Bengaluru, Mar 9: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislative council member Puttanna on Thursday joined the Congress alleging large scale corruption in the government.
Puttanna said he has tendered his resignation from the council as well as the primary membership of the BJP.
The four-time member of Legislative Council was representing the teachers' constituency of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara districts. He was re-elected to the council in October 2020 and his tenure ends on October 2026.
"Today I arrived at the decision and resigned from the BJP's primary membership and legislative council membership. I submitted my resignation letter to the office of the legislative council chairman," Puttanna told reporters.
He alleged that the corruption prevailing in Karnataka forced him to take the decision.
"The dream with which I had joined the BJP could not be materialised because of the suffocation," the leader said.
Puttanna alleged that not a single problem could be solved by the government.
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.
Mumbai, Jan 8: The rupee extended its slide for the second straight session and declined 17 paise to hit a fresh record low of 85.91 against the US dollar on Wednesday amid higher crude oil prices and stronger American currency.
Lacklustre sentiment in domestic equity markets and sustained outflow of foreign funds also played spoilsport even as investors stayed cautious over lower economic growth projection by the government, forex analysts said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 85.82 and lost further ground to finally settle at 85.91 against the dollar, 17 paise lower than its previous close.
On Tuesday, the rupee settled with a loss of 6 paise at 85.74 against the dollar.
"This decline is attributed to the strengthening of the US dollar, bolstered by positive economic indicators from the United States, including robust labour market data and increased activity in the services sector. These factors have led to a rise in US Treasury yields, making the dollar more attractive to investors," Anil Kumar Bhansali,
Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
"In response, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has intervened through state-run banks to mitigate the rupee's losses. Despite these efforts, the rupee's depreciation reflects broader concerns about India's economic growth and capital flows," he said.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.35 per cent higher at 108.76.
The 10-year US bond yields also remained elevated at 4.67 per cent amid expectations of delayed interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.90 per cent to USD 77.74 per barrel in futures trade.
In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex skid 50.62 points, or 0.06 per cent, to settle at 78,148.49 points, while the Nifty fell 18.95 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 23,688.95 points.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded Rs 3,362.18 crore in the capital markets on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
The latest government data released on Tuesday showed India's economic growth rate is estimated to slip to a four-year low of 6.4 per cent in 2024-25 due to poor show by the manufacturing and services sectors.
The gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 6.4 per cent will be the lowest since the Covid year (2020-21) when the country witnessed a negative growth of 5.8 per cent. It was 8.2 per cent in the last fiscal year ended March 2024.
The first advance estimates of the national income for 2024-25 released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) is lower than the 6.6 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank in December 2024.