Congress stages 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' against alleged misuse of Karnataka Guv's office
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday said the 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' was organised by the Congress party to protest against the alleged misuse of the office of the Governor.
Shivakumar, who is the Congress Karnataka unit president, said the march is mainly to ensure that Raj Bhavan should not become the office of a political party.
"I want to clarify that we organised 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' not on behalf of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The matter is in the court of law..." the Deputy CM said.
"This 'Raj Bhavan Chalo' is to make sure that the Governor's office should not become an office of a party. We are going there (Raj Bhavan) with a demand to protect the sanctity of this constitutional post," he said.
Shivakumar lamented that there were many pending petitions, seeking permission to prosecute some individuals, with the Governor.
Holding placards, banners, posters and raising slogans condemning Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, the Congress leaders led by Shivakumar took out a march, which saw the participation of several ministers, Congress MLAs and MPs.
Later, they handed over a memorandum to Gehlot.
Earlier, Siddaramaiah, his cabinet colleagues, Congress MLAs and MPs staged a sit-in demonstration near the Gandhi statue on the Vidhana Soudha premises here.
The Congress government is at loggerheads with Gehlot after he granted permission to investigate and prosecute the CM in the alleged Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment scam.
Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi is accused of getting compensatory sites in the Mysuru upmarket against the 'illegal acquisition' of 3 Acres and 16 guntas of her agricultural land in Kesare village in Mysuru by the MUDA.
The Chief Minister has been alleging that the Governor's office was misused to 'destabilise' the Congress government in the state.
Siddaramaiah has also accused Gehlot of discriminating against him while granting permission for prosecution.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on August 16 accorded sanction for prosecution of the CM under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 for the commission of the alleged offences as mentioned in the petitions of three social activists.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
