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Bengaluru, Jun 22: Senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad and BJP’s MTB Nagaraj, one of the defectors who helped the saffron party come to power in Karnataka, were unanimously elected to the Legislative Council along with five others on Monday. 

All seven were declared as “duly elected” by Legislative Assembly Secretary MK Vishalakshi, the returning officer for the biennial election to the Legislative Council. 

Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed of the Congress, Nagaraj, R Shankar, Prathap Simha Nayak and Sunil Vallyapur of the BJP and Govinda Raju of the JD(S) are now MLCs. 

While Ahmed was an incumbent who will get another term, the six others will replace Jayamma, MC Venugopal, NS Bore Raju, HM Revanna and TA Sharavana and DU Mallikarjuna whose term ends June 30. 

While an election was scheduled June 29, it was not necessary as only seven candidates were in the fray for the seven seats on Monday, which was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The nominations of A Yadavanahalli PC Krishnegowda and Mandikkal Nagaraja were rejected. 

With their rejection as MLCs, Nagaraj and Shankar - who jumped ship to the BJP last year - will now look to become ministers in Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s Cabinet. Both Nagaraj and Shankar were ministers when they resigned and defected from the Congress-JD(S) coalition. While Nagaraj lost the December 2019 bypolls, Shankar did not contest. 

Nagaraj, Shankar and Vallyapure were Yediyurappa’s picks for the Council, whereas Nayak is said to have been backed by BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel. 

There were many aspirants in the Congress for the Council berths, but Hariprasad and Ahmed were picked, given their experience. Hariprasad is widely believed to counter Siddaramaiah, who leads the party in the Assembly. 

Raju of the JD(S) runs a poultry business in Kolar and the choice of a fresh face is seen as the party leadership steering clear of any trouble as there were many asking for the ticket. 

Udupi, July 23: A 70-year-old woman, who had tested positive for coronavirus, passed away last night in Udupi taking the district’s covid-19 death toll to 12.

The deceased was a resident of Chantharu in Brahmavar. She was an asthma patient. For past few days, she was suffering from cold and fever. 

Her throat swabs were sent for testing and the report came positive last evening. She breathed her last at home even before being shifted to hospital. 

The woman has two daughters and both of them are married. Due to the fear of virus, none of her relatives were ready to touch her body.

Meanwhile, Dr Premananda K of district health department reportedly sought help of the activists of Popular Front of India (PFI). 

Under the supervision of PFI’s medical wing in-charge Muneer Kalmadi, the body was shifted to the district hospital with all necessary precautionary measures.

Mangaluru, Apr 10: Complaints have been registered after it came to light that the conditional permission to enter the Dakshina Kannada district for non-COVID-19 patients from Kerala has been misused on two occasions.

Police said on Friday that the Patients are allowed into the district after filling an online form and getting it authorised from the medical officer from Kasargod district hospital.

On April 9, a patient had arrvived at the district hospital complaining of head ache. After preliminary check up by the physician he left in an ambulance that had arrived from Kasargod earlier carrying another patient without informing the physician.