High-voltage campaign ends for Karnataka Assembly poll
Bengaluru, May 10: A high-voltage, high-decibel campaign, often turning bitter and personal, for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, billed as the quarterfinal before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with huge stakes for both BJP and Congress, ended Thursday evening amidst predictions of a close fight and a hung Assembly.
Leaders of the three main contending parties -- ruling Congress, BJP and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) -- including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, who had invested heavily in the month-long campaign, held road shows and press conferences to wind up the mass contact programme of wooing the electorate.
Earlier in the day, Modi, who adddressed more than 20 meetings in the last 10 days to boost his party's campaign, gave a final push by addressing the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Caste (OBC) party cadres from the poll-bound state through his Narendra Modi mobile app.
Braving the summer heat and dust, hundreds of contestants, cadres, supporters of national, regional, state and fringe parties raced against time to reach voters for their valuable ballot on the D-day -- Saturday.
Polling will be held in 223 constituencies as election to the Jayanagar constituency in south Bengaluru has been countermanded due to the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.
The Karnataka elections will be followed by polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh this year end in what is expected to be an indicator of the things to come in the parliament election in the summer of 2019.
On the last day of electioneering, Gandhi addressed the media and held road shows at Hubballi, while BJP President Amit Shah campaigned in Badami in Bagalkot district from where Siddaramaiah is contesting from second seat.
The Congress chief toured across the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru and Bengaluru in his last leg of campaigning over the last three days.
Gandhi's extensive campaign over the last few months across the state included several corner meetings, public rallies, road shows, dining at public eateries with the locals, visits to prominent religious institutions and riding a busy metro in the capital city etc.
The party's former president and Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi addressed a lone public meeting in Vijayapura district on Tuesday after Modi addressed a meeting on the same day.
The ruling Congress also flew in the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram among several other campaigners to further the party's winning prospects at the hustings.
Since May 1, the Prime Minister addressed a whopping 21 rallies within a span of six days across the districts of Chamarajanagar, Udupi, Ballari, Shivamogga, Raichur, Dharwad, Bengaluru among few others.
During the days that the Prime Minister wasn't in the southern state, he made use of technology to connect with the party's cadres through his personal mobile app.
The opposition BJP also brought in a slew of Union Ministers including Smriti Irani (Information and Broadcasting), Nirmala Sitharaman (Defence), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and Justice), Piyush Goyal (Railways) to interact with theAsouthern state's electorate and pitch for the party's attempt to return to power.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also made several visits to the state.
The BJP, which came to power on its own for the first time in Karnataka in 2008 but lost to the Congress after five years in the May 2013 assembly election, hopes to make a foray into the south again ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The party hopes to make up its possible losses in the north where it had peaked four years ago.
The JD-S cadres led by party leader Deve Gowda and his son and state President H.D. Kumaraswamy held several road shows and rallies across the state since the election was announced on March 27.
The party also had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati appealing to Karnataka's electorate to dismiss both Congress and BJP in BSP-JD-S rallies held in Bidar and Bengaluru. Both the parties have tied up for contesting in the southern state's election.
In all, 2,654 candidates are in fray for the ensuing election on Saturday to elect the state's 15th Legislative Assembly.
Of the total candidates in fray, including 219 women, 222 are from the ruling Congress, 223 from BJP, 201 from Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), 1,155 Independents and 800 from other national, regional and fringe parties, according to the poll panel.
The state capital and tech hub Bengaluru, which alone has 28 Assembly segments of the state's total 224 constituencies, has a total of 449 candidates in the fray. Of them, 37 are women and 412 men. Voting will be held across 27 of the tech hub's Assembly segments, after the election in Jayanagar was countermanded.
A single phase polling will be held for the 223 constituencies, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 15 for Scheduled Tribes (STs).The votes will be counted on May 15.
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.
US President Biden assures peaceful transfer of power in January
Washington, Nov 7: Outgoing US President Joe Biden on Thursday vowed to ensure a peaceful and orderly transfer of power to President-elect Donald Trump in January and appealed to the people to accept the election results for the White House.
Biden made the comments during an address to the nation a day after Trump, 78, was re-elected as the 47th president of the US after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's nominee.
Biden said he spoke with Trump and also with Vice President Harris, who he said ran an inspiring campaign.
Trump, who had lost the 2020 elections to President Biden, won this time both in terms of popular votes and electoral college votes.
“Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory. I assured him that I would direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition," Biden said in his address from the Rose Garden of the White House.
"That's what the American people deserve,” he added.
"For over 200 years, America has carried on the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world," he said, adding that the people vote and choose their leaders and do it peacefully.
"In a democracy, the will of the people always prevails," said Biden in his address attended by members of his Cabinet and senior administration officials.
Biden said he hoped the election could also lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system.
“It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent. It can be trusted, win or lose. I also hope we can restore the respect for all our election workers who busted their necks and took risks at the outset,” he said.
“As they did their duty as citizens, I will do my duty as president. I'll fulfill my oath and I will honour the Constitution. On January 20th, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America,” Biden said.
Rebutting criticism of his economic policy, Biden said his administration is leaving behind the strongest economy in the world.
Biden said he also spoke with Vice President Harris.
"She's been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much: her character... She has great character, true character,” he said.
Biden added that Harris -- who took after Biden withdrew in July-- gave her "whole heart and effort" to her presidential campaign.
"I know for some people, it's a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it's a time of loss," he said.
Adding that campaigns are contests of competing visions and the country chooses one or the other, Biden said, "We accept the choice the country made."
"You can't love your country only when you win. You can't love your neighbour only when you agree,” Biden said.
His remarks are seen as an attempt to heal a country that appeared divided into two groups after the results of the bitterly contested presidential election were out.
"I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly. Together, we've changed America for the better. Now we have 74 days to finish our term. Let's make every day count. That's the responsibility we have to the American people,” he said.
Noting that setbacks are unavoidable, he said that giving up is "unforgivable".
"We all get knocked down. But the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up,” he said.
“That's the story of America for over 240 years and counting. It's a story for all of us, not just some of us," he said, adding that the American experiment endures.
"We're going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going. Above all, we need to keep the faith,” Biden said.
