'Regional parties cannot make someone PM without Cong support': H.D Devegouda
Bengaluru, Oct 30: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda Tuesday said regional parties alone cannot make someone Prime Minister without Congress backing and expressed "complete support" for Rahul Gandhi to be made Prime Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In these polls, regional parties alone cannot make someone the Prime Minister without the support of the Congress, whose decision would be final, he said.
"In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, no regional parties in the country can make someone Prime Minister, leaving aside Rahul Gandhi. But Congress' decision will be the final," Gowda said.
Speaking to reporters in Ballari, he said "I'm saying directly. My complete support is for Rahul Gandhi to be made the Prime Minister."
Gowda's comments comes over a week after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said Congress has never stated "officially" that Rahul Gandhi should be the Prime Minister if an opposition alliance formed the next government.
He had insisted the Congress' focus was on dislodging the BJP government and bringing in a "progressive" alternative.
Chidambaram had told News 18 Tamil TV channel on October 22 in Chennai that the decision on who would be the prime minister in the event of an opposition alliance winning next year's Lok Sabha poll would be taken by its constituents.
Gowda had recently said that the country's secular parties would come together under the Congress leadership to defeat BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, dismissing suggestions that the grand alliance was losing its sheen.
The JDS is running a coalition government with Congress in Karnataka, which came into being after a post-poll arrangement between the two parties following a fractured verdict in the May assembly polls.
Hitting out at the BJP for calling the Congress-JD(S) coalition as an "unholy alliance", the former Prime Minister questioned the saffron party by asking whether the alliance was "holy" when they joined hands with the JD(S) faction headed by H D Kumaraswamy to form the government in 2006.
Gowda was in Ballari to campaign for the coalition candidate V S Ugrappa of the Congress for the November 3 by-polls to Ballari Lok Sabha constituency.
Ugrappa, largely seen as an "outsider" to Ballari, is pitted against J Shantha of the BJP.
Shantha is the sister of BJP leader B Sriramulu, considered a close confidante of mining baron G Janardhana Reddy.
By-polls for three Lok Sabha constituencies -- Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya and two assembly constituencies- Ramanagara and Jamkhandi, will take place on November 3.
The counting of votes will be on November 6.
The ruling coalition partners Congress and JDS have decided to fight the by-polls unitedly against the BJP.
Congress has fielded its candidates in Jamkhandi and Ballari and JD(S) in Shivamogga, Ramanagara and Mandya.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
