For Karnataka polls BJP to fly in its star campaigners, including Modi
Bengaluru, April 24: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fly in some 40 "star campaigners" to poll-bound Karnataka including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a host of Union Ministers and senior leaders to campaign for the party's success in the ensuing May 12 assembly elections.
The visiting key campaigners were named in a letter written by the state unit BJP general secretary and party's Lok Sabha lawmaker from Karnataka Shobha Karandlaje to the state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar.
Besides Modi and BJP national President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj (External Affairs), Smriti Irani (Information and Broadcasting), Nirmala Sitharaman (Defence), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and Justice), Piyush Goyal (Railways) and party's Lok Sabha MP and veteran actress Hema Malini will soon be in the southern state.
"The Prime Minister is expected to visit the state tentatively from May 1 and is expected to hold at least 10-12 rallies across the state before the election," BJP state spokesman S. Shantharam told IANS here.
Modi is expected to visit each of the state's four regions -- coastal, north, central and south -- besides Bengaluru and Mysuru, addressing two-to-three rallies a day till May 10.
The exact dates of the BJP leaders' visits to the state were yet to be finalised, the spokesperson added.
Some of the other campaigners include party's women's wing national in-charge D. Purandareswari, former Union Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan among others.
The party's chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, Union Ministers from the state Ananth Kumar (Chemicals and Fertilisers), Prakash Javadekar (Human Resource Development) and Anantkumar Hegde (Skill Development) will also be taking part in the campaigning activities.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, also one of the party's campaigners, on Monday visited the state's coastal districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has visited the state at least four times so far, to address rallies in Hubballi, Bengaluru, Davanagere and Mangaluru.
On April 21, MP Chief Minister Chouhan visited the state's Chitradurga district, about 250km north from here, to campaign along with the BJP Lok Sabha lawmaker B. Sreeramulu, who is contesting the assembly elections from Molakamuru (reserved) seat in the district.
Polling will be held in a single phase on May 12 for 224 assembly seats, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 15 for the Scheduled Tribes. Votes will be counted on May 15.
Tuesday is the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny will be done on April 25 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 27.
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.
CM Siddaramaiah appears before Lokayukta police for questioning in MUDA case
Mysuru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appeared before the Lokayukta police here on Wednesday in response to the summons issued to him for questioning in the MUDA site allotment case.
The CM, who has been named as accused number 1 in the FIR registered by the Lokayukta police, is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
They had on October 25 questioned his wife, who has been named as accused number 2.
Siddaramaiah, his wife, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju -- from whom Swamy had purchased a land and gifted it to Parvathi -- and others have been named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.
Swamy and Devaraju have already deposed before the Lokayukta police.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court had on Tuesday issued notice to Siddaramaiah and others on a writ petition filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, seeking a direction to transfer the case to CBI.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, who also issued notice to Parvathi, Swamy, Union of India, the State government, CBI, Lokayukta and others, directed the Lokayukta to place on record investigation conducted in the case so far.
The court posted the next hearing to November 26.
On October 24, the CM filed an appeal before the division bench of the High Court, challenging the decision of a single judge bench in connection with the MUDA site allotment case that had come as a setback to him.
The bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna had on September 24 dismissed the CM's petition challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's approval for a probe against him in the case, observing that the gubernatorial order nowhere "suffers from want of application of mind".
Siddaramaiah had challenged the legality of Gehlot's sanction for the investigation against him in the alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites by MUDA in a prime locality.
Following the High Court order, a Special Court here on the very next day had ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah, and directed to file the investigation report by December 24.
Parvathi, meanwhile, had written to MUDA to cancel 14 sites allotted to her and the MUDA had accepted it.
On September 30, the ED filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) to book the CM and others taking cognisance of the Lokayukta FIR, and is also probing the case.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that 14 compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru (Vijayanagar Layout 3rd and 4th stages), which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village on the outskirts of Mysuru.
