PM Modi to address public meeting in Shivamogga on Monday
Bengaluru (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will address a public meeting at Shivamogga, the home turf of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.
This will be his second such meeting in Karnataka since the announcement of Lok Sabha election dates. The first was on Saturday at Kalaburagi, the home turf of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
BJP is expecting a huge turnout at the Allama Prabhu ground (Freedom Park) for the meet in the home district of Yediyurappa, who is a member of the party's all important Parliamentary board.
Yediyurappa's elder son B Y Raghavendra is the BJP candidate for the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency, where former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa has announced he will contest as an independent candidate as he is upset over the denial of ticket to his son K E Kantesh to contest from Haveri LS constituency.
Eshwarappa has even announced that he will skip Modi's public meeting. The disgruntled leader had earlier stated that the Prime Minister "resides in his heart".
BJP state chief B Y Vijayendra, who is Yediyurappa's second son and Shikaripura MLA, visited Allama Prabhu ground along with senior party functionaries to supervise the preparations and gave necessary directions to ensure that the meeting goes smoothly.
The saffron party is aiming to better its 2019 performance, where it won 25 of the 28 seats, in 2024 as well.
In 2019, Congress and JD(S) had won one seat each, while a BJP-backed independent Sumalatha Ambareesh had clinched one. Party leaders have expressed confidence that the BJP would win all 28 seats in Karnataka this time.
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
