Congress in talks with JD(S) ahead of counting in Karnataka
New Delhi, May 14: As the exit polls after the Karnataka Assembly election predicted a hung assembly in the state, with six surveys showing BJP emerging as the single largest party and three showing Congress in the lead, the Congress party has started talks with H.D. Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal(S) to forge a post-poll alliance.
The Congress has already sent two senior leaders of the party, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot, to Karnataka and they are in talks with the JD(S) leaders, said a party source.
However, former Chief Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) state President H.D. Kumaraswamy had left for Singapore on Sunday morning and was expected to be back late on Monday.
A Congress leader said the party will win close to 130 seats. "Our senior leaders are in talks with even those who have gone to Singapore," said a party source.
A day after a record 72.13 per cent of 5.06 crore electorate voted on a hot weekend, leaders of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday claimed their party would be winning hands down, while the JD-S vowed to decide who will form the next government, if it does not get majority.
Polling was held in 222 segments of the 224-member Assembly, as election to Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari (RR) Nagar had been postponed to May 28 following recovery of voter cards from a flat, while it was countermanded in Jayanagar segment due to the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases. Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
