Youth Congress leaders in Dakshina Kannada resign en masse over ticket denial to Mithun Rai

Bengaluru, Jan 20: The suspense over chief minister BS Yediyurappa expanding his council of ministers is set to continue until after he returns from his trip to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Yediyurappa, who heads a 10-member delegation to the Swiss ski resort, left on Sunday. Prior to his departure, he told reporters cabinet expansion will happen only after his return on January 24. “I discussed the issue with [BJP] national president Amit Shah for 30 minutes or so. He has given a positive response and I will expand the cabinet within two days after my return,” Yediyurappa said.

But sources said Shah, during his visit to Hubballi on Saturday, had indicated the exercise is likely to be delayed further as the central leadership will be busy with the assembly elections in Delhi. “Indications are there is no possibility of expanding the cabinet until February 11 when the electoral process for the Delhi elections ends,” said a source.

The development has obviously left ministerial aspirants, especially defectors from Congress and JD(S) who were re-elected on BJP tickets last month, restive. Moreover, while Yediyurappa has promised ministerial berths to all MLAs who switched to the BJP from Congress and JD(S), sources say Shah is only in favour of inducting six defectors (11 of whom won MLA seats on saffron party tickets in the byelections) into the cabinet.

“Shah’s advice to Yediyurappa is to strike a balance between defectors and loyalists. His concern is loyalists should not be left disappointed, while justice should be served to the defectors as well,” said a BJP functionary.

Meanwhile, KS Eshwarappa, senior party functionary and minister for rural development, said the BJP would never let down the defectors. “The party is indebted to them and I am sure they will all be rewarded,” he said.

BC Patil, one of the defectors, said some of them had met Shah in one-on-one meetings in Hubballi. “It was more a courtesy call and the issue of cabinet expansion didn’t come up during the meeting,” he said.

Udupi, Feb 23: Karnataka's minister for Tourism and Culture CT Ravi on Sunday said that India is losing money as because people travel abroad to visit casinos.

Arguing that casinos are being used by countries to promote tourism, he took to Twitter to highlight the issue, saying, "During my interaction with FKCCI, I had mentioned that many countries have promoted Tourism through Casinos. Isn't it a fact that lakhs of Indians go abroad to play in Casinos? Can anyone stop them? At the moment, there is no proposal before Our Govt to set up Casinos here,' he tweeted in the morning.

He also urged the Central government to stop people from visiting abroad.

Yesterday, the minister had stated that he has no intention of developing "casino tourism" in the state.

"I only expressed my opinion on how other countries have promoted tourism, during a discussion. Casino tourism is one such thing, I have no intention of developing it here," Ravi had told media when asked to comment on Karnataka government's proposal of casinos in Coastal Karnataka.

"What I meant was many Indians go and spend there, our money should be spent here itself," he had said.

Udupi, July 23: A 70-year-old woman, who had tested positive for coronavirus, passed away last night in Udupi taking the district’s covid-19 death toll to 12.

The deceased was a resident of Chantharu in Brahmavar. She was an asthma patient. For past few days, she was suffering from cold and fever. 

Her throat swabs were sent for testing and the report came positive last evening. She breathed her last at home even before being shifted to hospital. 

The woman has two daughters and both of them are married. Due to the fear of virus, none of her relatives were ready to touch her body.

Meanwhile, Dr Premananda K of district health department reportedly sought help of the activists of Popular Front of India (PFI). 

Under the supervision of PFI’s medical wing in-charge Muneer Kalmadi, the body was shifted to the district hospital with all necessary precautionary measures.