'Let Yediyurappa complete term, I want to build JDS': Deve Gowda
Bengaluru, Nov 5: Not wanting mid-term polls in Karnataka, JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday said he wants the B S Yediyurappa-led BJP government to complete its term as it would give him time to build his party.
Targeting Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, the former Prime Minister said the Congress may want mid-term assembly polls soon as he was eager to become Chief Minister once again.
I have also said what Kumaraswamy has said.Let Yediyurappa rule the state for three years and 8 months.I don't want to remove Yediyurappa, I want to build the party.
If elections are held tomorrow, do I have the capacity to field 224 candidates, Gowda said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said Siddaramaiah may have that strength (to face mid-term polls), he is AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) leader, I don't know any such leaders.
If elections are held tomorrow for 224 seats will I be able to finalise the candidates? I have said you (Yediyurappa) rule. If I get time I can fight, he added.
Gowdas son and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy too had recently said his party would not try and dislodge the ruling BJP government like the saffron party had done to his coalition government and had opined that he did not think that mid-term polls would be held.
Kumaraswamy had cited hampering of development work, also ongoing relief and rehabilitation work in flood-hit parts of the state due to mid-term polls as the reason for his statement.
Siddaramaiah, reacting to Kumaraswamy, has said the latter's statement gave an impression that he would support the saffron party and had recalled that the JD(S) had formed the government with BJP with power sharing formula of 20 months each in 2006.
On Tuesday too Siddaramaiah said Kumaraswamy's recent statement was out of fear that more JD(S) legislators may jump ship to the saffron party.
Responding to a question, Gowda said,You (Yediyurappa) rule the state aptly. Let him (Yediyurappa) rule for three-and-half years, I will get some time to build the party...Siddaramaiah may want election tomorrow, I dont want.
He (Siddaramaiah) is now Leader of Opposition, becoming Chief Minister was the only thing remaining for him, he added.
Deve Gowda, Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy had until recently predicted the collapse of the Yediyurappa government and possibility of mid-term polls in the state.
Gowda and Kumaraswamys statements have come in as a relief for the BJP, which will need to win at least six of 15 seats that will go to the bypolls on December 5, to remain in power.
There is also speculation that JD(S) may extend support to the BJP if it fails to win maximum number of seats in the bypolls.
Amid reports that Gowda had spoken to Yediyurappa over phone recently assuring support, the former Prime Minister issued a statement rejecting it, terming it far from truth.
Gowda during the presser also reiterated that his party that had run a government and contested Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress, will contest alone in the bypolls.
After the Supreme Courts verdict on disqualified MLAs, if election happens we will contest...we will not join hands with any one, we will contest separately, he said.
Bypolls to 15 of 17 seats represented by disqualified MLAs, whose resignation and absence from the trust vote led to the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, and made way for the BJP to come to power, will be held on December 5.
The then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar had disqualified them as MLAs, ruling that those disqualified, cease to be MLAs with immediate effect till the expiry of the 15th assembly (in 2023), which they have challenged in the Supreme Court, and the matter is currently being heard by the top Court.
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Bondi Beach shooting suspect conducted firearms training with his father, Australian police say
Melbourne (AP): A man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney's Bondi Beach conducted firearms training in an area of New South Wales state outside of Sydney with his father, Australian police documents released on Monday allege.
The men recorded a video about their justification for the meticulously planned attack, according to a police statement of facts that was made public following Naveed Akram's video court appearance Monday from a Sydney hospital where he has been treated for an abdominal injury.
Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
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The New South Wales state government confirmed Naveed Akram was transferred on Monday from a hospital to a prison. Neither facility was identified by authorities.
The statement alleges the 24-year-old and his father began their attack by throwing four improvised explosive devices toward a crowd celebrating an annual Jewish event at Bondi Beach, but the devices failed to explode.
Police described the devices as three aluminium pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing an explosive, black powder and steel ball bearings. None detonated, but police described them as “viable” IEDs.
Authorities have charged Akram with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.
The antisemitic attack at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah celebration was Australia's worst mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania state in 1996.
The New South Wales government introduced draft laws to Parliament on Monday that Premier Chris Minns said would become the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms license. That would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa.
Sajid Akram also legally owned six rifles and shotguns. A new legal limit for recreational shooters would be a maximum of four guns.
Police said a video found on Naveed Akram's phone shows him with his father "reciting their political and religious views and appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack.”
The men are seen in the video “condemning the acts of Zionists” while they also “adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to the Islamic State,” police said.
Video shot in October shows them “firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner” on grassland surrounded by trees, police said.
“There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months,” police allege.
