the saris stocked in seven bags.

It is said that the complaint about distribution of saris had been made on Wednesday itself but the officials had not acted promptly. Thereafter, the concerned contacted the state election commission at Bengaluru after which the bank was raided, the informant claimed. Head of the investigation team, Rajesh and Seetharam Bhat, said that the officials raided the bank at 11.30 am on Thursday after getting instructions from the election commission.

Bank sources said that these saris had been bought before the election process was set into motion. They were meant for distribution among the members of the bank as uniform. The saris were kept in the bank as it is easier for members to collect them from there, but distribution of saris was withheld as election was announced, they added.

However, during the raid, the officials failed to provide bills towards purchase of these saris. They also fumbled when they were questioned about the people to whom these saris were meant to be distributed, it is gathered.

Complainant, A Govinda Prabhu, claimed that sari distribution has been going on not only in B C Road branch of the bank, but also elsewhere. “After getting information, a complaint was made to the election commission here. The officials, out of fear towards the ruling party in the state, did not take any action. After the state election commission was alerted, the officials here acted, he claimed.

With inputs from Daijiworld

The officers of Income Tax Department, who conducted search operations on properties belonging to four Congress workers in Koppa taluk on Monday, allegedly enquired about their political leanings and opinion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Books fallen on the floor following the I-T search on the residence of Sudhir Kumar Murolli, president of Koppa Block Congress.

I-T sleuths reached houses of Sudhir Kumar Murolli, president of Koppa Block Congress, and party leaders Subrahmanya Shetty, H.M. Sathish, and Ravi Kukkadige in Koppa taluk. The search operations began around 6.30 a.m. and continued till 6 p.m. According to Congress leaders whose properties were searched, the I-T officials did not find unaccounted cash or any important document.

Mr. Murolli, who is an advocate, said: “They terrorised all of us. My wife and I have a good collection of books. The officers threw all the books out of the racks. I don’t know what they were searching for,” he said. He was surprised when the officers asked him why he often passed comments on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and criticised the Prime Minister. “They wanted to know why I work for the Congress. I told them it was none of their business,” he said.

During the search operation at his residence, the officers found ₹1.95 lakh, including the ₹1.48 lakh belonging to his sister. “My sister lost her husband two months ago. She had received the amount from insurance policies. Besides that, my parents and I had a few thousand rupees. I had little over ₹5,000 in my pocket,” he said. Gold ornaments worth ₹2.22 lakh were found.

Mr. Kukkadige, whose house was also searched, said: “The officers wanted to know how many Congress rallies I have participated in. I told them I have not yet started campaigning this time.” The officers did find a few thousand rupees in his residence.

Belagavi: A midnight operation threw up an interesting challenge for Belagavi police and election duty officials on Wednesday. During the raid of an uninhabited government quarters in Vishveshwarayya Nagar, they discovered a hoard of fake and duplicate currency notes.

The notes were found in two boxes. The building built by the Public Works Department was allotted to the Revenue Department. It is dilapidated and is no longer used by the staff.

The initial suspicion was that the notes were to be used to lure voters, by mixing them with real currency notes. But a closer look at the notes and the claim of the accused that they were being used for shooting a film, made the officials think again.

The 24 fake notes looked like colour photo-copies of ₹ 2,000 notes. But the other bundles were interesting. They included 292 bundles of notes that looked like ₹ 2,000 notes, but had Rs. zero as the denomination. They were printed by the ‘Children Bank’ and not the RBI. There were 153 bundles modelled on ₹ 500 notes and 15 bundles of notes that look like ₹ 1,000 notes. All have zero denomination.

If fake and duplicate notes were to be valid notes, they would amount to around ₹ 7 crore. If they were to be valid, it would have been the biggest cache of notes seized in the State before elections. Since the announcement of elections, officials have seized ₹ 4.4 crore in cash in the district in over 26 cases.

Following some clues, a team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police S.B. Patil arrested Ajit Kumar Channappa Nidoni of Vijayapura who now lives in Belagavi. He has been accused of some offences, including circulating fake currencies in the past.

Commissioner of Police D.C. Rajappa, told presspersons later that he suspected the fake and duplicate notes were to be meant for distribution to voters in the coming elections.

However, the accused, Ajit Kumar, said he was a film-maker and he was using the duplicate notes for the film tentatively titled ‘15 Seconds’. The film is being shot in Gokak in Belagavi district now. Prakash Rao from Bengaluru is the director of the movie, according to the accused.

“Such duplicates are freely available in fairs and toy shops. Children use them to play games. We are stacking the photocopies of real notes on top of the bundles and keeping the others below them to make them look like real notes,’’ Ajit Kumar told investigators during preliminary interrogation.

Mr. Rajappa, however, is not convinced. “I have heard the claim, but it is difficult to believe him,’’ the Commissioner said. “First of all, he has printed 24 fake currency notes, which is a clear offence. Secondly, why did the accused keep them in an unused government quarters? That raises suspicions. Anyway, investigation will reveal the truth,’’ he said.

A poll duty officer, who was part of the team that raided the house, said circulation of fake or duplicate currency before elections was not rare. “In some constituencies, leaders have distributed such notes among voters on the eve of polling in past elections,’’ he said. “Such notes are used to adulterate real money, by inserting them into bundles of real notes, and trick them. Voters will realise that they have conned, only after casting votes the next day. And there is nothing much they can do.’’

“But the offenders are very careful while distributing such notes. They give them only to men, especially when they are drunk. They will be in such a condition that they will be unable to distinguish between real and fake notes and the offenders get away with it,’’ a surveillance squad member said.

He, however, is willing to consider the possibility that the whole thing is a hoax and the duplicate notes were truly being used for film shooting. “We need to spend two or three days with the accused. We will know the truth only then,’’ he said.

The case registered in the APMC police station charges the accused and his unknown associates of violating election rules under section 123 of the Representation of the People Act and section 489 of Indian Penal Code relating to possession and circulation of counterfeit currency.

(With Inputs from TH)

I urge the police to take the case seriously in spilling the truth out from this guy named Nasir. There might be a bigger nexus behind this incident and am sure Police would expose all of them. pic.twitter.com/CXQuEZKMqD

— Anantkumar Hegde (@AnantkumarH) April 17, 2018

Hedge also alleged that “the vehicle was being driven in the wrong direction and was parked right in the road horizontally” and as his convoy approached near, the man “tried hitting our car”.
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