BJP leads in 23 seats, leaving ruling Cong-JDS alliance way behind in Karnataka
Bengaluru, May 23: BJP in Karnataka is racing ahead of the ruling Congres-JDS coalition by leading in 23 out of total 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, according to the Election Commission trends.
Congress is ahead in three seats and JD(S) in one, with trends available so far indicating that the alliance between the two parties may not have worked.
An Independent candidate is leading in Mandya.
Former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D DeveGowda is trailing in Tumkur against BJP's G S Basavaraj by a margin of 5,026 votes.
Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who has remained unassailable electorally in his several decades-long political career, is also trailing in Gulbarga against former party colleague- Umesh Jadhav of the BJP by 10,299 votes.
Deve Gowda's grandson and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil is trailing against independent candidate- Sumalatha Ambareesh, supported by the BJP, by 1,084 votes in the bitterly fought Mandya constituency.
Gowdas other grandson Prajwal Revanna, son of minister H D Revanna, is leading in Hassan against A Manju of the BJP by a margin of 52,282 votes.
Senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily and K H Muniyappa are trailing against BJP candidates in Chikkaballapur and Kolar by a margin of 31,169 and 51,402 votes respectively.
Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North), Ramesh Jigajinagi (Bijapur) and Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada) are leading over their opponents.
Other BJP candidates who had established initial leads were Bache Gowda (Chikkaballapur), Annasaheb Jolle (Chikkodi), Tejavi Surya (Bangalore South), Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar), A Narayanaswamy (Chitradurga), Nalin Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada), G M Siddeshwar (Davangere) and Prathap Simha (Mysore).
Also leading BJP candidates are Pralhad Joshi in Dharwad, C S Udasi from Haveri, Muniswamy from Kolar, Karadi Snaganna from Koppal, B Y Raghavendra from Shimoga, Gaddigoudar Parvatagouda Chandanagouda from Bagalkot, Suresh Angadi from Belgaum and Devendrappa from Bellary.
Among Congress candidates leading are Rizwan Arshadfrom Bangalore Central, D K Suresh from Bangalore Rural and Dhruvanarayan from Chamarajanagar.
As the favourable trends came out, BJP cadres burst into jubilation chanting of 'BJP Dil Se, Modi Fir Se' and 'Matthomme Modi' (Modi again) in front of the party headquarters here.
The party workers swarmed Jagannath Bhavan, waving party flags, posters, placards and filling the air with pro-BJP slogans.
They burst crackers too as the trends showed the party heading towards a big victory.
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Trump says he called off dispatching envoys to Iran talks
Dubai (PTI): US President Donald Trump said he told his top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to travel to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran, stating on Fox News that "they can call us any time they want”.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won't negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports. Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the US “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Araghchi is expected back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday.
Trump said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries this month. The initial 10-day ceasefire had been due to expire Monday.
The Trump administration is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil.
The move announced Friday is part of the administration's threat to impose secondary sanctions on entities doing business with Iran in an effort to cut off Iran's oil exports, which are a key source of its revenue.
Airlines worldwide have begun cancelling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up prices. Experts have offered information to travelers about what to do if a flight is cancelled.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won't negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports, according to Iranian media.
Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the US “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade”, to allow a new round of negotiations, the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies reported.
The Pakistani premier described the call as a “warm and constructive discussion”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded a one-day trip to Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Saturday after meeting with Pakistani military and government officials.
The trip did not produce a breakthrough in efforts to relaunch negotiations after US President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by his envoys to Islamabad.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will return to Pakistan after his current visit to Oman on his way to visiting Russia.
The report said he was expected to be back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday and would join other members of his delegation who had gone to Tehran for consultations and “instructions on the topics related to the end of the war.”
