Puttur: Arun Kumar Puttila, who contested the last assembly elections as an independent rebel, causing the BJP to secure the 3rd place in the Puttur Vidhan Sabha constituency, faced widespread opposition from Puttur BJP leaders regarding his rejoining the BJP. As a result, his inclusion in the party has been postponed.

Puttila's independent candidacy in the previous elections had garnered attention at the state level. Subsequently, he established the Puttila Parivar and aimed to expand its presence to the district level. In an attempt to put an end to this, several BJP leaders sought to bring him back into the BJP fold.

Following B. Y. Vijayendra's appointment as the state president of BJP, Puttila family leaders, including Arun Kumar Puttila, visited Bangalore and met Vijayendra. This meeting suggested that Arun Kumar Puttila would join the BJP, and an official joining program was scheduled at the district BJP office in Mangalore on Friday evening. However, strong opposition from Puttur BJP leaders led to the postponement of Arun Kumar Puttila's BJP joining.

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During a meeting held at the Puttur BJP office on Friday, it was decided that all party office bearers should be consulted before his official induction. The demand was made that Arun Kumar Puttila must adhere to party rules before officially joining BJP, and local officials should be taken into confidence. It was also decided that Puttila should not be given any status, including mandal chairmanship, at this time.

Reports indicate that the BJP district president Satish Kumpala has deferred Arun Kumar Puttila's joining following the demands of local BJP leaders.

Arun Kumar Puttila was prepared to visit the district BJP office and election office on Friday. However, district president Satish Kumpala's arrival in Puttur and subsequent closed meeting at the party office resulted in the announcement that Puttila's joining was misrepresented by the media. This indicates that the leaders are obstructing Puttila from joining the BJP.

In Friday's meeting, party leaders Sulochana Bhatt, Premananda Shetty, District General Secretary Yatish Arwar, former MLA Sanjiva Mathandur, Dr. M.K. Prasad, Mandal President Saja Radhakrishna Alva, former MLA Mallika Prasad, OBC Morcha State Secretary R. C. Narayan, Gopalkrishna Herele, Appiah Maniyani, Bhami Ashok Shenai, Radhakrishna Borkar Jeevandhara Jain, Rajesh Bannur, Chandrasekhara Rao Bapplige, Ajith Rai Hosamane, Dinesh Panjiga, and others were present.

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Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.

The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.

"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.

The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.

There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.

Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.

The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.