Target poll booths, Chidambaram tells Karnataka Congress
Bengaluru, July 28 : Ahead of the general elections next year, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday urged his party cadres in Karnataka to strengthen their presence in every poll booth.
"It is a booth-wise election ahead, which is why the party needs our people in every booth. We (Congress) must have enough people with feet on every booth," Chidambaram said addressing party members here.
The senior Congress leader was in the city to launch the party's "Shakti" app to strengthen the party cadres in the state by connecting them across each booth, village, town and district in Karnataka.
Of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the southern state, the Congress had won nine seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 17 and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) two in the 2014 general election.
The mobile phone-based project aims to build a direct link between the party's booth-level workers and its senior leadership. A party worker can enroll himself/herself on the platform by registering through their voter card number.
A few months ago, party President Rahul Gandhi had interacted with Congress workers in Rajasthan through the application, which has already been unveiled in Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Shakti will enable the booth-level workers of the party to interact with the local leadership on various issues, Chidambaram said.
Though the party lost in the May 12 Karnataka assembly election, Chidambaram claimed that Congress had higher vote percentage than of the BJP.
"Congress had 2 per cent advantage in the vote share in the election, as we got 38 per cent of the votes, while the BJP got 36 per cent," Chidambaram said.
In the election for the 224-member assembly, the BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 104 seats, Congress 79 and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 37 seats, including one seat of its alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and two other seats -- one each won by an Independent and a regional outfit.
Two seats remain vacant in the state as Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was elected from both Ramanagara and Channapatna assembly segments and Jamkhandi seat in Bagalkot district fell vacant after the legislator's death on May 28.
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ISKCON urges Indian intervention following priest's arrest in Bangladesh
Dhaka: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has called on the Indian government to take immediate steps to secure the release of its priest, Chinmoy Krishna Das, detained by Bangladeshi authorities. The arrest occurred near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
Das, a prominent ISKCON leader and former divisional organising secretary for Chattogram, faces sedition charges stemming from an October 25 incident. According to a case filed on October 31, 19 individuals, including Das, allegedly placed a saffron flag over the Bangladeshi flag on the Independent Pillar (Shadhinata Smathamva) during a rally organised by the Hindu community under the banner Sanatan Jagaran Mancha.
ISKCON has strongly denied any involvement in terrorism, describing the allegations as "baseless and unacceptable." In a statement, ISKCON declared, "It is outrageous to make baseless allegations that ISKCON has anything to do with terrorism anywhere in the world. ISKCON urges the Government of India to engage with Bangladesh to secure the release of Sri Chinmoy Krishna Das."
Hindu communities in Bangladesh have staged protests demanding better legal protection and the establishment of a minority affairs ministry under the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi police have arrested two other suspects, Rajesh Chowdhury and Hriday Das, in connection with the case. The remaining accused include Ajay Dutta, Leela Raj Das Brahmachari, Gopal Das Tipu, and several others. ISKCON spokesperson Radharamn Das expressed concerns over Das's safety, stating that he had been moved to an undisclosed location by the police.
