Kudligi BJP MLA N Y Gopalakrishna resigns, set to join Congress
Bengaluru: Kudligi BJP MLA N Y Gopalakrishna on Friday resigned as legislator, ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka, and is likely to join the Congress.
Gopalakrishna met Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri at his office here and submitted the resignation.
According to reports, he had recently met senior State Congress leaders D K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, and held discussions.
Gopalakrishna was earlier with the Congress and had got elected from Molakalmuru Assembly segment in Chitradurga district four times (1997, 1999, 2004 and 2008).
On not getting the Congress ticket in 2018, he had joined the BJP ahead of the elections. The party gave him a ticket from Kudligi in Vijayanagara district instead of Molakalmuru, as senior leader Sriramulu was fielded from there. He had won from there.
Earlier this month, two MLCs from BJP -- Puttanna and Baburao Chinchansur -- quit from their Legislative Council membership to join the Congress.
JD(S) MLA S R Srinivas (Gubbi Srinivas alias Vasu) on Thursday joined the Congress, after resigning as MLA on March 27.
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Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya case: Hope emerges as Iran may contact victim’s family in bid for pardon
New Delhi: There appears to be a glimmer of hope for Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala on death row in Yemen, as report suggest Iranian officials may reach out to the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, her former business partner, to seek a pardon through blood money. Priya was sentenced to death for Mahdi's murder.
The 37-year-old nurse is currently imprisoned in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis.
A report by The New Indian Express published on Friday stated that discussions are underway to gain the victim's family’s support in seeking a pardon. “It’s a relief of sorts. Iran officials could use their good offices with Houthis for the reach-out with family of the victim. Some cash has been arranged for blood money and talks are on to get the family on board to seek pardon, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” a source told the publication.
It is learnt that using an appropriate intermediary equivalent of Rs 30 lakh has been kept ready, the report added.
Hailing from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, the nurse was found guilty of murdering the Yemeni citizen in July 2017. She was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 while Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023.
Mahdi, reportedly died from an overdose of sedatives allegedly injected by Priya to retrieve her passport from him.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Indian government is extending all possible help in the matter. “We are closely following the developments around the sentencing of Nimisha Priya. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” he said last week.
