LS polls: JD(S) to get 3 seats including Mandya, says BJP leader Radha Mohan Das Agarwal
Bengaluru, Mar 23: BJP national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Radha Mohan Das Agarwal on Saturday said the party's ally JD(S) will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mandya, Hassan and Kolar.
He also said the BJP and JD(S) workers will cooperate and work for each other's victory.
"We are not fighting alone...We are fighting it with JD(S). We have given Mandya, Hassan and Kolar seats to the JD(S). When we have given these seats to the JD(S), we too are at loss. You will see us (BJP and JD(S)) fighting this battle shoulder to shoulder," Agarwal said at a party event here.
The BJP has released the list of candidates for 20 of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka. It is yet to release the list of other seats it would be contesting.
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Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka said the ball is now in the BJP central parliamentary board's court and its decision will be final with regard to Mandya.
Mandya constituency was the bone of contention between the two parties and the announcement over the list of seats was delayed due to the alleged adamant stance of the sitting MP Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent.
Sumalatha, multilingual film actress and wife of eminent Kannada actor-turned-politician late Ambareesh, contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate and defeated Nikhil Kumaraswamy, grandson of former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and son of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.
Sumalatha is yet to reveal her plans. However, she has been insisting on contesting from Mandya, which she terms as her base.
Sources in the JD(S) said the party had decided to field H D Kumaraswamy from Mandya. The party was also insistent about fielding a candidate from the constituency as it has a strong base in the district given the fact that there is a substantial Vokkaliga population, which the JD(S)' first family belongs to.
The JD(S) had won all seven seats in Mandya district in the 2018 Assembly elections. However, its lost ground in 2023 Assembly polls when it won only one seat while the Congress emerged victorious in six segments.
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Udupi: Two men from Belthangady awarded life imprisonment for attempt to murder a woman in 2022
Udupi: Two men from Belthangady have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Udupi for attempting to murder a woman in Manchikumeri in 2022.
The sentenced men, Mithun and Nagesh Poojary, are learned to have attempted to murder Sumathi, wife of Ramanath Rai, a resident of Manchikumeri, who had a Nandini Milk Parlour at Tiger Circle, Manipal.
On February 18, 2022, Sumathi was reportedly alone at home when, at around 7 pm, Mithun, learned to be her nephew, and his friend Poojary came to the house. As Sumathi opened the door, the duo barged in and tried to strangulate her with an intention of murdering her. Sumathi reportedly lost consciousness under the attack.
The men packed her body in a sack and were then putting the sack into a suitcase to carry the body out, when they noticed that Rai and neighbours had arrived. They are learned to have opened the door when Rai knocked the door and then tried to escape. They were, however, caught by the neighbours and handed over to the police.
Further, Sumathi was found by the group in an unconscious state inside the suitcase in the house. She was rushed to the Manipal Hospital and learned to have recovered after a week of medical treatment.
A case had been registered at the Manipal Police Station.
The Udupi Principal District and Sessions Court judge Kiran S Gangannavar, who heard the case, has declared both Mithun and Poojary guilty in the case. He has awarded them life imprisonment, fined them Rs 20,000 each and, under Column 325, sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and fined them Rs 5,000 each.
Judge Gangannavar has directed that, of the fine, Rs 45,000 be handed to the attack victim Sumathi as relief.
Jayarama Shetty represented the government as Public Prosecutor.
