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Bengaluru, Jun 10: Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said on Tuesday that he filed his nomination for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka in response to a collective call from national leaders to be back in the Parliament.

"Though I was not personally interested to contest, national leaders from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, TMC and Left parties want me back in Parliament," he told reporters here.

Gowda, 87, filed his nomination in the Vidhana Soudha, submitting the papers to Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer M.K. Vishalakshi, a party official told IANS.

Gowda''s second son and former minister H.D. Revanna and third son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were present on the occasion.

"Our party''s all 34 legislators also urged me to contest as my presence is necessary in Parliament at a time when the country was grappling with multiple crises in the aftermath of coronavirus," said Gowda.

Claiming that there was no pressure from his two sons as they are more concerned with his health, Gowda said he was touched by the requests of the national leaders, especially Gandhi who personally called him and asked him to contest as the country needed his presence in Parliament.

Gowda agreed to contest in the bypoll as his party''s candidate after the Congress state unit assured him of its support with its surplus votes, as the JD-S with 34 legislators is short of 10 votes of the required 44 votes.

It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha, 24 years after he was its member as the Prime Minster from June 1996 to April 1997 of the United Front government.

"Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal informed Kumaraswamy on June 6 that the party was fielding only its senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka and had surplus votes to ensure my victory as our party is 10 votes short of the required 44 votes to win," Gowda said.

Kharge filed his nomination on Monday.

Party''s outgoing member Kupendra Reddy, whose 6-year term ends on June 25, told Gowda that he was not interested for a second term as he did not get enough time in the upper house to raise issues.

"As our party does not have numbers in Parliament to get more time allotted to raise issues and participate in debates, Reddy wanted me to be in the Rajya Sabha in his place so that I could serve the nation better," Gowda said.

Gowda lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to G.S. Basvaraj of the BJP.

With the term of the four members -- Congress'' B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda, BJP''s Prabhakar Kore and JD-S''s Reddy ending on June 25, the Election Commission notified the poll on June 1.

According to the poll panel, the nominations will be scrutinised on Wednesday and last date for withdrawal by candidates is June 12. Polling and vote count is on June 19.

From the ruling BJP, its grassroot cadres Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti filed their nominations after Gowda.

By fielding Gowda for the fourth seat, the Congress and JD-S, who had post-poll and pre-poll alliances for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in May 2019 and May 2018, queered the pitch for the BJP, denying it the chance to win a third seat.

Bengaluru, Jul 10: Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu on Thursday said that the government is planning to increase number of COVID-19 testing labs and technicians in the state.

Speaking to news agency, Sriramulu said, "We have 72 labs where COVID-19 tests are conducted. They are under pressure with increased number of tests. When lab technicians are quarantined, it gets difficult to complete work. So we are considering to increase number of labs and technicians."

Speaking on the community transmission of COVID-19 in Bengaluru, he said, "The experts are already deliberating over the issue of community transmission. According to me the community spread has not taken place yet."

Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Madhu Swamy said that the government is calling for foreign investment for which Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been hired by the state government.

Speaking to the reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Swamy said, "We call for foreign investment in Karnataka for which we need an agency who has to coordinate, who has to bring outsiders in Karnataka to invest in the state. For that we have hired a company by name Boston consulting Group(BCG) we will be paying them Rs 1 crore for twelve months."

Bengaluru, Mar 29: The State government launched a mobile application for people to track the movement history of patients, who tested positive, before their detection so that they can take precautions. The app will give the date and time of visit to spots by the patients.

The mobile app “Corona Watch” can be downloaded from Google Playstore https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ksrsac.drawshapefile

“The app also has a list of government designated first response hospitals for COVID-19 where citizen with symptoms can go. However, before going to a COVID hospital, people should call helplines — 104, 080-46848600 or 080-66692000,” said a message by Munish Moudgil, secretary, Administrative Reforms, who is also in-charge of the State COVID war room.