Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Valmiki were non-vegetarians, reminds Madhwaraj

Bengaluru, Jun 22: Senior Congress leader BK Hariprasad and BJP’s MTB Nagaraj, one of the defectors who helped the saffron party come to power in Karnataka, were unanimously elected to the Legislative Council along with five others on Monday. 

All seven were declared as “duly elected” by Legislative Assembly Secretary MK Vishalakshi, the returning officer for the biennial election to the Legislative Council. 

Hariprasad and Naseer Ahmed of the Congress, Nagaraj, R Shankar, Prathap Simha Nayak and Sunil Vallyapur of the BJP and Govinda Raju of the JD(S) are now MLCs. 

While Ahmed was an incumbent who will get another term, the six others will replace Jayamma, MC Venugopal, NS Bore Raju, HM Revanna and TA Sharavana and DU Mallikarjuna whose term ends June 30. 

While an election was scheduled June 29, it was not necessary as only seven candidates were in the fray for the seven seats on Monday, which was the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The nominations of A Yadavanahalli PC Krishnegowda and Mandikkal Nagaraja were rejected. 

With their rejection as MLCs, Nagaraj and Shankar - who jumped ship to the BJP last year - will now look to become ministers in Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s Cabinet. Both Nagaraj and Shankar were ministers when they resigned and defected from the Congress-JD(S) coalition. While Nagaraj lost the December 2019 bypolls, Shankar did not contest. 

Nagaraj, Shankar and Vallyapure were Yediyurappa’s picks for the Council, whereas Nayak is said to have been backed by BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel. 

There were many aspirants in the Congress for the Council berths, but Hariprasad and Ahmed were picked, given their experience. Hariprasad is widely believed to counter Siddaramaiah, who leads the party in the Assembly. 

Raju of the JD(S) runs a poultry business in Kolar and the choice of a fresh face is seen as the party leadership steering clear of any trouble as there were many asking for the ticket. 

Mumbai, May 30: Former Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim has deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts after being heavily trolled for quoting from the Quran while talking about locust attacks.

"So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood: Signs openly self explained: but they were steeped in arrogance -- a people given to sin. --Qur'an 7:133," Zaira had tweeted.

Soon, she started receiving hateful comments from netizens who interpreted her post as a justification of the locust attacks. They felt that Zaira was suggesting that the incident is God's way of expressing wrath.

Shortly after being deluged with such comments, Zaira Wasim deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts.

However, a section of netizens continue to attack Zaira on her Facebook page, where she put up the same post.

Commenting on the post, a user wrote: "Lady you must have taken into account of those people of JK, Kerala and elsewhere who are also suffering from the virus. Moreover the crops which are damaged by locust had no name as to who will consume them. In this hours of crisis please post something which is positive and reflects your education."

Another user shared: "So according to you, with all due respect every year on the same time period, Allah send locust to India to destroy the crops of poor farmers who are not even involve in the industrial rise, who don't use vehicle to destroy the nature, and Allah send locust only to harm the poor farmers and not the rich one who actually destroy nature."

"So those farmers who lost there fields of crops and will probably go into debt and may also commit suicide, those farmers who feed the nation, who feed you and every one, are sinners?" asked yet another user.

However, there were a few on social media who felt Zaira had done nothing wrong.

"Quoting Quranic Verse is not a crime... Why is every Indian abusing @ZairaWasimmm. She didn't mention any particular nation or religion. I request everyone please stand with #ZairaWasim. She needs our support. #ISupportZairaWasim," goes a tweet.