'Few friends' in Congress wanted to see fall of coalition govt: Deve Gowda
Bengaluru, Aug 21: Nearly a month after the fall of the coalition government in Karnataka, JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday alleged that "few friends" in alliance partner Congress could not see his son H D Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister.
"..few Congress friends wanted to remove the government (coalition).They could not see Kumaraswamy sitting in that post (Chief Minister)," Gowda told reporters here.
The former prime minister also lashed out at the Centre for "not releasing even a rupee" as relief for the flood-hit state and pointed out that there were 25 BJP MPs from Karnataka, and even threatened an agitation.
The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka collapsed on July 22 after the confidence motion moved by the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was defeated in the assembly, ending his 14-month long turbulent tenure.
The Congress and JD(S), considered arch rivals, especially in old Mysuru region, had bitterly fought against each other during the 2018 assembly polls.
However, both parties had joined hands to form an alliance government as the assembly polls threw up a hung verdict and to keep BJP the single largest party in the 225 member assembly out of power.
Right from day one, the coalition government had been facing trouble from within as other than top leaders of both parties their rank and file had not accepted the alliance, which resulted in deadlines being set for the collapse of the government, amid alleged poaching of its MLAs by the BJP.
Repeated coalition worries affected the smooth functioning of the government.
Reflecting strains in the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka, Kumaraswamy had said he was "not happy" being in the top post and was swallowing the pain like 'Vishakantha' (Lord Shiva), who drank poison.
Many legislators and also ministers from the Congress demanded that their legislature party chief Siddaramaiah be made the chief minister, which resulted in Kumaraswamy even threatening to step down.
Raising a banner of rebellion, seventeen MLAs (14 from the Congress and 3 JDS) had resigned which culminated in the fall of the coalition government.
Following the collapse, BJP under the leadership of B S Yediyurappa formed the government on July 26 and proved its majority in the assembly on July 28.
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LPG hoarders nabbed with 74 cylinders in Delhi's Mahipalpur
New Delhi (PTI): Three men were arrested in southwest Delhi's Mahipalpur for allegedly hoarding LPG cylinders to sell them at a premium price, police said on Sunday.
They were identified as Krishna, Dinesh Sahu, and Mithilesh, aged 33, 46, and 39, all from Bihar but living in Delhi.
The police seized 74 LPG cylinders – 70 domestic and four commercial - along with a transport vehicle and refilling equipment in the raid on Saturday, an officer said.
"The trio was engaged in illegally storing LPG cylinders and supplying them to local customers without bills or licences. They allegedly used metal pipes to transfer gas from multiple filled cylinders into empty ones to manipulate supply and increase margins," the officer said.
"During the search, a large number of LPG cylinders, weighing machines and gas transfer equipment were found. The accused failed to produce any valid documents for storage or distribution of the cylinders," the officer said.
Among the recovered items were 54 filled and 16 used domestic cylinders, three filled and one used commercial cylinder, an electronic weighing scale, two hanging weighing machines and equipment used for refilling gas.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Vasant Kunj North police station.
The three have been living in Delhi for over two decades and were allegedly involved in the illegal LPG trade in the Mahipalpur area for the past three years, the police said.
