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Bengaluru, Jan 30: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who reached the national capital on Thursday, said he will discuss the much-awaited Ministry expansion with the BJP high command.

"It's been long that I visited Delhi. I will meet the party national president J P Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah and take their suggestions on the cabinet expansion," Yediyurappa told reporters.

The chief minister said he will also call on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and discuss about development issues related to Karnataka.

Yediyurappa has been anxiously waiting for the high command's nod to expand his ministry amid intense lobbying by the aspirants.

Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in cabinet expansion, alleging that he was weak and that the administration had collapsed.

As the chief minister has already made it clear that 11 of the disqualified JDS-Congress MLAs who got re-elected in the bypolls on BJP tickets will be made ministers, lobbying has been on in the party for the remaining ministerial berths.

Currently, there are 18 Ministers, including the chief minister in the cabinet that has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant.

Bengaluru, Jun 29: The results of second pre-university and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination results will be out by July last week and August first week, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said on Monday.

Instead of giving general promotion to the 10th and 12th standard students as the Central Board of Secondary Education and other states have done, the Karnataka government decided to hold the examination defying the coronavirus scare.

"We are trying to get the SSLC results out by the first week of August.The PUC results will be out in the last week of July," the minister told reporters in Bengaluru.

Amid reports of schools increasing the school fees ignoring the government's direction, the minister said he has got reports that 1,150 schools have increased their fees of which action has been taken against 450 schools.

"We have directed all the schools not to increase the fees in view of the coronavirus scare.

It is a peculiar year.Humanity says no one should increase fees.

We have set up a helpline. If we come across such practices, we will initiate action," Kumar said.

He said an officer has been entrusted to look into the complaints against schools.

Speaking about online classes for kindergarten students, the minister said such classes are not allowed.

The schools can hold talks with parents twice a week about grooming their children.

Kumar said a decision on opening kindergarten schools will be taken after July 5.

He, however, conceded that most parents are unwilling to send their children to school.

The government is gathering the opinion of parents based on which a decision would be taken, he added.

Regarding education to students from Class one to Class 10, Kumar said the Centre has given guidelines, which will be followed.

The state has formed an expert committee to recommend guidelines on education to children from Class I to Class six.

"Once the committee report comes, we will formulate regulations," Kumar added.

New Delhi, Jun 9: Elections to seven seats of the Karnataka Legislative Council will be held on June 29, the poll panel announced on Tuesday.

The seven seats are falling vacant on June 30, according to an Election Commission statement.

Members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly will vote on June 29 to elect the seven new MLCs.

The Commission has directed the Karnataka chief secretary to depute a senior officer to ensure that the  instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with during the elections.

The counting of votes will be held on the evening of June 29 after completion of polls, as per practice.

The notification for the elections will be issued on June 11, the statement said.

MLCs are usually elected by four types of electors -- MLAs, Graduates, Teachers and members of local authorities.

On Monday, the Commission had deferred elections to four seats of the Karnataka Legislative Council -- two each from Teachers and Graduate constituencies -- falling vacant on June 30 due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

"If MLAs are electors, the size of the electorate is small and the assembly building is the only polling station. When the electorate is teachers or graduates, the number of those who can vote is higher.

Due to the virus, Commission only allowed polls to seats where MLAs are the electors to prevent large gatherings," explained a senior EC functionary.