Congress fields Nagaraju Yadav, Abdul Jabbar as candidates for Karnataka MLC elections
Bengaluru, May 23: Congress on Monday announced M Nagaraju Yadav and K Abdul Jabbar as its candidates for the biennial election to seven seats of Karnataka Legislative Council, to be elected by the members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), scheduled for June 3.
Tuesday is the last date to file nominations for the polls.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Yadav and Jabbar, AICC said in a release.
While, Yadav is the former chairman of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Jabbar is currently the president of the minority cell of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and a former MLC.
The election is necessitated as the term of office of seven members expires on June 14.
The seats will be falling vacant due to the retirement of MLCs -- Laxman Sangappa Savadi and Lahar Singh Siroya of BJP; Ramappa Timmapur, Allum Veerabhadrappa, Veena Achaiah S of Congress; and H M Ramesha Gowda and Narayana Swamy K V of JD(S).
According to official sources, in this election, each MLC candidate will require a minimum of 29 votes to win, and on the basis of minimum votes required and tallying it with the strength of each party in the Legislative Assembly, the BJP is expected to win four seats, Congress two, and JD(S) one.
There were too many MLC ticket aspirants in the Congress party.
State Congress president D K Shivakumar had earlier today said there were more than 200 aspirants for the two seats.
There were also talks about differences between Shivakumar and Congress Legislature party leader Siddaramaiah regarding candidates the State unit had recommended to the high command. However, both leaders had rejected such speculation.
Senior party leader and former Minister S R Patil was among the key aspirants for the ticket.
The polling will be held between 9 AM - 4 PM on June 3 and counting of votes at 5 PM that day.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
