Congress Wins 3 RS Seats in Karnataka, BJP Bags 1
Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka bagged three Rajya Sabha seats and BJP one in the biennial election, amid a boycott of the poll by the JDS, alleging electoral malpractice.
Congress' Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar, and also BJP's Rajeev Chandrashekar were declared elected after a complaint by the JDS to the Election Commission caused delay in taking up counting of votes.
With its strength in the Assembly, the Congress was sure of winning two seats and eyed the third seat and won it with the support of JDS rebels and independents.
The fight was for the third seat between the third candidate of the Congress' Chandrasekhar and JDS' B M Farooq, with the ruling party pulling off a bonus victory.
JDS has 37 MLAs, falling short of the required 44 votes by 14, with its seven rebels plumping for the Congress. Businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar secured 50 votes, six more than required, with the support from smaller parties and independents.
Congress' Chandrasekhar received 46 votes, Hanumanthaiah 44 and Hussain 42.
Two votes were declared invalid and two rejected. Taking cognisance of a complaint by JDS, the Election Commission directed the Returning Offficer M S Kumaraswamy to reject two votes cast by Congress MLAs and seggregate them before taking up counting as EC found violation of procedures under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
JDS boycotted the polls midway alleging electoral malpractice and collusion of the returning officer with the Congress.
Rejecting the charge, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: "It appears they (JDS) are desperate...they havetried everything.. they had gone to the court (on seven rebel JDS MLA issue), they failed in the court, and desperately they are making these allegations."
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19-year-old woman raped by 5 men, including driver of police vehicle, in Chhattisgarh; 2 detained
Korba (Chhattisgarh)(PTI): A 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped by five men, including the driver of police's emergency response service vehicle, in Chhattisgarh's Korba district, police said on Saturday.
Two accused, including the driver of Dial 112 police helpline vehicle, have been taken into custody, they said.
The incident took place on January 8 night under the Bankimongra police station limits when one of the five accused known to the victim called her, a police official here said.
The accused took the girl to a deserted house in Bankimongra, where the driver and four others allegedly took turns to rape her, he said.
After the incident, the accused fled the spot, leaving the victim in an unconscious condition. The victim later managed to reach her home and narrated the ordeal to her family members, who immediately took her to the medical college hospital and later informed the police, he said.
The case was initially registered as a zero FIR at the Civil Lines police station on Friday and later transferred to Bankimongra police station for investigation, he said.
Korba Superintendent of Police Siddharth Tiwari, two accused, including the private driver of 'Dial 112' service have been detained in the case and efforts are on to trace three other accused.
