BJP opens maiden account in Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya
Bengaluru, Dec 9: The ruling BJP in Karnataka on Monday scripted history by recording its first ever win in the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya district.
It was also a dream come true for Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.
The Amit Shah-led party also opened its account in Chikkaballapura and Gokak assembly segments in the December five bypolls, the results of which were declared on Monday.
BJP candidate Narayana Gowda defeated B L Devaraj of JDS by over 9,700 votes in K R Pete of Mandya district, that has been dominated by Congress and JD(S) for decades, and BJP had no presence.
Gowda is one among the three disqualified JD(S) legislators who the BJP had fielded as its candidate in the bypolls.
Taking special interest in ensuring BJP's victory in K R Pete under which his birth place Bookanakere comes, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had deputed his son B Y Vijayendra to oversee the election-related activities in the constituency.
"It gives me an immense pleasure that Narayana Gowda has won from KR Pete.
It is the same place where my village Bookanakere is located and where I was born, but we had never won the election.I congratulate him," Yediyurappa told reporters here.
Celebrating Gowda's victory, BJP state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel said, "In certain regions such as KR Pete and Chikkaballapura, BJP had never won the election.
Mandya had been the JD(S) citadel, but today he (Narayana Gowda) has brought us victory from there".
In the 2018 Assembly elections, the JD(S) had won all the eight assembly segments in Mandya district with a substantial population of the dominant Vokkaliga community.
Despite losing Mandya Lok Sabha seat in the bypolls in November 2018, BJP had made significant inroads in the district for the first time, with party candidate Siddaramaiah, a political greenhorn and former civil servant securing 2,44,404 votes, its best performance there.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP supported independent candidate actor-turned politician Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandaya by not fielding its candidate, who eventually defeated Congress-JD(S) joint candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the son of then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
With K Sudhakar's victory from Chikkaballapura, BJP has opened its account in the constituency.
Sudhakar, a two-time Congress MLA from the constituency, won the bypolls on a BJP ticket against M Anjanappa of Congress by a margin of 34,801 votes.
In Gokak, that saw a battle between the Jarkiholi brothers, Ramesh Jarkiholi of BJP by defeating his brother Lakhan from Congress by a margin of 29,006 votes, has ensured the first ever victory for the saffron party there.
Ramesh, who had represented Gokak five times in the assembly on a Congress ticket, this time contested as a BJP candidate
Both Sudhakar and Ramesh are among 13 disqualified legislators whom the BJP had fielded as its candidates in the bypolls.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
