Kumaraswamy to take oath as Karnataka CM on Wednesday
Bengaluru, May 20: Janata Dal-Secular's (JD-S) legislative party leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday said he will take oath as Karnataka Chief Minister on May 23 here in the presence of several national leaders.
"I've deferred taking oath to Wednesday on the advise of the Congress as May 21 is (ex-Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi's death anniversary. On Thursday, the Speaker will be elected and the date of seeking trust vote will be decided after that," Kumaraswamy told reporters here.
The JD-S leader told the media on Saturday that he has been invited by Governor Vajubhai R. Vala to form the government as the leader of the JD-S legislative party with the support of the Congress.
The invitation came a few hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party leader B.S. Yeddyurappa on Saturday stepped down as the Chief Minister ahead of his trust vote as his party with 104 seats fell short of 7 seats for a simple majority (111) in the 224-member hung Assembly.
Though Kumaraswamy had said he would take oath on Monday, he put it off to May 23 on the Congress advise as May 21 is the death anniversary of Gandhi, who was killed in 1991 by Sri Lankan Tamil rebels at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.
Kumaraswamy will be flying to Delhi to meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
"I will discuss with them (Rahul and Sonia) on the cabinet expansion. So far, I'm not sure about the Congress stand. We want to make sure the government is a stable one," Kumaraswamy said.
Apart from the Congress leaders, he has also invited Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to attend the swearing-in ceremony, the JD-S leader said.
The JD-S (36) and Congress (78) alliance has 117 members in the House. With the support of three others, Kumaraswamy has 6 more than the required 111 halfway mark, excluding the Speaker to prove a majority in the House.
This is the second time Kumaraswamy, the son of JD-S supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, will be the Chief Minister of the southern state, 12 years after the JD-S formed a coalition government with the BJP on February 4, 2006 and remained in office for 20 months till October 9, 2007.
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Gujarat man held for impersonating govt official, duping people with forged letters
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Ahmedabad police have arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly posed as a senior revenue official and used fake letters claiming to be from various government departments to cheat people, an official said on Sunday.
Mehul Shah, an engineer who manages two schools at Vankaner in Gujarat’s Morbi district, is accused of making lakhs of rupees with bogus documents and false claims, said inspector (crime branch) JK Makwana.
Shah had forged an appointment letter from the Ahmedabad district education officer (DEO) to offer a computer operator’s job in a government office to a complainant’s son. He also introduced himself as a trustee of a school and did not pay a man Rs 7 lakh due to him over the painting of a school building, the official said.
“Despite holding no official position in the state or central government, he used fake work permits and NOCs to cheat people of lakhs of rupees,” the police official said.
One complainant alleged that Shah identified himself as a top revenue department official and produced a fake letter from the chairman of the “department of science and research development” to make him install a siren and curtain in a hired vehicle but did not pay for the job, he said.
Bogus letters claiming to be from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ahmedabad DEO were used by the accused to cheat the complainants, the police official said.
Police have recovered from his possession fake identity cards and letters with headings like “bharat gaurav ratna shri samman council”, “chairman of department of science and research development”, “health and family welfare department”, and “road and building department”.
“The FIR is based on complaints by three victims. We appeal to the people to come forward and submit their complaints if they have been cheated by Shah in any way,” Makwana said.
