SC upholds disqualification of Karnataka MLAs, allows them to contest by-polls

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November 13, 2019

New Delhi, Nov 13: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the decision of the then Karnataka speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to disqualify 17 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law and said that they can contest the upcoming by-elections in the state.

"We are upholding the order of the Speaker," said Justice Ramana while reading out the judgment.

The top court said that resignation does not take away the power of disqualification by the speaker.

"Since we are deciding disqualification, resignation is not needed to be gone into. As such there is no doubt that disqualification has nothing to do with resignation," the court said.

The rebel legislators were disqualified by the then speaker K R Ramesh Kumar in July under the anti-defection law after they tendered their resignation.

They were also barred from contesting polls for the duration of the current assembly, which is slated to end in 2023.

The move had led to fall of the Congress-JD (S) coalition government, paving way for BJP to stake claim to form a new government in the state.

The disgruntled MLAs then moved the apex court challenging their disqualification. They sought quashing of the order passed by the speaker and prohibition imposed on them to contest elections. The matter was reserved by the court on October 25.

The elections for 15 out of 17 seats are slated to be held on December 5. They were earlier scheduled to be conducted on October 21 but were deferred by the Election Commission (EC) as the petitions of disqualified MLAs were pending in the top court.

The poll body had withheld the elections for two seats -- Maski and Rajarajeshwari -- as the petitions against these Assembly constituencies are pending in the Karnataka High Court.

After their disqualification, the strength of the 224-member Assembly had come down to 207. This had brought down the majority mark to 104. The BJP, which helms the government in the state, has 106 MLAs in the Assembly.

With the by-poll elections, the majority mark will climb to 222 and the BJP will have to win a minimum of six out of fifteen seats to keep its majority.

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Congress will return to power in Karnataka: says DK Shivakumar

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March 21,2020

Bengaluru , Mar 21: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar exuded confidence that the party will return to power in the state and praised former chief minister Siddaramaiah's term.

"I am confident that we will come back to power. Everyone in the past has worked their best to build the party. Siddaramaiah being a full-term chief minister gave the best programs to Karnataka, his government's programs were the best of all time," Shivakumar said at a press conference on Friday.

He further assured his full support to anyone who wanted to work for the betterment of the party.

"Though I have become the state president of the party but I am still the worker of Congress and each of us should work for the party as ground workers. I am ready to give any kind of support to those who want to work for the party. We need to take all caste, communities along for the betterment of the party," he said.

Shivakumar was appointed the state Congress President on March 11, while Eshwar Khandre, Satish Jarkiholi, and Saleem Ahmed have been appointed working presidents of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

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First Tell your all MP & MLA s that if they wish to join BJP better join from now later after getting elected from the congress they betray the voter, such hiddnen sangis from congress to be kicked out.

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Airport bomb: Accused Aditya Rao to be handed over to Mangaluru police

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January 22,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 22: The Bengaluru Police on Wednesday said that the procedure is being followed to hand-over to the Mangaluru Police a suspect who surrendered before it two days after planting an improvised explosive device (IED) at the Mangaluru International Airport.

"He [the suspect] surrendered before police claiming to be responsible for the Mangaluru airport incident. He is being medically examined and we are preparing procedure to hand him over to the Mangaluru team which is already on their way," Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Chetan Singh Rathore told the media persons.

Aditya Rao surrendered before Bengaluru Police today, days after a bag of IED was recovered from Mangaluru airport. He hails from Udupi and has engineering and MBA degrees.

An investigation team of Mangaluru police is flying to Bengaluru to question him. "Mangaluru city police investigation team is flying to Bengaluru shortly to investigate the developments in connection with MIA case..the team will question the suspect and will initiate further necessary legal action," Commissioner of Police, Mangaluru City, tweeted.

According to the police, the IED was recovered from a bag at Mangaluru airport on January 20. It was later defused in an open field by the personnel of the bomb disposal squad.

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Soon he should be rewarded a seat MLA or MLC.

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Karnataka's COVID-19 survivor 'doing perfectly well now'

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March 31,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Venkara Raghava, a software engineer from Bengaluru, who was infected with the coronavirus has recovered and is currently "doing perfectly well".

"I am doing perfectly well now. I had travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow airport and that is when I came in contact with many travellers. I might have picked up the infection there," Raghava told news agency.

It was in Los Angeles when he started getting a 'low-grade fever' which led him to prepone his flight to Bengaluru. "When I landed back in Bengaluru on March 8, I had a fever and I isolated myself. The same day I went to a hospital where my travel history was taken and I tested positive for COVID-19", he said.

The next day, he was admitted to the isolation centre. His entire family was also tested but the results came back negative.

When asked about what does suffering from COVID-19 feel like, he responded that it was a like a regular viral fever and was "nothing to be scared of". "The fever is very grinding, and since my childhood, I never had a fever. I had a fever for almost 15 days consistently 100 degrees (F)," he said.

About his experience at the isolation centre, he said that it was an experience unlike that of a hospital. "At the isolation centre, one has to take care of themselves, unlike a hospital where doctors and nurses take care of the patient. I had to put a wet cloth on myself and you cannot overdose yourself with Calpol or Paracetamol," he said.

For him, "The tough times are now over" and now he has fully recovered but in the process, he ended up losing about five kilograms. "After the fifteenth day when I woke up with no fever, they took a test for the nose and the throat and it came back negative," he recalled, and on March 22, he was set free.

For one week, he has been in self-quarantine at home "being completely watchful" that the symptoms do not reoccur.

The number of total coronavirus cases reached 1,251 on Monday. There are 1117 active cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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