Dakshina Kannada: Know your MP candidates
All you need to know about three candidates of Cong, BJP and SDPI from DK
As many as 13 candidates including sitting BJP MP Nalin Kumar Kateel are in the fray to contest the Lok Sabha Election from the Dakshina Kannada Constituency. With the last day of withdrawing nominations long gone now, these candidates have been approved and are certain to take on one another in the April 18, polling day.
One of the 14 candidates who filed nominations decided to withdraw his nomination, leave the 13 in the fray.
BJP retained the incumbent MP Nalin Kumar Kateel for Dakshina Kannada while Congress selected a new, fresh face against its rival and gave the seat to youth leader Mithun Rai. Meanwhile Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) also has strongly fielded its state president from the constituency and has projected itself as the ‘alternate’ to the BJP and Congress.
It is important for the voters to know the candidates in the fray and who they will be voting for to represent them in the parliament for next five years.
Vartha Bharati brings you the details and information of the three leading candidates of major political parties BJP, Congress and SDPI who are expected to have most voters’ attention on the polling day.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP (Lotus): The two times BJP MP from the Dakshina Kannada Constituency was retained by the BJP high command going into the Lok Sabha Election. Kateel filed his nomination papers on Friday March, 29 which was also the last day for filing nomination.
According to the affidavit attached to the nomination papers of Kateel, the highest educational qualification of the BJP candidate is SSLC that he completed in 1983 from St. Philomina High School Puttur.
The 52-year old leader has 4 criminal cases pending against him but has not been convicted in any as yet.
He hold movable assets worth 6,55,251.80 Rs. while his wife has movable assets worth 30,42,048.36 Rs. Two daughters of the MP have 84,000/- Rs. each in their bank accounts.
The MP also has a 1/4th share in a land which is currently valued at 80,52,000/- making his the shareholder of 20,13,000/-.
Apart from the assets Kateel also has liabilities worth 4,43,241.60 in the form of home loan he availed from a bank.
Mithun M Rai, Congress (Hand): The Congress high command opted for a young, new face to contest against the incumbent BJP MP from the constituency and selected District Youth Congress President Mithun Rai as its candidate for the forthcoming election.
Mithun is a graduate in Business Management from SDM BBM College of the city and belong to 2007-08 academic batch of the college.
The 34-year old leader has 1 criminal case pending against him but has not been convicted in any as yet.
He holds movable assets worth Rs. 34, 07,720/- while his spouse has movable assets worth Rs. 42, 27,137.50.
He also owns immovable assets worth Rs. 1, 02,69,133/-.
Mithun also has liabilities worth Rs 1, 48,04,098/- in form of loans availed from banks and other financial institutions.
Mohammed Ilyas Thumbay: Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) during the party’s district convention announced that its state president Mohammed Ilyas Thumbay will contest the election from the constituency and has since then been working day in and day out to gather support from the voters. The party has pitched itself as the alternate to the two political giants Congress and BJP and has been seeking votes with the agenda.
Ilyas’ highest educational qualification is PUC from St. Aloysius College Mangaluru which he completed in the academic year 1983-84.
Ilyas has no pending criminal case or any criminal record against him.
He has movable assets worth Rs. 3,45,047 while his spouse hold movable assets worth 1,36,593/- Rs. His two sons have movable assets worth 10,000/- Rs.
According to Ilyas’ affidavit he doesn’t possess any immovable property or assets nor any of his family members do.
There are no liabilities on Ilyas Thumbay.
Apart from these three, 10 other candidates including 7 independent candidates will contest the election from Dakshina Kannada constituency. The list also includes one candidate each from BSP, Uttama Prajaakaya Party and Hindustan Janata Party.
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Malian defence minister killed in attack that saw jihadis and rebels seize towns, military bases
Dakar (AP): Malian Minister of Defence Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in an attack as jihadi and rebel forces seized towns and military bases across the country, according to a military officer and two other sources on Sunday.
There was no immediate comment from the Malian government.
“Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defence, Gen. Sadio Camara, has been killed during the attack which targeted his house yesterday,” said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media.
Two other people, a civil society leader and a security member, confirmed the information.
Separatist fighters on Saturday joined Islamic militants in launching one of the biggest coordinated attacks on the Malian army in the capital and several other cities that left at least 16 wounded.
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaida and Islamic State group-aligned militants have been fighting the government for over a decade.
Malian troops and Russian mercenaries withdrew from the northern city of Kidal after the attacks, the rebels said Sunday.
A spokesperson for the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, a separatist group, said the Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian military withdrew from the city after an agreement was reached for their peaceful exit.
“Kidal is declared free,” said FLA spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadan.
The Malian army did not respond to requests for comment but in an earlier statement said they were “tracking down terrorist armed groups in Kidal.”
The separatists have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali. Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.
It was the first time the separatists worked alongside the al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM, which also claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks on Bamako's international airport and four other cities, including Kidal, in central and northern Mali.
“This operation is being carried out in partnership with the JNIM, which is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako,” Ramadan said.
Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said that the coordination between the two groups, as well as the explicit call for the Russian military to leave, is new.
“The coordination, conducting attacks all over the country at the same time, real coordination on the military level but also on the political level because both claims of both groups they acknowledged that they worked together, this is a first,” said Nasr.
Mali government spokesperson Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on state television late Saturday that 16 people were wounded, including civilians and military personnel, and that several militants were killed. He did not provide a death toll.
The governor of Bamako's district, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, announced a three-day overnight curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The Economic Community of West African States has condemned the attacks and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat this scourge.”
The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta in Bamako, whose actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”
Following military coups, the juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help in combating Islamic militants. But the security situation has worsened in recent times, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako's airport and a military training camp in the capital, killing scores of people.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said that while the attacks were a major blow to the credibility of Mali's Russian partners, JNIM is unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near term due to opposition from the local population.
“The attacks are a major blow to Russia as the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to protect major cities. They have unnecessarily worsened the conflict by not distinguishing between civilians and combatants,” Laessing said.
