No role in Mahadayi bandh; will support the cause: CM

Bengaluru, Jun 19: Congress leaders BK Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed filed their nominations as party candidates for Legislative Council elections in Bengaluru and KPCC chief DK Shivakumar said that the two leaders have been given ticket to strengthen the party with their guidance.

"The Legislative Council means the Upper House and the Elders House. We have unanimously agreed to select and send these two senior leaders to discuss the party organization and various issues of the state in Legislative Council. There were plenty of aspirants to enter the Upper House. But it is decided to elect these two leaders and they will contest the election," Shivakumar said.

"We need seniority to guide us... That's the reason we are selecting these leaders... The high command has given these senior leaders the opportunity to discuss with all our leaders about strengthening the party," he added.

The elections are scheduled to be held on June 29.

New Delhi, Jun 4: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, on a plea challenging his election in 2019 from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency as a joint candidate of the Janata Dal Secular and the Congress.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishiksh Roy issued notice to the returned candidate from the high-profile constituency on an appeal challenging the Karnataka High Court's order by which an election petition against his win was dismissed.

In the proceedings held through video-conferencing, the top court issued notice and tagged the appeal filed by G Devarajegowda for hearing with other similar pending plea filed by the BJP candidate on the issue.

Mr Devarajegowda in the plea said that his election petition was dismissed by the High Court on "procedural irregularities". The plea said that Mr Prajwal had resorted to unfair and corrupt practices and his election should be set aside.

It said the High Court did not consider the fact that by dismissing the election petition, it was running a risk of having a representative in parliament who has not got the maximum number of valid votes.

The petitioner, an advocate by profession, sought a declaration of rival BJP candidate, A Manju, as the winner for having secured the maximum number of valid votes.

A separate appeal was earlier filed by Mr Manju against the High Court order and the top court had already issued notice to the retuned candidate on that.

Mr Manju had challenged the 2019 election of Mr Prajwal on the ground that there was allegedly non-disclosure of assets held by him in his election affidavit.

Mr Prajwal was declared winner with 6,76,606 votes. Mr Manju came first runner-up with 5,35,282 votes.

Haveri, Jan 16: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday hinted at inducting 16 MLAs into the Cabinet which was due for expansion despite the fact that it was a difficult task.

Participating in a function of Choudayya Community here, he further said one should understand the difficulty faced to undertake cabinet expansion in the prevailing situation and whoever gives suggestion should understand the circumstances otherwise the statements would lead to confusion among the community and people of the state.

He stated that 'as many as 17 MLAs resigned to make me Chief Minister and now their community people want their leader to become Minister, it is very difficult to satisfy all of them'.