Rahul Gandhi meets Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, discusses govt formation in Karnataka
New Delhi(PTI): Amid a race for the Karnataka chief minister's post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and is reported to have held discussions over government formation in the southern state.
Gandhi drove to Kharge's residence and held a closed-door meeting with the Congress chief. Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala, who is in charge of the party's affairs in Karnataka, was also present at the meeting.
Kharge has held discussions with party leaders from Karnataka and the three observers appointed by him to oversee the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Bengaluru on Sunday. Both Siddaramaiah and state Congress president D K Shivakumar are front runners for the chief minister's post and both are lobbying for it.
While former chief minister Siddaramaiah is in Delhi, Shivakumar cancelled his visit to the national capital on Monday evening citing health issues, fuelling speculations that all is not well in the party. Shivakumar arrived in the national capital Tuesday afternoon. After arriving at Delhi airport, he did not speak to the media and walked away with folded hands parrying a barrage of questions from reporters.
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar will hold discussions over government formation in Karnataka.
In just-concluded Assembly elections, the Congress scored an emphatic victory with 135 seats while the ruling BJP and the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats, respectively.
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UP hospital fire: PM Modi announces ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for next of kin of each deceased
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday condoled the death of children in a fire that engulfed the children's ward of a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased.
At least 10 children died in a fire that engulfed the children's ward of the medical college in Jhansi district, officials said, as 16 others injured battled for life on Saturday.
District Magistrate (DM) Avinash Kumar told reporters that the fire broke out around 10.45 pm on Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College possibly due to an electrical short circuit.
"Heartbreaking! The fire accident at Jhansi Medical College in Uttar Pradesh is heart-wrenching. My deepest condolences to those who lost their innocent children in this. I pray to God to give them the strength to bear this immense loss," Modi was quoted as saying in a post in Hindi on X by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
"The local administration, under the supervision of the state government, is making every possible effort for relief and rescue," he said.
In another post, the PMO said Prime Minister Modi has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the next of kin of each deceased in the mishap in the fire accident at the Jhansi Medical College in Uttar Pradesh.
The injured would be given Rs 50,000, the PMO said.
The children, who were in the outer part of the NICU, were rescued along with some of those who were in the interior part.
"Prima facie there is information of the death of 10 children," the DM said.
Those less critical are admitted in the outer section of the NICU while the more critical patients are kept in the interior part, he added.
