Mysuru: Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Party member BS Yediyurappa told reporters here that the party's alliance with JD(S) would continue in Karnataka post-Lok Sabha election, adding that the parties would fight the elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council together.

Speaking to the media representatives in Mysuru on Saturday, Yediyurappa said that the BJP-JD(S) alliance would fight from six constituencies, and the BJP would contest for four seats while the JD(S) would field their candidates in two seats. He, however, admitted that seat sharing had to be discussed further, to decide on the constituencies for the BJP and those for the JD(S) to fight from.

Yediyurappa added that the decision taken between the parties on the choice of constituencies would be made public by BJP National President JP Nadda on Saturday night.

The veteran expressed confidence on the BJP winning more than 400 seats in the present Lok Sabha elections and Prime Minister Narendra Modi retaining the seat. He said that, in Karnataka, the party would win in at least 25 constituencies. Yediyurappa said that the BJP was not bothered by the statements of the Congress, which did not even have a worthy PM candidate.

Asked to comment on the recent Hassan controversy, he opined that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for transparency in the probe.

Yediyurappa, however, refused to comment on rebel BJP member KS Eshwarappa, who contested against Yediyurappa's son BY Raghavendra from Shimoga as an Independent candidate, but expressed confidence that Raghavendra would win with a 2.5 lakh margin.

When asked about the drought in Karnataka, the former CM admitted that the people were struggling due to the intensity of drought and said that the state government should waive the loans of the farmers to support them.

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New Delhi, Nov 28: Airlines received 999 hoax bomb threats this year till November 14 and as many as 256 FIRs have been filed while guidelines have been issued by aviation security regulator BCAS for objective assessment of threats, the government said on Thursday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said a total of 1,148 hoax bomb threat messages/calls have been received since August 2022 till November 14, 2024 threatening the operations of international and domestic air travel.

While 999 threats were received by airlines during the period from January to November 14, 2024, the count stood at 122 last year and at 27 for the August-December 2022 period.

"256 FIRs have been filed since January 2024 till 14 November 2024, out of which 163 FIRs have been filed during 14 October- 14 November 2024. 12 arrests have been made in view of hoax bomb threat since January 2024 till 14 November 2024," the minister said.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued guidelines for objective assessment of threats. The indicative factor has been useful in reducing time taken by the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee (BTAC) during the decision-making process.

"Also, to reduce the overall time taken for convening BTAC to less than 5 minutes, virtual assembly of BTAC through pre-generated video link has been set up. Further, advisories for compulsory 10 per cent of secondary ladder point check-in for all flights, strict monitoring of non-scheduled flight operations, enhanced security measures and surveillance at cargo terminals were issued," Mohol said.

Further, the minister said the government is considering amending the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023 to put hoax threat messenger in the no-fly list.

"It is also being considered to amend Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation for covering Aircraft in flight as well as on ground, airport etc," he added.