Decision to give Tumkur to JDS will not reduce Cong's hold in seat: Deputy CM Parameshwara
Tumkur, Apr 14: Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has said the Congress' decision to cede the Tumkur Lok Sabha seat to coalition partner JDS will not reduce the party's hold in the constituency and that their ultimate goal is to see Rahul Gandhi becoming prime minister.
Former prime minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda will take on former parliamentarian G S Basavaraj in Tumkur, which has changed hands between the Congress and the BJP in the past.
"The decision to allot the Tumkur constituency to Deve Gowda will not cut down the Congress' hold there. Our ultimate goal is to see Rahul Gandhi becoming the prime minister of India," Parameshwara told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of an election campaign event at Kolala village here.
Even Deve Gowda has expressed his desire to see Gandhi as prime minister, he added.
"There is a saying in English. It goes something like this - 'one has to accept defeat so that you don't break later' (sic). Therefore, I and my party decided not to field a candidate from Tumkur," he said.
Parameshwara and other local Congress leaders were earlier upset over the seat being denied to sitting MP Muddahanumegowda.
The deputy chief minister had to take a lot of heat from the Tumkur District Congress Committee for his inability to keep the seat for the party, while chairman of the coordination committee Siddaramaiah was successful in denying the Mysuru seat to the JDS despite pressure by the coalition partner.
Muddahanumegowda acknowledged that there was quite a ripple initially when the seat was given to the JDS, but after meeting Gandhi and the central leadership, he withdrew his nomination as an independent candidate.
"I met Rahul Gandhi and other leaders in Delhi. Gandhi told me to withdraw my nomination as a rebel candidate from Tumkur constituency. The scion told me 'you have to do that for India and its security and well being'. I immediately decided to withdraw and started helping Deve Gowda," he said.
The joint campaign trail of the coalition partners has witnessed tremendous response from people, Muddahanumegowda said.
"Having 30 years of political experience, I personally feel we are going to win this seat easily because the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has percolated down to common people and villagers," he added.
The political pundits, however, say there's a tough battle on the cards for Deve Gowda as he is contesting from a Congress bastion amid disquiet in both his party and ally Congress over allocation of seats and tickets.
They, however, do acknowledge the former prime minister's potential to bounce back as he did by winning the Kanakapura by-election in 2002, after he had lost to G Puttaswamy Gowda of the Congress in 1999 from Hassan.
Candidates of the Congress and the BJP have won ten and four times from the same constituency. It was a Congress stronghold from 1952 to 1989, till the party lost ground to the BJP.
G S Basavaraj is the BJP candidate. He won the seat thrice on a Congress ticket and once as a BJP nominee. He was defeated by Muddahanumegowda in 2014 elections.
The Vokkaliga leader has fielded his grandsons Nikhil K and Prajwal Revanna from Mandya and Hassan respectively. This has apparently left some of the senior JDS leaders, who were hopeful of getting tickets, unhappy.
Tumkur district comes under the Old Mysore region. The JDS has not won an MP seat from there, but C N Bhaskarappa had won in 1996 as undivided Janata Dal candidate.
Tumkur constituency, a dryland region, is spread over 6,706 sq.km. It had 15,94,703 registered voters - 7,97,512 males and 7,97,191 females - till January 2019.
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5 of family found dead in Mathura, mass suicide suspected
Mathura (UP) (PTI): A couple and their three minor children were found dead inside their home in Mathura's Khapparpur village on Tuesday, police said, suspecting that it is a case of mass suicide.
Police have recovered a suicide note from the spot. A video made by the patriarch of the family was also found on his mobile phone besides a message written on a wall, they said.
Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the deceased have been identified as Manish Kumar (35), a farmer, his wife aged around 32 and their two daughters -- Honey (8) and Priyanshi (5) -- and son Prateek (3).
"They were found dead inside a room of their house," he said.
The police said they received information about the incident from Manish Kumar's brother.
When the children didn't come out in the morning to play, Manish's brother went inside the house after jumping the wall and broke open the door, and found his family members dead. He was accompanied by some villagers.
In the alleged suicide note written by Manish Kumar, the 35-year-old said that he and his wife are willing ending their lives and nobody is responsible for their deaths, according to the police.
He was troubled by some problems and was not able to share them with others, Circle Officer (Mahavan) Shweta Verma said, citing the suicide note.
Calling it an unfortunate incident, Mathura District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said Manish recorded a video on his mobile before the incident.
In the video, Manish said that he is willingly taking the extreme step. He also mentioned that he recently sold a plot to someone for Rs 12 lakh and had also received money from the buyer.
The DM said that the chief minister has also expressed grief over the incident and directed officials to provide full support to the family and probe the matter from all angles.
SSP Kumar said the bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination and an investigation is underway.
Agra Divisional Commissioner Nagendra Pratap also visited the mortuary in the afternoon.
