Isro seeking Lord Balaji's blessings is superstition: Professor CNR Rao

Mangaluru/Udupi, May 20: The twin districts of coastal Karnataka today reported seven new coronavirus cases. Six cases were reported from Udupi district and one from Dakshina Kannada.

All the six new coronavirus patients in Udupi have been admitted to Dr TMA Pai Covid hospital.

With the new case, 22 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported so far in the district, including a one death. Three have recovered, and 18 are active.

55th case in Mangaluru

The new coronavirus patient in Dakshina Kannada is a 40-year-old woman from Neermarga near Mangaluru.

With this, the total number of cases in Dakshina Kannada has risen to 55 out of which 33 are currently active.

The woman had travelled from Rajajinagar in Bengaluru along with her son to Mangaluru on May 10.

Sources said that she was residing in two houses at Kudupu and Kuttikala.

She was suffering from Asthma and respiratory problems. She was admitted to Wenlock COVID hospital on May 17.

Belgaum, Feb 24: Around 20 people entered a boys' hostel premises in Karnataka's Belgaum with rods and bats and destroyed properties allegedly over ragging of a girl by two hostel residents.

The incident took place on February 23 and was captured in the CCTV camera.

According to Belgaum Police, a gang of 20 people entered Dr BR Ambedkar post metric hostel premises in Belgaum with rods and bats. The group destroyed the properties of hostel, bikes, and scooters.

Police said this is an issue of ragging and during the incident, no students were injured.

Further, the investigation is underway.

Bengaluru, Feb 10: After many twists and turns, veteran Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge is emerging as the frontrunner for the KPCC president’s post, party sources revealed.

Though the names of DK Shivakumar and MB Patil did the rounds sometime ago, the party high command could not decide on an apt candidate, and had to widen its horizon looking for a leader who can take all factions along, and they seem to have zeroed in on Kharge.

But the senior Dalit leader is also in the reckoning for the more important All-India Congress Committee president’s post after he successfully stitched up an alliance, despite all odds, between the Congress and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. He is understandably reluctant to take up the KPCC post. “The central leadership has given him some time to consider the KPCC offer,” the sources said.

The high command would rather go with Kharge as he is politically a far bigger force than Shivakumar and M B Patil and the party central leadership wants a safe pair of hands to handle the affairs of the state, the sources said. Also, senior leaders Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and M B Patil cannot raise a voice against Kharge if he is elected to the post, they said.

Kharge was the Pradesh Congress chief in 2008 when the BJP was in power under B S Yediyurappa. An old warhorse, Kharge is seen as an able administrator and taskmaster. He had won a record 11 elections on the trot before he was defeated in the Kalaburgi Parliamentary Constituency by his former protege Dr Umesh Jadhav in the last election.

Sources said that the high command will not consider Shivakumar for the top slot till he comes out clean in all the legal cases against him.

It is exactly two months since Dinesh Gundurao resigned as KPCC president after the party managed to win just two out of the 15 Assembly constituencies that went for by-elections. Siddarmaiah too resigned on the same day owning moral responsibility for the loss, but the party has decided to continue with him as the assembly opposition leader, while looking for a replacement for Gundurao. 

The high command sent senior central leaders  Madhusudhan Mistry and Bhakta Charan Das on December 20 to sort out the issue of KPCC president. Though they met the state leaders and held high-level meetings in Delhi, they could not decide on a candidate. Meanwhile, the central leadership has asked Gundurao to continue in the post, till a replacement is found.

‘Congress will protest against scrapping reservation’

Bengaluru: “RSS-BJP is against reservation and have been trying to scrap it for sometime now,’’ said senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday. He stated that the Congress would take up the issue for a determined agitation both inside and outside the parliament. He said they must file a petition against this. His reaction comes after the SC recently took a decision where the top court had maintained that reservation in promotions was not a fundamental right.