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After Ahmed Patel’s victory D K Shivakumar emerges as a Cong hero

coastaldigest.com news network
August 10, 2017

Bengaluru, Aug 9: Vokkaliga strongman D K Shivakumar, who indirectly played a key role in the decisive victory of Congress veteran Ahmed Patel in Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat, has now emerged as a hero among Congress leaders at national level.

The Energy Minister of Karnataka, who had to face the wrath of Centre’s ruling BJP in the form of I-T department raids, has also consolidate his position in the party ahead of looming Assembly polls.

Shivakumar is understood to have received a pat on his back from the Congress top brass, including AICC president Sonia Gandhi and her political secretary Ahmed Patel, for his efforts in hosting the Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort near Bengaluru. Both Sonia and Patel are learnt to have called up Shivakumar on Wednesday and congratulated him. Ahmed Patel was the party candidate in the election.

Shivakumar took up the responsibility of safeguarding the Gujarat MLAs when there was a threat of them being poached by the BJP in Gujarat. Though he was away in Singapore, Shivakumar cut short his tour, rushed to Bengaluru and assumed charge of the MLAs. He, along with his brother and Congress MP D K Suresh, ensured that MLAs are safe despite Income Tax department raids on him for three days.

In fact, Shivakumar has proved himself as a crisis manager for the party on many occasions in the past. He had hosted around 70 Congress MLAs from Maharashtra during a political crisis in 2002. In 2014, Shivakumar ensured the victory of the party candidate in Bellary Rural Assembly constituency, which was considered the fiefdom of Ballari Reddy brothers. He is also credited with the party’s victory in the recently held byelection to Gundlupet Assembly constituency.

Ever since senior leader S M Krishna quit the Congress, Shivakumar has been trying to position himself as the Vokkaliga face of the party.

Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar charged the BJP with trying to woo Gujarat MLAs during their stay in Bengaluru. But all their efforts were in vain. He also said he has details of how efforts were made to poach the MLAs and that he would disclose them at the right time. “Ups and downs are common. The party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah), and the workers stood with me,” he added, referring to the I-T raids.

Comments

salam Bava
 - 
Thursday, 10 Aug 2017

we have to understand congress and DKS are up against Mr Modi, Mr Shah. And they think differently, they act differently, and if congress is not flexible in its approach, they will become irrelevant.
This is right time to Congress to recognize that India has changed. "Old slogans don't work, old formulas don't work, old mantras don't work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change.

So act of DKS is 100% justified

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News Network
July 14,2020

Bengaluru, July 14: Ahead of the week-long lockdown in Bengaluru starting from Tuesday night, around 35,000 people have left the city and grocery stores and liquor shops are witnessing a rush with customers thronging to stock up on for the shutdown.

According to transport department officials, labourers from other parts of the state migrated in good numbers from Bengaluru ahead of the lockdown fearing that they would have to face similar challenges as they had to confront during the previous shuttering. 

"Yesterday 35,000 passengers left Bengaluru. The number is big given the fact that we are allowing a limited number of passengers in the buses to maintain social distancing," a KSRTC official said.

Tipplers made a beeline for liquor shops and a senior State Excise official said liquor worth Rs 230 crore was sold on Monday alone.

"There was apparently a mad rush yesterday.India Made Foreign Liquor worth Rs 215.55 crore and 14.83 crore worth beer was sold...," the officer said.

In view of the rising coronavirus cases in the city at an alarming proportion, the government decided to impose lockdown from Tuesday 8 pm till 5 am on July 22.

Later, Dharwad and Dakshina Kannada districts too decided to impose a lockdown for nine days and seven days respectively from Wednesday.

"For the past two days there is an unusual rush of customers in our store," an executive of the Metro Cash and Carry said.

According to him, people are buying grocery items and vegetables with long shelf life such as onion, potato, radish, carrot and beetroot.

A salesperson at the Star Bazaar too said people were thronging the store for the past two to three days.

During the Sunday curfew, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the week-long lockdown will be stringent one and government has made all arrangements to address all concerns ahead of the shutdown.

As many as 19,702 people in Bengaluru have tested positive, of which there are 15,052 active cases, while 4,328 have been discharged.

The number of fatalities as of Monday is 321.

Across Karnataka, 41,581 people have tested positive for coronavirus including 24,572 active cases, 16,248 discharges and 757 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state.
 

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coastaldigest.com web desk
April 30,2020

In the wake of Saudi Arabia's assurance that Masjid al-Haram of Makkah and Masjid an-Nabawi of Madinah will be opened for believers after some days, a message has gone viral on social media claiming that both the holy mosques will open on Ramadan 8 (May 1).

The message which was widely circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp, also contained certain condition such as people should fetch their own prayer mats and that they should not use the washrooms in the mosques. 

Clarification

Meanwhile, the authorities of the two holy mosques, issued a clarification that the claims made in the viral post are false and baseless.

"The message being circulated about the opening date for Haramiain (two holy mosques) for public is completely baseless and false. The suspension of prayers for general public is still in effect," they said in a social media post.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

If everything goes as Russia’s expectation, it will be world’s first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine for widespread in the second week of August despite safety and efficacy concerns, according to a report. The adenoviral vector-based vaccine developed by Russian military and government researchers is currently in phase 2 trials.

According to a report from CNN, Russian officials are hoping to get approval for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute on Agust 10 or even before that. The officials told the outlet that the vaccine will be approved for public use with frontline healthcare workers receiving it first.

“It’s a Sputnik moment,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is financing Russian vaccine research, referring to the successful 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union, according to CNN.

“Americans were surprised when they heard Sputnik’s beeping. It’s the same with this vaccine. Russia will have got there first,” he was quoted as saying.

However, Russia is yet to release the scientific data on its coronavirus vaccine trials, hence, questions remain about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, said the report. The vaccine is in the second phase of testing with developers planning to launch the phase 3 trials sometime after August 3.

Earlier, Interfax reported, citing Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, that the vaccine will be widely used in parallel with phase 3 trials. He said the country plans to vaccinate medics who are at high-risk for COVID-19 next month before clinical trials are completed.

Murashko added that individuals at higher risk of getting infected with the coronavirus such as older people or those with health conditions will also be prioritised for the vaccine, although he did not estimate or reveal when that would happen. The minister added 800 people will be recruited for the phase 3 trials.

Meanwhile, health officials were more cautious considering the fact that human testing of the vaccine is incomplete, and the state registration is expected to begin after August 3, reported The Moscow Times.

On Monday, Moderna and Pfizer announced the commencement of the final phase 3 trials of their candidate vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has so far claimed at least 654,477 lives and infected 16,514,500 people worldwide. 

Researchers will recruit up to 30,000 volunteers in separate trials both backed by the US government. India's first indigenous coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN, is undergoing phase 1 human clinical trials across the country. More than 150 COVID-19 vaccines are being developed all over the world with at least six candidates already in late-stage clinical trials.

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