Counting begins for Lok Sabha, Assembly bypolls in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Nov 6: Counting of votes for the bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka began on Tuesday.
Bypolls for the three Lok Sabha constituencies - Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya; and two Assembly constituencies - Ramanagara and Jamkhandi, which were held on Saturday, are seen as a prestigious popularity test for the ruling Congress-JDS coalition.
An estimated 67 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the bypolls.
Counting of votes began at 8 am and a total of 1,248 counting staff have been deployed for it.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure to that no untoward incident takes place during the counting of votes, police officials said.
A total of 31 candidates were in the fray from the five constituencies, though the contest is mainly between the Congress-JDS combine and the BJP.
The bypoll results will determine the fate of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's wife Anita Kumaraswamy, state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra and former chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa among others.
Anita Kumaraswamy is expected to have a smooth sailing in Ramanagara, after BJP nominee L Chandrashekhar withdrew from the contest and rejoined the Congress.
In Jamkhandi, it remains to be seen whether the Congress' Anand Nyamagowda will be able to make a successful electoral debut, riding on sympathy wave following the death of his father Siddu Nyamagouda.
Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, who is the Congress MLA from neighbouring Badami assembly constituency had invested lot of time for campaigning in Jamkhandi.
In Shivamogga, former chief minister Yeddyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is testing his fortunes against another ex-chief minister S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S).
Janata Parivar veteran and former chief minister J H Patel's son Mahima J Patel is also in the fray as a JD(U) candidate. In Ballari, senior BJP leader Sriramulu's sister J Shantha is fighting against V S Ugrappa of the Congress.
In the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya, JD(S)'s Shivarame Gowda is pitted against a fresh face -- Dr Siddaramaiah, a retired commercial tax officer, of the BJP.
Among the interesting things that one needs to watch out for is to what extent the BJP would be able to make inroads into the JD(S) bastion of Mandya and the Congress stronghold of Jamkhandi.
Of similar interest would be to what extent the Congress will be able to regain its significance in its erstwhile party stronghold of Ballari.
The Congress and JD(S) had fought bitterly against each other in the May Assembly polls, especially in the old Mysuru region, but had joined hands to form a coalition government after a fractured mandate.
The outcome of the bypolls is expected to have a bearing on the equations between the Congress and the JDS for the 2019 general elections and also be a factor in determining the bargaining power of the two parties.
The bypolls assume significance as the ruling coalition partners contested together, terming it a "prelude" to the Lok Sabha polls next year, and called for a similar "grand secular alliance" against the BJP at the national level.
The announcement of the bypolls for the Lok Sabha seats came as a surprise to all the three major political parties in the state -- the Congress, BJP and JD(S) -- who questioned the need for the exercise when the general elections are due early next year.
The byelections were necessitated after Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga), Sriramalu (Ballari), and C S Puttaraju of JD(S) (Mandya) resigned as MPs following their election to the Karnataka Assembly.
Bypolls to Jamkhandi Assembly seat was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Siddu Nyamagouda, while Ramanagara fell vacant after Kumaraswamy gave up the seat, preferring Chennapatna, the other constituency from where he had also won.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
