Cong release second list of candidates for K'taka elections, suspense continues of three DK seats
Bengaluru: All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Thursday morning released the second list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Elections.
The party, however, has not announced its candidates from the three assembly constituencies of Dakshina Kannada district.
Kolar constituency which is being anticipated by former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah as his second constituency was not also among the list of 42 constituencies where it announced candidates in the second list.
Former Karnataka Minister Vinay Kulkarni who was expected to contest against CM Basavaraj Bommai from Shiggaon has been fielded from the Dharwad constituency itself.
The Congress has marked the Melukote assembly constituency for Darshan Puttannaiah of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Party.
It has so far finalised 142 candidates for the polls. The first list of 100 candidates was released earlier.
The candidates were finalised at a meeting of the Central Election Committee headed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and top party leaders from Karnataka, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, state chief DK Shivakumar and All India Congress Committee in-charge for the state, Randeep Surjewala, were present at the meeting.
The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in Karnataka, the only southern state where the saffron party is in power.
The elections to the 224-member assembly will be held on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.
The CEC of Congress has finalised the second list of candidates for the upcoming Karnataka assembly elections. pic.twitter.com/7gyaXucKzt
— Congress (@INCIndia) April 6, 2023
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Suburban rail project: HC halts axing of 368 trees at Bengaluru Cantonment
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has ordered that no trees should be cut or damaged on over eight acres of land near Cantonment Railway Station, where a suburban rail project has been proposed, The New Indian Express reported on Thursday.
The order was reportedly issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonacha after hearing a PIL filed by former MLA AT Ramaswamy and three others. Notices were issued to the state government, central government, Karnataka Biodiversity Board and the tree officer.
Countering the apprehension expressed by the counsel for petitioners over the move to axe trees, the Additional Solicitor General of India (on behalf of the Centre), submitted that the state has rightly withdrawn the notification as it was issued without consulting the Centre.
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Also, the petition is premature as the application has been made to the tree officer seeking permission to cut trees for the suburban rail project on the land in question, he said.
The petitioners reportedly said the land is an old green space with 371 large trees and forms part of the Cantonment Railway Station area. They argued that a public notice was issued in April inviting objections to the plan to remove 368 trees for the suburban rail project.
The notice stated that the commercial development project will come up on the land measuring 34,856 sq mts, which has been leased to a private company.
They also pointed out that the state government had earlier decided to declare the area a biodiversity heritage site, but the notification was withdrawn in December without explanation.
They termed the decision atrocious and the reasons given absurd. The petitioners alleged that, “It is very clear that all is not well with the state, which has taken a retrograde decision, though it is a matter of grave concern, which will have an adverse impact on Bengaluru’s environment.”
