Sri Ram Sene asks BJP to support Pramod Muthalik in Karkala instead of fielding party candidate
Mangaluru: Sri Ram Sene on Thursday urged the ruling BJP to not contest the Karkala constituency in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections and urged them to support Sri Ram Sene Chief Pramod Mutalik who is likely to contest as an independent candidate from the constituency.
Speaking at a press conference at the Mangaluru Press Club, Anand Shetty Adyar, the State Secretary of the Sene added that corruption, anti-Hindu laws, and unnecessary cases against Hindutva leaders had upset the people of the state.
“People in the state want a diligent leader who will back them and speak for them. We have decided to field Pramod Mutalik in the upcoming elections from the Karkala constituency keeping the demands of the people in mind.
“We hereby bring to the notice of the national and state leaders of the BJP that if the party fields its own candidate instead of supporting Muthalik, the Hindutva organizations will have to look into the matter seriously,” Shetty warned.
He further said that the Sene had urged the BJP to let Hindutva leaders contest in 25 constituencies in the state. “The BJP is yet to reply to our request. Sri Ram Sene, however, has decided to field its contestants for five seats, including Karkala,” he stated.
When asked by the media why Muthalik had opted for Karkala to contest the elections from, Shetty explained, “Our survey has shown that Muthalik’s supporters are high in number in Karkala. Sitting MLA Sunil Kumar too has high regard for Muthalik. We, therefore, decided that Karkala would be the best constituency for him to fight the polls from.”
Sene District President Pradeep Moodushedde, Vice-President Harish Bokkapatna, Organizational Secretary Kishore Neermarga, and Secretary Venkatesh Padiyar attended the press meeting.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
