Ramangara (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday hinted at cracks and squabbling within the BJP and the JD(S), as he gave credit to the leaders of these parties for the defeat of JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the Channapatna assembly bypoll.

Congress candidate C P Yogeeshwara won in Channapatna bypoll with a margin of 25,413 votes against his nearest rival and NDA candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy, as results were announced on Saturday.

The Congress party swept all the three assembly constituencies in Karnataka, namely Channapatna, Sandur and Shiggaon, which went for bypolls.

Nikhil Kumaraswamy is the son of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy and grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. In September last year, JD(S) joined the NDA led by BJP.

“Many people from across the parties have helped us in this election (Channapatna). Congress had only 16,000 votes in the previous assembly election. It increased in the Lok Sabha election,” Shivakumar told reporters here.

According to him, many people from the JD(S) and the BJP supported the Congress. “If the BJP and the JD(S) leaders had not supported us directly or indirectly, we wouldn’t have got so many votes. I congratulate them,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said.

He quipped that the JD(S), which had 19 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, has now reduced to 18.

Hailing the electorate, the Deputy CM said this was people’s verdict in favour of C P Yogeeshwara to develop Channapatna constituency.

There was no immediate reaction from the BJP or the JD(S) on it.

 

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Raisen (MP), Nov 24: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a truck driver while his two associates restrained the teenager’s male friend in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district, an official said on Sunday.

Police have arrested two persons, including the truck driver, in connection with the alleged crime committed in Siyarmau forest on Silwani-Sagar Road, some 110 km from the district headquarters, on Saturday evening, he said.

The teenager and her 21-year-old male friend were returning after visiting the Vandevi temple in the area when they parked their two-wheeler and entered the forest, said Silwani’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anil Maurya.

At the same time, a truck broke down following which its driver, later identified as Sanju Adivasi (21), and his two friends also went inside the forest, where they spotted the girl and her friend.

The trio thrashed the young man and snatched the key of his motorcycle, he said, citing the FIR.

The driver took the girl deep inside the forest and allegedly raped her, while his associates restrained her friend, the official said.

After the three accused left, the girl and the youth walked to the road and alerted some policemen who were passing by.

Police registered a case against Sanju Adivasi and his associates Shivnarayan Advasi and Akshay Ahirwar under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 64 (rape), 70-1 (gang rape) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.

Sanju and Shivnarayan have been arrested, while Ahirwar is on the run, the official said.