Krishna Byre Gowda is the Congress candidate in Bangalore North
JD(S) gives Bangalore North LS seat to Congress
Bengaluru, Mar 25: Karnataka minister Krishna Byre Gowda was Monday named the Congress candidate for Bangalore North Lok Sabha seat, which its coalition partner JD(S) gave back to it.
The decision to field Gowda, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, was taken at a meeting attended by Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao, according to the CLP leader's office.
The choice of Byre Gowda was telephonically conveyed to JDS patriarch H D Deve Gowda, who also gave his consent, it said.
The Congress earlier in the day said the JD(S) conceded the seat and thanked Deve Gowda for the gesture.
The announcement was made with just two days left for filing of nominations for the first phase of polls in Karnataka to be held on April 18.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal thanked Deve Gowda for the move calling it a "kind gesture."
"Indian National Congress is thankful to Shri H D DeveGowda ji and the JD(S) for their kind gesture of giving back the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat to the Congress.
Together,let us reclaim democracy," Venugopal said in a post on hisFacebook page.
Tuesday is the last date for the filing of nominations for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls.
Bangalore North, which will go for polls in the first phase, is one among the eight seats that the JD(S) had got in a seat-sharing deal with the Congress that will contest in 20 out of total 28 seats in the state.
The move by JD(S) to concede the Bangalore North seat to the Congress comes after Deve Gowda on Saturday made official his decision to contest polls from Tumkur.
Though there was pressure within the JD(S) for their party supremo to contest from Bangalore North, it was apprehensive about Congress' complete support there as most party's MLA there are considered close to Gowda's bete noire Siddaramaiah.
It was feared that the MLAs may seek to take revenge for the former Chief Minister's defeat from Chamundeshwari in the 2018 assembly polls.
According to sources, the JD(S) decided to give up the seat to the Congress on not finding any suitable candidate in the party from the seat.
Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who was representing the seat from BJP, has been fielded once again by the party from the constituency.
He filed his nomination on Monday.
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Ranchi: Temple guard bludgeoned to death during robbery attempt, 3 held
Ranchi (PTI): A 60-year-old security guard of a temple in Ranchi was bludgeoned to death with a stone during a robbery attempt, police said on Saturday.
The incident happened late on Thursday at the Jagannath Temple in the Dhurwa Smart City area, they said.
"Three persons were arrested on Friday for killing the security guard. They confessed to the crime and told police that the victim had identified them. Therefore, in fear of being caught, they killed him by attacking him with a stone on his head," SSP Rakesh Ranjan said.
"Thereafter, they took money from the donation box and fled the scene. Two of them have criminal antecedents," he added.
Ranjan said the investigators recovered Rs 3 lakh in cash that had been robbed, the stone with blood-stained marks, and the iron rod used to break open the lock of the donation box kept there.
An FIR in this regard was lodged at the Dhurwa police station, he said, adding that the accused were sent to judicial custody by a court.
