3 new entrants from Cong given BJP tickets in first list in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Mar 21: Recent entrant and Congress rebel lawmaker Umesh Jadhav will take on Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from Gulbarga as the BJP announced its list of 21 candidates for the two-phased Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Two other new entrants from the Congress A Manju, a former MLA, and his party colleague Devendrappa, both of whom joined the BJP recently, have been rewarded with tickets to contest from Hassan and Bellary, respectively.
Fourteen of the 21 candidates announced are sitting members.
The names of the candidates for Karnataka were part of the first list of 184 nominees for Lok Sabha polls announced by senior BJP leader J P Nadda in Delhi Thursday evening.
The state has 28 Lok Sabha seats, of which the BJP had bagged 17, Congress 9 and JDS 2 in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP had yielded Ballari seat to Congress in the November bypolls.
Jadhav, a former Minister, joined the BJP at a party rally in Kalaburagi on March 6, two days after he quit the Karnataka Assembly membership, at a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Jadhav, who was sulking after being dropped as minister, had on March 4 submitted his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Ramesh Kumar.
However, Jadhav's resignation as MLA has not yet been accepted by the Speaker, who is also yet to decide on the disqualification petitions filed by the Congress, against him.
Manju, joined BJP on Sunday, unhappy with Congress' decision to cede Hassan seat to its coalition partner JD(S).
He is likely to fight against former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna. Gowda is the sitting MP from Hassan.
Manju was earlier with BJP before joining the Congress and becoming Minister in the previous Siddaramaiah led government and again returning back to the saffron party.
Union Ministers D V Sadananda Gowda from Bangalore North, Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur and Ananth Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada, as also B Y Raghavendra, son of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa from Shimoga, have been renominated.
Other candidates whose names have been announced by the party are, Suresh Angadi (Belgaum), P C Gaddigoudar (Bagalkot), Bhagawanth Kuba (Bidar), Shivkumar Udasi (Haveri), Prahlad Joshi (Dharwad) and Siddeshwara (Davangere);
Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi-Chikmagalur), Nalin Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada), Narayana Swamy (Chitradurga), Basavaraju (Tumkur);
Prathap Simha (Mysore), Srinivasa Prasad (Chamarajanagar), PC Mohan (Bangalore central) and Bachche Gowda (Chikkaballapur).
BJP is the first to announce its list of candidates, while the Congress and JD(S) are yet to finalise their list with confusion still prevailing over some constituencies following opposition at the grassroot level over conceding the seats.
Congress workers in Mandya, Tumkur and Hassan are miffed with the party for conceding the seats to JDS.
The Congress and JD(S) that have decided to fight the polls in alliance will contest for 20 and 8 seats, respectively.
Karnataka will go to the polls in two phases, 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23.
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2 detained after comment over wedding procession to Dalit house sparks clash in UP's Shahjahanpur
Shahjahanpur (UP) (PTI): Two persons have been detained after a clash broke out allegedly over remarks targeting a Dalit family's wedding procession in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district, police said on Saturday.
The incident occurred in Lai Kheda village under Tilhar police station area, where a wedding procession from Bareilly had arrived at a Dalit household on April 20.
According to SP Saurabh Dixit, when the procession was near the house of Rajpal Yadav, he allegedly made a remark saying "Now, Dalits will also take out wedding processions riding a buggy", leading to an argument. Yadav's side allegedly turned aggressive, escalating the conflict further.
Police said a scuffle ensued between the two sides. Upon receiving information, police personnel reached the spot and ensured that the procession was conducted peacefully after the incident.
An FIR was registered on Friday against Rajpal Yadav, Sumit, Amit, Surendra, Avdhesh Yadav and five unidentified persons based on a complaint. Rajpal Yadav and his son Sumit have been taken into custody and are being questioned, Dixit said.
The case has been registered under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, police said.
Dixit said preliminary findings suggest that Yadav, too, was hosting a function and processions from both sides had arrived around the same time. A dispute may have initially arisen due to a narrow passage and attempts to move the processions quickly.
Police have registered the case under relevant sections of the BNS and initiated further probe, officials said.
