Shiroor seer’s entry to poll fray will help Congress in Udupi: Raghupati Bhat

Bengaluru, May 23: It was a stampede-like situation near Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon. The incident took place after hundreds of migrants gathered and jostled to gain entry. The situation raises concerns as no social distancing norms were followed.

According to Chetan Singh Rathore, DCP Central, the reason behind the stampede-like situation was an en masse message. "What we heard was that an en masse message has been conveyed to the people of Manipur and Odisha that they would be able to go home on trains on Saturday. The message did not consider the capacity of the train which is only 1500 seating capacity for Manipur train and 1500 for Odisha train," he told media.

Singh further added, "But the people gathered were around 3000 in number for the Manipur train and 5000 for the Odisha train. Passengers with tickets and requisites were allowed to travel while others were asked to return home and wait for their turn to travel back home."

The state of Karnataka has eased lockdown restrictions across, allowing state transport services to run. Lately, the government has been running special Shramik trains from Karnataka to ferry migrant workers back to their hometowns.

Mangaluru, Feb 17: Kambala superstar Shrinivas Gowda, who is drawing comparisons to ace sprinter Usain Bolt, has reportedly refused to take part in athletics trials with the Sports Authority of India.

28-year-old Gowda, who hails from Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada, was celebrated as a potential Olympian after a clip of his race went viral, amid claims that he had done 100m in 9.55 seconds, against Bolt's record of 9.58. He has so far won 32 medals in 11 kambala events this season.

Union sports minister Kiren Rijiju and SAI said Gowda would appear for trials at SAI's Bengaluru centre on Monday. The government "will do everything to identify sporting talents", Rijiju had tweeted.

"I will meet the Chief Minister. I am keen on continuing in kambala," Gowda said. Asked about the clamour for a crossover into athletics, he said, "For the time being I have no plans to appear for SAI trials. I am busy with the Kambala season and will consider meeting them following that and after consulting my well-wishers."

Bengaluru, Jun 18: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Prathap Simha Nayak, M.T.B. Nagaraj, R. Shankar and Sunil Valyapure to contest in the June 29 biennial elections for 4 of the 7 Karnataka legislative Council seats, an official said.

"Our high command selected 3 of the 4 candidates the state core committee recommended on Tuesday, excluding H.R. Vishwanath, a former Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rebel, who lost in the December 5 Assembly by-elections from Hunsur in Mysuru district on a BJP ticket," a party official said.

Nagaraj, a former Congress rebel, who also lost in the Assembly by-election from Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural district on a BJP ticket, was the state housing minister in the 14-month-old JD-S-Congress coalition government, which fell on July 23, 2019 after 17 of their rebels resigned then.

Shankar, who was an Independent and a minister in the former coalition government, was not given the BJP ticket to contest in the December Assembly bypolls though he too resigned from the Ranebennur assembly seat in Haveri district, about 340km northwest of Bengaluru, along with former Congress and JD-S rebels.

Valyapure is the party's grass-root leader from Chincholi in Gulbarga district in the state's northern region, about 586km from Bengaluru.

Valyapure extensively campaigned in the May 2019 general elections and ensured the victory of BJP candidate Umesh Yadav from the reserved Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat, defeating Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

Nayak is also the party's grassroot cadre who rose from the ranks to become its Dakshina Kannada district president in the state's coastal region.

As the ruling party has 116 legislators in the 225-member Assembly, all its 4 candidates will need 28 votes each to win the contest.

Of the 7 outgoing Council members, 5 are from the Congress and one each from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and an Independent.

With 68 lawmakers, the Congress will be able to retain 2 seats and the JD-S one as it has only 34 legislators in the lower house.

The Congress has nominated its outgoing Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad and outgoing Council member Naseer Ahmed to contest for 2 Council seats.

Of the 75-member Council, the opposition Congress has 37, BJP 19, JD-S 16, two Independents and one Chairman.