Congress will consider backing seer who vowed to take on Pralhad Joshi
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Congress President D K Shivakumar on Wednesday did not rule out the possibility of the party backing a prominent seer who announced that he would take on Union Minister Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The state deputy chief minister said they are weighing options, when asked about it.
Targeting Joshi, a Brahmin, Fakira Dingaleshwar Swami of Shirahatti Fakkireshwar Math had accused him of "suppressing" Veerashaiva-Lingayat and other communities, and also misusing and causing disrepute to the Lingayat 'maths' to stay in power.
The Veerashaiva-Lingayat seer, who had announced his decision to contest as an independent on Monday, had also accused Congress of neglecting Lingayats after coming to power, and not giving suitable positions to leaders of calibre from the community.
Shivakumar said that the party has already announced its candidate - Vinod Asooti - for the Dharwad seat and that he will speak to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
"Nothing indirect, if we want (to support the pontiff) we will do it directly, it's a different matter. We have finalised our party candidate. If he (seer) had asked earlier, it would have been a different matter, now there is a proposal. We have given the ticket to Vinod (Vinod Asooti) of the Youth Congress and he is working," Shivakumar said, in response to a question of Congress giving indirect support to the seer.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "There is a request...we have respect for the seer, as he has been working in the secular framework. Our candidate is a gentleman. CM and I will discuss by today or tomorrow."
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
