Amid Karnataka election drama, Modi speaks to Deve Gowda
New Delhi, May 18: A day after BJP's B.S. Yeddyurappa took oath as Karnataka Chief Minister dashing the hopes of JD-S-Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he spoke to Janata Dal-Secular supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and wished him on his birthday.
"Spoke to our former Prime Minister Shri H.D. Deve Gowdaji and conveyed birthday wishes to him. I pray for his good health and long life," Modi said in a tweet.
Yeddyurappa is yet to prove a majority in the Karnataka Assembly, and the Congress and JD-S have alleged that the BJP is trying to poach their newly elected lawmakers, as it has fallen short of eight seats to the 112 halfway mark in the lower House.
The JD-S had won 38 seats along with its ally BSP, while the Congress won 78 seats, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party winning 104 seats in the May 12 assembly election.
The Congress-JD-S stitching up a hasty post-poll alliance approached the Governor on Tuesday to form the government, as also did the BJP.
But Governor Vajubhai Valla invited Yeddyurappa to form the government and prove within 15 days that he had majority in the legislative assembly.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
