Group within Cong conspiring to defeat Siddaramaiah, he will lose poll from Varuna: BJP state chief
Mangaluru (PTI): Expressing confidence that the BJP would achieve a clear majority in the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections, party state president and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on Monday said former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would be defeated in the Varuna constituency, as a group within the Congress was conspiring against its senior leader.
"A group within the Congress is conspiring to defeat Siddaramaiah from the Varuna assembly constituency," he alleged at a press conference here.
Kateel also alleged that a similar group had worked against Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in Kalaburagi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Stating that the BJP would win the elections with a clear majority, he said the party's expected tally would increase following the tour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
He said the BJP had started preparations for the elections some 18 months ago. The party had made its booth-level units strong quite early to face the elections and reached the people on the basis of the achievements of the government, he said.
Kateel said he had visited all 224 constituencies in the state. Even the Mysuru region, which was the stronghold of JD(S) would support the BJP this time, he claimed.
He said the party had given tickets to ordinary workers and all the communities in the coastal districts were in favour of the BJP. The party would be victorious in all the eight constituencies in Dakshina Kannada district, he said.
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Dazzling Rohit Sharma hits 155 as Mumbai decimate Sikkim by 8 wickets
Jaipur (PTI): Rohit Sharma made a mockery of an inexperienced Sikkim bowing attack with a 94-ball-155 on his return to List A cricket, as Mumbai cruised to an eight-wicket victory in their opening Group C match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday.
A near capacity crowd of 20,000-odd fans celebrated the Christmas eve witnessing the 'HitMan' carnage, which included 18 fours and nine sixes with Mumbai chasing down a target of 237 in just 30.3 overs.
Truth be told, there was not much to write home about Sikkim's bowling unit with Palzor Tamang, Kranthi Kumar, Gurinder Singh and Ankur Malik looking overawed or clueless from the moment Rohit took guard.
It started with a trademark pull-shot over mid-wicket off Kranthi for a boundary, followed by a swivel pull shot off his hips.
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The pacers lacked sting and twice, seamer Palzor's 125 kmph deliveries were swept fine behind the square for sixes.
Rohit played a few late cuts against the spinners using the pace of their deliveries. He was dropped twice but Rohit remained undeterred and always found a way to bisect the gaps at time and over of his choice.
Rohit also hit some delectable straight shots leaving the Sikkim bowlers in complete awe.
"It is the best day of our lives as we shared the pitch with such a great cricketer. He respected the good balls and punished the poor deliveries. At times he would speak to himself and say, "Yeh achha delivery thaa. Yeh shot mujhe waaha nahi yehaan marna chhiye thaa (This was a good shot. I should not have played this shot in that area)," Sikkim skipper Le Yong Lepcha told PTI.
Rohit had two partnership, one that yielded 141 runs for the opening stand with Angkrish Raghuvansi (38 of 56 balls) and another 75 with debutant Musheer Khan (27).
Abhishek contributes 48 in Punjab's win
Skipper Abhishek Sharma contributed 48 off 45 balls but it was Naman Dhir who stole the show with a fine 97 off 78 balls as Punjab beat Maharashtra by 51 runs in another group league game.
Punjab scored 347 for six largely due to contribution from Dhir along with Singh cousins -- Anmolpreet (85 off 78 balls) and Prabhsimran (60 off 77 balls).
In reply, Maharashtra managed 296 for 8 with skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) enduring a rare failure.
Brief Scores
Sikkim 236/7 in 50 overs (Ashish Thapa 79, Shardul Thakur 2/19).
Mumbai 237/2 in 30.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 155).
Mumbai won by 8 wickets.
Punjab 347/6 in 50 overs (Naman Dhir 97, Anmolpreet Singh 85, Prabhsimran Singh 60).
Maharashtra 296/8 in 50 overs (Prithvi Shaw 47, Ramakrishna Ghosh 73, SS Bajwa 2/36).
Punjab won by 51 runs.
Chattisgarh 233 in 48.5 (Amandeep Khare 76, Deepraj Gaonkar 4/35).
Goa 234/4 in 44.1 overs (Snehal Kauthankar 107 no, Lalit Yadav 43).
Goa won by 6 wickets.
Himachal Pradesh 259 in 47.3 overs (Innesh Mahajan 60, DS Bora 4/44).
Uttarakhand 164 in 40.3 overs (Aanjaneya Suryavanshi 55, J Sucheeth 51, Akash Vashist 3/30).
Himachal Pradesh won by 95 runs.
