Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge suffers first electoral defeat in his career
Bengaluru, May 23: In a huge setback to the Congress, veteran party leader Mallikarjun Karge was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes Thursday.
Popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat), this was the first electoral loss in Kharge's political life spanning several decades.
While Jadhav secured 6,20,192 votes, Kharge got 5,24,740 votes, according to the Election Commission.
Ahead of the polls, Jadhav had quit as Congress MLA and joined the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha election from Gulbarga.
Jadhav was among the four MLAs against whom Congress had moved the Assembly Speaker for disqualification under anti-defection law.
Following Jadhav's resignation as MLA, the congress had petitioned the Speaker not to accept his resignation as disqualification was pending against him.
However, the speaker after hearing both sides accepted his resignation as MLA.
This election was considered as tough one for Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-term Lok Sabha member, as several senior leaders of Congresslike BaburaoChinchansur, Malka Reddy and Malikayya Guttedar, from the region quit the party and joined BJP.
These leaders along with Jadhav, who had quit theCongress upset over the dominance of Kharge and his son Priyank Kharge (Minister in the coalition government) in the region, found a common ground and aggressively campaigned against the father-son duo.
Kharge, who was leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, had served as Union Cabinet Minister- Labour and Employment, also Railways and Social Justice and Empowerment in theManmohan Singh-led UPA government.
He had also held various portfolios in successive Congress governments that governed the state and was also president of Karnataka Congress and leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Kharge had defeated Revunaik Belamagi of the BJP by a margin of 74,733 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
While Kharge secured a vote share of 51.35 per cent, Belamagi got 43.78 percent.
Gulbarga for long has been the bastion of the Congress and the party had lost its hold over the constituency only in 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls when the JanataDal and BJP had won the seat respectively.
Gulbarga has eight assembly seats of which Congress holds four, the BJP three and JD(S) one.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
