Congress will respond appropriately to ministers pushing for 3 more DCMs in Karnataka: DK Shivakumar
Mangaluru, Jun 25: Seemingly expressing his displeasure against ministers demanding three more deputy chief minister posts in Karnataka, state Congress President D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said the party would respond to them appropriately.
Currently, Shivakumar from the Vokkaliga community is the only DCM in the Siddaramaiah-led cabinet.
Some of the ministers in the cabinet have been pitching for DCM posts to be given to leaders from Veerashaiva-Lingayat, SC/ST and minority communities.
"You people (media) put in news if someone says something. Why should I say no to people who are happy (by appearing in news)... Let anyone make any demand, the party will respond to them appropriately. Simple," Shivakumar told reporters here in response to a question.
Asked whether there is a plan in the party to have more deputy chief ministers, he said, "You please meet Mallikarjun Kharge (AICC president) and our in-charge general secretary or ask the chief minister."
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A section within the Congress is said to be of the opinion that the statement by ministers seeking three more DCM posts was part of a plan by Siddaramaiah’s camp to keep Shivakumar in check, amid talks that he might seek the CM post after two-and-a-half years of this government’s tenure, and to counter his influence both in the government and the party.
The ministers -- Co-Operation Minister K N Rajanna, Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi and few others -- who have pitched for three more DCMs are considered close to Siddaramaiah.
The Congress had decided that Shivakumar will be “the only” deputy CM amid stiff competition between him and Siddaramaiah for the chief minister’s post after the assembly election results in May last year.
It was also said to be a "commitment" made by the Congress leadership to Shivakumar while convincing him to give up his claim for the CM post and to take up the role of deputy chief minister.
Asked whether he or his brother and former MP D K Suresh would contest in the assembly bypolls from Channapatna, Shivakumar, who has recently been making repeated visits to the segment, did not want to give any direct response but indicated that he may contest.
"My brother is not interested, as people have decided to give Suresh a rest (through defeat in Lok Sabha polls), but there is a desire to work for the party, as people there (Channapatna) have trusted us and given us (Congress) about 85,000 votes (in Lok Sabha polls). We have to save them," he said.
People have given Congress power in the state by giving 136 seats (including independents), he said. "We have to save the people there (in Channapatna). Nothing has happened there, despite big people having enjoyed power from there, people have a feeling that nothing has been done for them. So we want to do something. Earlier too we have done our bit. When I was the minister, a part of Channapatna was under my constituency earlier. It is the right time to serve the people and the poor there."
The Channapatna bypoll is being held because the seat fell vacant following the election of its representative, JD(S) leader and now Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections.
The byelection schedule for this assembly seat is yet to be announced by the Election Commission.
Though there were talks earlier that Suresh, who lost from Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha segment, may be fielded in Channapatna, speculations are now rife in political circles, especially the grand old party, that Shivakumar may enter the fray to avenge his brother's defeat and to re-establish his clout in the region.
According to sources, if Shivakumar contests and wins from Channapatna, he may vacate the Kanakapura assembly seat that he currently represents for Suresh to contest from.
Both Channapatna and Kanakapura are part of the Vokkaliga-dominated Ramanagara district, which comes under the Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha segment from where Kumaraswamy's brother-in-law and eminent cardiologist C N Manjunath won as a BJP candidate as part of an arrangement between alliance partners BJP and JD(S). Manjunath defeated Suresh.
Reacting to Kumaraswamy's statement that Shivakumar who did nothing for Channapatna so far but was now visiting the constituency, the DCM asked, "How does he (Kumaraswamy) know that I have done nothing for Channapatna?
"Before Kumaraswamy saw Channapatna, I had seen it. He came to politics very late. He came 10 years after I entered politics. I came in 1985 and had contested against his father (former prime minister H D Deve Gowda) in the assembly polls. Kumaraswamy came in 1995 or 96 and contested for Parliament. I'm from that district," he added.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
