Happy Siddaramaiah becomes longest-serving CM of Karnataka: Shivakumar
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has congratulated Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as he is about to complete a record tenure, saying it is a proud moment and that the veteran Congress leader will continue to remain in the history books.
"This is a happy moment. I wish him well. Everyone has an ambition to achieve in life. He has been in the history books in the past, and he will be (there) in the future too," Shivakumar told reporters, referring to Siddaramaiah surpassing the record of Devaraj Urs on Wednesday and becoming the longest-serving chief minister of Karnataka.
On speculation about his own political future, Shivakumar said he has risen from a village background to his present position and asked reporters not to put words in his mouth.
There was a stiff power tussle between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar over the top post in the southern state. It intensified in mid-November, after the Congress government touched the halfway mark in its tenure.
Amid the heightened shadow boxing, the Congress high command intervened and the two leaders put up a united front through "breakfast diplomacy" in December.
On an incident of violence in Ballari, where clashes between Congress and BJP workers resulted in the death of a Congress worker in firing, Shivakumar said, "We want peace in Ballari. The people there have suffered enough in the past, and we do not want any trouble for them in the future."
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BJP’s Nitin Nabin slams TMC over infiltration, SIR row
Kolkata (PTI): BJP president Nitin Nabin on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the TMC government in West Bengal, accusing it of protecting illegal infiltrators, targeting Hindus and playing “dirty politics” to derail the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.
Nabin alleged that there was a deliberate attempt by the TMC to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh and claimed that while the Election Commission was determined to weed out infiltrators and fake voters, the ruling party was committed to protecting them.
“The TMC government wants West Bengal to merge with Bangladesh. Under its rule, the demography of the state is being changed, posing a threat to national security,” he said.
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Dismissing the TMC’s allegation that the EC was harassing common people through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the BJP president said it was the state administration that was intimidating citizens to malign the poll panel.
“It is not the Election Commission that is harassing people. It is the TMC government’s SDOs and BDOs who are doing it to create fear and discredit the EC,” he alleged.
Nabin also accused the TMC government of being a protector of infiltrators and claimed that lawlessness had replaced governance in the state.
“Factories have been shut, and enterprises of corruption and lawlessness have been opened. Women are not safe under the TMC rule, and Hindus are being tortured,” he alleged.
Asserting that the BJP was fighting against what he described as the misrule of the TMC in West Bengal, Nabin said the party would continue efforts to curb infiltration, electoral manipulation and administrative intimidation in the state.
