Wearing saffron turban Owaisi campaigns for BJP’s potential ally in Karnataka

Bengaluru, Feb 4: The possibility of defeated MLA CP Yogeshwar being inducted into chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s cabinet is causing ripples within the ruling BJP, with many legislators, especially from Kalyana-Karnataka region, raising a banner of revolt.

Several MLAs led by Surapur legislator Narasimha Nayak, also known as Raju Gouda, held a meeting at the Legislators Home on Monday and voiced their opposition.

"When there are more than two dozen MLAs aspiring for a cabinet berth, making a former MLA a minister is beyond logic," Gouda said. "We will convey our feelings to Yediyurappa and state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel." Murugesh Nirani, Paranna Munavalli, Rajkumar Patil, Dattatreya Patil Revoor, Basavaraj Mattimud are among others who attended the meeting. MP Renukacharya, political secretary to the CM and Honnali MLA, was also present at the meeting. "Some more MLAs will join us when we meet again tomorrow," Gouda said.

The MLAs highlighted the issue of caste and regional imbalance in the council of ministers to further their cause. With four from Bengaluru and three from Belagavi district set to take oath on February 6, the share of MLAs from these districts in the cabinet will rise to seven and five respectively. Currently, 16 districts have no representation.

Sources say Yediyurappa and BJP’s national leadership decided to reward Yogeshwar with a cabinet berth for his "active" role in getting 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs to resign and join the BJP, enabling the party to grab power. The party also believes he has the potential to become the Vokkaliga face of the BJP in the Old Mysuru region, where the party’s organisation is weak.

If Yogeshwar is inducted, he will be the second former MLA to make it to Yediyurappa cabinet after deputy CM Laxman Savadi, who lost the 2018 assembly polls. Several party MLAs were unhappy with Savadi’s elevation and are now upping the ante against the party leadership.

"Let Yogeshwar be made Rajya Sabha or council member. We have no problem. But making him minister is not acceptable. If they want to make defeated MLAs ministers, then why not AH Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj, whose sacrifices brought BJP to power?" said Gouda.

Reports say Yediyurappa has promised Vishwanath and Nagaraj, the disqualified MLAs who lost the bypolls, that they would be made ministers in June. Both met Yediyurappa and secured this assurance. The two were demanding that they be inducted into the cabinet on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Vijayapura MLA Basavanagouda Patil Yatnal urged the CM to evaluate the performance of existing ministers and drop those found non-performing. "Many ministers don’t even come to the Vidhana Soudha. What is the use of having such ministers?" he asked.

Yediyurappa also continued to face pressure to induct Athani MLA Mahesh Kumatalli into the cabinet. The Jarkiholi brothers, Ramesh and Balachandra met Yediyurappa separately on Monday with a request to make Kumatalli, their confidant, a minister.

Bengaluru, Mar 19: Karnataka High Court on Wednesday rejected the plea by Congress leader Digvijay Singh seeking directions to the police to allow him to meet rebel Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are lodged in Bengaluru.

Earlier in the day, Singh said at a press conference, "I have filed a plea in the Karnataka High Court, seeking permission to meet Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are putting up at Bengaluru. I have decided to be on fast and shall take a call on that after the decision of the Supreme Court and the High Court," Singh said at a press conference here earlier.

Singh said, "The BJP is busy in toppling duly-elected governments. We had successfully thwarted their plans to destabilise the MP government but we were let down by Jyotiraditya Scindia who had a very successful career in Congress."

"We never expected that he would ditch us and join hands with the BJP," he added.

The Congress leader also said that the BJP government had become insecure since the Kamal Nath-led government started tightening the laws on mining.

"Chief Minister Kamal Nath drafted a new mining policy for the sand under which the mines were allotted through auction. All this was unpalatable to the BJP and from Day 1 they started offering money to our Congress legislators," he said.

"In BJP, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee's kind of leadership no longer exists. The leadership which controls the BJP now includes people who have joined hands to do all kinds of unscrupulous things which has led to a stage in India where the banks are collapsing, non-performing assets and unemployment are growing," he added.

Earlier today, he was put under preventive arrest after he sat on a dharna near Ramada Hotel here allegedly for not being allowed to meet the 21 rebel Congress MLAs lodged in the hotel.

Bengaluru, May 13: 26 new covid-19 cases have been reported in Karnataka taking the total cases to 951. This includes 32 COVID deaths, one non-COVID death and 442 discharges.

The new cases include eleven cases from Bidar - all of whom are from the containment zone - , four from Hassan, two each from Davangere, Kalaburgi, Vijayapura and Uttara Kannada and one each from Bengaluru Urban, Ballari and Dakshina Kannada.

All the cases reported in Hassan and Vijayapura are with a travel history to Mumbai. In Bengaluru Urban, a nurse from a designated COVID hospital who was under quarantine has tested positive.

32nd death

The latest death reported was that of a 60-year-old man in Kalaburgi district. The deceased man from a containment zone was brought dead on May 11 to a designated hospital in Kalaburagi, and he has tested positive for COVID-19, it said.