BJP releases third list of candidates
Bengaluru/New Delhi, Apr 17: With just three days left for the deadline of filing nominations for the May 10 Assembly elections in Karnataka, the ruling BJP on Monday announced candidates for 10 more constituencies.
The party has fielded state BJP General Secretary Mahesh Tenginkai from the Hubli-Dharwad Central Assembly segment, which was represented by former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who joined the Congress today upset that he was overlooked for the contest by the saffron party.
In three seats, family members of party leaders have been given tickets. While former Minister and MLA Aravind Limbavali's wife Manjula Arvind Limbavali has got the ticket for the Mahadevapura Constituency, the party has fielded Katta Jagadish, son of former Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu from Hebbal.
Koppal Lok Sabha member Karadi Sanganna's daughter in-law Manjula Amaresh has been made the candidate from Koppal Assembly segment. Karadi Sanganna himself was a ticket aspirant from the segment and had planned to quit from his Parliament membership as well as from the party over delay in the ticket announcement.
In Bengaluru's Govindraj Nagar, Umesh Shetty has been given the ticket. Senior Minister V Somanna, who currently represents the seat, had requested the party to give his son Arun Somanna a chance from the constituency, after he was fielded from two Assembly segments- Chamarajanagar and Varuna (against Congress leader Siddaramaiah).
In Mysuru district's Krishnaraja Assembly segment a new face, Srivatsa, has been given the ticket as the party dropped four-time MLA S A Ramadas.
According to party sources, Shettar's exit seems to have influenced decision-making vis-a-vis the third list with the party giving tickets to family members of senior leaders or legislators who were aspirants, and renominating a couple of sitting MLAs.
Sitting MLAs Rajkumar Patil and Kalakappa Bandi have been renominated from the Sedam and Ron seats, respectively.
The BJP had earlier announced the first and second list of 189 and 23 candidates respectively, totalling 212 of the total 224 seats; now with the announcement of 10 more seats the figure stands at 222. The two seats remaining are Shivamogga and Manvi.
K S Eshwarappa, a former Deputy Chief Minister, has told the party's central leadership that he wishes to retire from electoral politics and has requested it to not consider fielding him in the Assembly polls from Shivamogga. He is however said to be seeking a candidacy for his son K E Kantesh from the seat.
#KarnatakaElections2023 | BJP releases third list of candidates.
— ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2023
BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali's wife Manjula Aravind Limbavali to contest from Mahadevapura. pic.twitter.com/Xc7VIautAp
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Karnataka High Court stays FIR against Tejasvi Surya over tweet on farmer's suicide
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has issued an interim stay on the investigation against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who faced an FIR for allegedly spreading fake news regarding the suicide of a farmer in Haveri district.
The court's order came after Surya filed a petition seeking the quashing of the FIR filed by the Haveri police in response to his post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Justice M Nagaprasanna, while granting the stay, observed that the allegations against Surya, under section 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), did not, prima facie, constitute an offence. The judge further noted that Surya had deleted the tweet and cited a media interview by the deceased farmer's father, which could potentially support Surya's position. The case will be heard again on December 4, 2024.
Surya's tweet had linked the farmer's suicide to the Karnataka government's handling of the Waqf issue, claiming the farmer took his life after his land was allegedly taken over by the Waqf Board. The tweet read, "A farmer in Haveri commits suicide after finding his land taken over by Waqf! In their haste to appease minorities, CM Siddaramaiah and Minister B. Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan have unleashed catastrophic effects in Karnataka that are becoming impossible to contain with every passing day."
In response to the police's clarification that the farmer's death was due to loan-related stress, Surya deleted the tweet. However, the state government argued that Surya's post could incite communal tensions and negatively impact society.
Justice Nagaprasanna questioned whether the state's action of registering an FIR was justified, stating, "Is what is happening also correct? Just yesterday, I said that every action has an equal and opposite reaction."
