Congress, BJP go hotel-hopping in Bengaluru as crisis continues

Agencies
July 12, 2019

Bengaluru, Jul 12: Amid the ongoing political turmoil in Karnataka, the Congress and the BJP have decided to move their legislators to different hotels in the city after the Assembly proceedings on Friday.

Congress MLAs will be lodged at Clarks Exotica Convention Resorts while those of the BJP will stay at Ramada Hotel in Bengaluru. The state unit of the BJP has booked 30 rooms for two days at the facility.

"All party MLAs will move to a hotel and come back on Monday," senior BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa told media persons here.

The rebel Congress MLAs were also supposed to be present in the Assembly session, which is currently underway. The dissidents came back to Bengaluru yesterday to meet the Speaker, as per Supreme Court directions but flew back to Mumbai at night ignoring the whip issued by the Congress-JDS coalition leader.

Chikkodi legislator and chief whip of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, Ganesh Hukkeri, had directed MLAs to attend the Assembly session for passage of the Finance Bill on Friday.
 
Hukkeri had also said that the Assembly will discuss several other matters and the absent MLAs will be disqualified under the 'anti-defection law'.

For the last few days, the dissident Congress-JDS MLAs were staying at Sofitel Hotel in Mumbai. Following which, Congress leader DK Shivakumar had gone to there pacify them but to no avail. 

Ever since the Karnataka coalition plunged into crisis, Congress has repeatedly accused the BJP of trying to topple the government, an allegation denied by the BJP.

The ten rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs had moved the top court, seeking a direction to Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignation and to not proceed with the applications for their disqualification from the House.

After hearing their plea, the Supreme Court today ordered a status quo until July 16. 

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Deepak Gupta will again hear the matter on Tuesday.

The order on status quo was given after hearing counsels--Mukul Rohtagi for the rebel MLAs and Abishek Manu Singhvi for Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.

The bench had on Thursday directed the Speaker to meet the rebel MLAs who were asked to give their resignations afresh in person. The Speaker met them and took their resignations but did not take any decision saying he has to follow procedures and satisfy himself whether they were genuine and voluntary.

Rohatgi argued that the Speaker was answerable to the court, except under "certain circumstances". "He may not respond under certain sections and provisions, he is entitled to exemption," he submitted.

Earlier in the day, the Speaker agreed to meet at 4 pm three of the five rebel Congress MLAs, who have tendered their resignations in the "prescribed" format.

Kumar last night had dismissed the MLAs' charge of delaying a decision on the resignations to help the government. "I need to examine these resignations (of rebel MLAs) all night and ascertain if they are genuine. The Supreme Court has asked me to take a decision. I have video-graphed everything and I will send it to the Supreme Court," said Kumar.

The 13-month old coalition government is starting a collapse following the resignation of 16 of the Congress and JD(S) MLAs who cited a range of issue from allegedly being sidelined to declined ministerial berth in the government.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Mangaluru, May 19: With lockdown 4.0 coming into force, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) started bus services from Mangaluru to various destinations today.

According to officials, buses started plying from Mangaluru to Bengaluru, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Hubballi and other areas with limited passengers. A bus, which left for Bengaluru from Mangaluru had less than 30 passengers on board.

“Depending on the demand, the buses will be operated with 50% of the capacity. Measures have been taken to ensure that social distancing norms are adhered to while purchasing tickets from the counter,” said S N Arun, KSRTC Divisional Controller.

However, the KSRTC is yet to take a decision on operating Nagarasarige buses in the city. 

“Only those destinations, which can be reached by 7 pm has been considered by the KSRTC while operating the buses. As a result, after 11 am, no buses will travel to Bengaluru from Mangaluru. Further, permission will not be accorded for the travelling of pregnant women, children below 10 years old and senior citizens above 60 years old. Thermal scanning is used for checking the temperature of the passengers before boarding the buses. All the buses are sanitised after each trip,” he said.

Further, he said the contact number, name and address of the passengers are collected by the officials during the travel.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 10,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 10: Education technology company Byju’s is learnt to have raised $200 million in a funding round from Tiger Global Management, which has valued the Bengaluru-based start-up at around $8 billion, making it the third-largest unicorn (start-up valued over $1 billion) in the country.

With this, the Byju Raveendran-founded company has seen over 50 per cent jump in its valuation in just around nine months. In March 2019, Byju’s was valued $5.4 billion, when it raised around $31 million from General Atlantic, and Chinese investment giant Tencent.

At the current valuation, Byju’s has now replaced home-grown cab-hailing major Ola as the third-largest unicorn, next only to Paytm and OYO, which are valued around $16 billion and $10 billion, respectively.

Byju’s confirmed the transaction through a press statement, though the company declined to share any specific details of the deal. Tiger Global could not be immediately reached for its comments.

“We are happy to partner with a strong investor like Tiger Global Management. They share our sense of purpose and this partnership will advance our long-term vision of creating an impact by changing the way students learn,” said Raveendran. “This partnership is both a validation of the impact created by us so far and a vote of confidence for our long-term vision.”

This is Tiger Global’s first investment in the edutech space in India after Vendantu, an online tutoring platform, where it, along with WestBridge Capital, led a $42-million round in August.

An early backer of India’s internet growth story, the New York-headquartered Tiger Global has been a prolific investor in the Indian start-up space. Its portfolio in the country ranges from consumer focused e-commerce companies that are vital for the growth of the sector, such as Flipkart, Delhivery, Grofers, Quikr and PolicyBazaar, to mention a few.

After tasting success with Flipkart, one of its earliest investments, where it had pumped in around $1 billion, the PE major is now doubling down its focus on the Indian start-up space, under its new investment head Scott Shleifer.

Shleifer, who set up international private equity practice for Tiger Global, is said to be as aggressive deal maker like his predecessor Lee Fixel, who left the investment firm in March. Since then, Tiger has also invested in a host of technology-focused companies in diverse sectors including Ninjacart, CRED, NoBroker and Facilio to mention a few.

“Byju’s has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India,” Shleifer was quoted in the press statement issued by the edutech firm.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 12,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 12: Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

He was suffering from fever since the last few days and today his swab results came out positive.

He is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city and his condition is stated to be stable.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.