Congress wants BJP candidate disqualified
New Delhi, May 11 : The Congress on Friday approached the Election Commission demanding the arrest and disqualification of BJP candidate B. Sriramulu in the Karnataka Assembly polls over a bribery allegation.
On Thursday, the last day of campaigning for the May 12 elections, a video released showed Sriramulu had bribed former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan seeking an order favouring a mining company owned by G. Janardhan Reddy.
The Congress on Friday also demanded that a First Information Report (FIR) be registered against all those involved in the corrupt deal with the judiciary, including Sriramulu.
Sriramulu is contesting against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Badami constituency and from Molakalmuru as well.
A delegation of Congress leaders, including Motilal Vora, Kapil Sibal, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, R.P.N. Singh and P.L. Punia, met Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat and submitted a memorandum.
They said the evidence, released by the Kannada media, was "significant and shocking" and Sriramulu should be "clearly disqualified" from contesting the Karnataka polls.
They said the "incriminating evidence made for a clear-cut case for the cancellation of the candidature of Sriramulu is made out for both the seats being contested by him in the upcoming Karnataka election.
"In a 40-minute video that has been made public and broadcast widely in the regional Kannada media, it is clearly seen that the candidate Sriramulu and three other individuals (identified as G. Janardhan Reddy, Captain Reddy and Swamiji) are seen sitting with the son-in-law of a former Chief Justice of India.
"The discussions between them, as seen in the video and reported by the media, relate to the payment of money to the son-in-law to secure a favourable judgment of the Supreme Court for the Reddy brothers," it added.
Sibal said: "While this was circulating on the TV channels yesterday (Thursday), the Chief Electoral officer in Karnataka banned the showing of this particular video on TV channels in Karnataka.
"We said this ban must be lifted as this is freedom of expression... This must be part of the public discourse," he added.
Sibal said: "Sriramulu should be disqualified from contesting the election and that there should be no election in his constituency as he has been involved in bribery."
Sibal also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was spreading hatred among voters in Karnataka by putting up promos in Rajeev Chandrasekhar channel.
"On the social media, the Congress flag is being circulated along with the Pakistani flag. This itself is the worst form of communal campaigning. We have urged the EC to take action against it," he added.
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Chinese astronauts return to earth safely after six-month stint in space station
Beijing, Nov 4: Three Chinese astronauts who spent six months developing China’s low orbit space station returned to Earth safely early Monday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
The capsule of the spaceship Shenzhou-18' carrying astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 1:24 am (Beijing Time).
The three astronauts, after staying in orbit for 192 days, were all in good health and the Shenzhou-18 manned mission was a success, the CMSA said.
Ye, the Shenzhou-18 mission commander, has become the first Chinese astronaut with an accumulative spaceflight time of more than a year, setting a new record for the longest duration of stay in orbit by a Chinese astronaut.
He served as a crew member in the Shenzhou-13 mission from October 2021 to April 2022.
"Chinese astronauts have flown to space in successive missions. I believe that the record of the duration in orbit will be broken in the near future," Ye said.
Another astronaut Li Guangsu said that they grew two types of plants -- cherry tomatoes and lettuce -- and they had harvested some lettuce leaves for food.
"Being able to eat fresh vegetables in space is truly a blessing. These green plants have also brought a touch of green and good cheer to our busy work," Li was quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency.
China launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship in April this year.
During the mission, the Shenzhou-18 crew utilised the scientific experiment cabinets and extravehicular payloads to carry out dozens of experiments in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space material science, space life science, space medicine and space technology, Xinhua report said.
The three were relieved by another set of three Chinese astronauts, including a woman who docked with the orbiting space station on October 30.
China changes crew for the station every six months.
China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that China's space programme is manned by its military, the People's Liberation Army, (PLA).
The two robotic arms of the station, especially the long one which has the ability to grab objects including satellites from space, drew international concerns.
Early this month China announced its plans for the further development of space programmes which included launching a manned lunar mission, construction of a lunar space station, exploration of habitable planets and extra-terrestrial life to expand its space programme in the next few decades.
