Karnataka waiting to oust BJP government: Surjewala after Cong's victory in local body polls
New Delhi, Dec 30: The Congress on Thursday said its victory in the Karnataka local body polls is a clear indication that issues such as anti-conversion laws do not strike a chord with the people of the southern state, who are "waiting to throw out the BJP government".
"It is evident from recent by-election results that people are waiting to throw out the illegitimate and corrupt BJP government that has eclipsed progress and paralysed governance," Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement here.
He said the vote share in the Karnataka local body polls also indicates a huge slide in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) popularity in the state.
"The vote share of Congress came up to 42.06 per cent, where as for BJP and JD(S), it stood at 36.9 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively," Surjewala, who is the in-charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka, said.
He said successive election results of late have clearly established that the voters care the most about price rise, falling incomes, jobs, rampant corruption and the BJP government's apathy towards public welfare.
"Manufactured issues like anti-conversion laws and management of temples are not what people are going to be taken in with.
"Progressive Kannadigas realise that such issues are meant to serve no one but divisive forces. Every second that the spurious and corrupt Bommai government continues, it is an anathema to development and progress," Surjewala said.
In the elections to 58 urban local bodies, Surjewala said Congress emerged victorious in 500 wards, against the 435 won by the ruling BJP. The JD(S) bagged only 45 wards.
Surjewala congratulated Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar, CLP leader Siddaramaiah, the MLAs and all senior leaders of the party on the electoral outcome.
"Their continued hard work and unity in action will bring the Congress back to power in the state and usher in a new era of putting Karnataka as the number one state in development," he said.
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TMC MP Mahua Moitra moves SC challenging Waqf (Amendment) Act
New Delhi (PTI): Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has also approached the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
Meanwhile, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan has listed for hearing on April 16 ten other petitions, including the one filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, challenging the validity of the law.
Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rahman Barq, had recently also filed a plea on the issue in the apex court.
Moitra, who filed her plea on April 9, has said the controversial amendment not only suffered from serious procedural lapses but also violated several fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
“It is submitted that the violation of parliamentary practices during the law-making process has contributed to the unconstitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025,” the plea said.
“Procedurally, the Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee flouted parliamentary rules and practices both at the stage of consideration and adoption of the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill and at the stage of presentation of the said report before Parliament,” it said.
The plea said that dissenting opinions from the opposition MPs were reportedly redacted without justification from the final report presented in Parliament on February 13, 2025.
Such actions undermined the deliberative process of Parliament and violated established norms as outlined in authoritative parliamentary procedure manuals, it said.
The plea said the new law allegedly infringed upon Articles 14 (equality before the law), 15(1) (non-discrimination), 19(1)(a) and (c) (freedom of speech and association), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), 25 and 26 (freedom of religion), 29 and 30 (minority rights), and Article 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.
Moitra sought striking down of the Act in its entirety, citing its procedural irregularities and substantive violations of the Constitution.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan, Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, Arshad Madani, Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, Anjum Kadari, Taiyyab Khan Salmani, Mohammad Shafi, Mohammed Fazlurrahim and RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha have also moved the top court on the issue.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed are other key petitioners in the case.
