Congress looks for a Lingayat face to fill BS Yeddyurappa's space

TNN
June 3, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 3: With the BJP looking to push its state president BS Yeddyurappa to Margdarshak Mandal, the Congress sees a huge opportunity in promoting a Lingayat leader who can fill the opposition leader’s shoes. The party desperately needs a Lingayat leader to stay relevant — especially in north Karnataka — considering the BJP swept all 14 Lok Sabha seats dominated by the community.

“The 2018 assembly polls and the recent general elections show the party can no longer rely only on Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits) votes,” said a senior Congress leader. “It also needs the support of dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities to win elections. The two communities have, in recent times, largely supported the JD(S) and BJP respectively. We need to promote influential leaders from these communities to wean voters back.”

The party already began work in this direction prior to the Lok Sabha polls by appointing Lingayat leader MB Patil as the home minister, party sources said.

Following a meeting in March this year, sources say the party decided to sideline leaders like HK Patil, Basavaraj Rayaraddi, SR Patil, Shamanur Shivashankarappa and Sharan Prakash Patil — Lingayat faces in Siddaramaiah’s government. The party instead penciled in four leaders — MB Patil, Vinay Kulkarni, Eshwar Khandre and SS Mallikarjuna — to shoulder the leadership role of the community. But with the defeat of Kulkarni and Khandre in the Lok Sabha polls, the party has very few names to go on with.

Politically influential, the Lingayat community comprises around 17% of Karnataka’s population and has loyally supported the BJP. The Siddaramaiah government’s perceived bid to drive a wedge in the community by offering Veerashaiva Lingayats the status of a separate religion, did not work. In fact, it consolidated the community votes against the Congress.

Now, with the BJP looking to relegate Yeddyurappa, the Congress is hoping history will repeat itself — this time by favouring them. In 1989, the Congress, led by prominent Lingayat leader Veerendra Patil, won one of its biggest victories in the assembly elections. Patil was credited with mobilising the community as the Congress won 179 of the 224 seats.

The unceremonious dismissal of the Patil government the very next year by then Congress president Rajiv Gandhi saw the Lingayat community move away from the Congress. This resulted in one of its most humiliating defeats when it won a mere 36 seats in the 1994 elections. The loss in vote share amounted to a staggering 17%, which was shared predominantly by the BJP and the Janata Dal. The Congress has never been able to recover the ground it lost then.

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News Network
March 26,2020

Mau/ Kalaburagi, Mar 26: Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday asked lockdown violators in Mau to do push-ups and squats as a punishment.
In Karnataka's Kalaburagi, police personnel punished the violators of the lockdown.
In his address to the nation on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.
According to the Health Ministry, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in India reached 606, including 43 foreign nationals.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 2,2020

Bengaluru, June 2: A television anchor allegedly committed suicide after her boyfriend refused to marry her.

29-year-old Chandana V K made a selfie video before taking the extreme step, in which she blamed her boyfriend Dinesh for her decision.

The Suddaguntepalya police have taken up a case of abetment to suicide against Dinesh and his family, including his father Lokappa Gowda, mother Gayatri, sister Shyla and uncle Swamy alias Dayananda. The police have formed a team to nab the accused who are absconding.

Chandana, who used to also appear in real estate advertisements, was a resident of Krishnamurthy Layout in Tavarekere. She hailed from Belur in Hassan district.

According to a preliminary investigation, Chandana consumed poison after making the video.

In the video clip addressed to Dinesh, she says: "You said if I die, it is good for you. So, I am ending my life and you are the reason for it, Dinesh." She sent the clip to Dinesh, his parents, her parents and friends around 2.30 pm on May 28.

On seeing the video, Chandana's parents alerted her neighbours and asked them to go check on her. They took her to a private hospital where she died while undergoing treatment around 12.30 am on May 30.

In his police complaint, Chandana’s father said his daughter and Dinesh were in a relationship for the past five years. Dinesh had promised to marry her and both the families were aware of the relationship.

Dinesh had borrowed Rs 5 lakh from Chandana. But for the past few months, he began avoiding her and even refused to marry her. His family members told Chandana that they would get him married to someone else, the complaint said. The police said action would be initiated taken against Dinesh and his family.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 20,2020

Lucknow, Jul 20: Dr Azizuddin Sheikh, who was fighting COVID-19 as a front line worker, passed away after contracting coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh. He is survived by a wife and three small children. 

40-year-old Dr Azizuddin, who hailed from Rajasthan, was serving as a paediatrician at Avanti Bai Hospital and Duffein Hospital, Lucknow for past few years. He had also worked in the Middle Eastern countries. 

When a large number of doctors preferred to stay home following the covid-19 outbreak, Dr Azizudin was working 16 to 17 hours battling the pandemic. 

According to sources, he tested positive for the covid-19 last month. “After the reports came positive, he had to call the concerned authorities many times to take him to the hospital,” recalled his family members.

He was first admitted to Lok Bandhu Hospital and was later shifted to KGMU after his condition deteriorated. Later he was taken to SGPGIMS.
 
“Despite following all the guidelines and taking every precaution while treating coronavirus patients, he tested positive for the covid-19. It’s a shock for all of us,” he said.

He used to console his family members and instill confidence among them, said one of his relatives. 

A local newspaper quoted his friends as saying that he was very dedicated in serving people that he used to take minimal possible fees from his patients. When the family asked him to increase consultation fees his reply would be, “They are poor people, how will they afford”?

After his death, one of his patients Alok Singh wrote about an incident. “When I asked doctor Sahib why he charges so less, his answer was I have to answer Allah. The truth that he has left us will always be the reason for our grief.”

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