KSCA elections: High Court directs acceptance of Shantha Kumar’s nomination, orders polls to proceed
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has set aside the Returning Officer’s decision to reject the nomination of K. N. Shantha Kumar, a candidate for the post of President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and directed that his nomination be accepted.
A single-judge bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj delivered the judgment on Saturday after completing the hearing on the petition filed by Shantha Kumar challenging the Returning Officer’s decision.
The court has instructed the Returning Officer to approve his nomination and further directed that the elections be conducted as per the schedule and the results be declared on December 7. The detailed copy of the judgment is awaited.
As part of the election process scheduled for December 7, Shantha Kumar had filed his nomination for the president’s position. However, the nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer.
Challenging the rejection, Shantha Kumar approached the High Court seeking a directive to quash the order of the Returning Officer, uphold his candidature, and ensure that the election process continues in accordance with the election calendar.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
