HD Kumaraswamy making offers for RS elections, threatening MLAs to buy votes, alleges DK Shivakumar
Bengaluru, Feb 19: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Monday claimed he has information' that JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy was making offers to Congress MLAs to buy their votes for the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections in the state.
The Rajya Sabha election scene in Karnataka has heated up with the BJP-JD(S) combine fielding its second candidate, even though the alliance has the strength to win only one out of the four seats which go to polls.
Speaking to reporters here, Shivakumar, also the Congress Karnataka unit chief, said: "We know whom H D Kumaraswamy is making phone calls to, what he is speaking and what offers he is making. Our MLAs have given us all the information. We are aware of BJP's strategy."
Asked if the Opposition parties are trying for cross voting, he said, "Have they (BJP) fielded the candidate without any reason? They fielded the candidate to make their efforts. Let us see who votes for whom on February 27 (the voting day)."
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"He (Kumaraswamy) has spoken, made offers (to Congress MLAs), they (MLAs) came and told me. He had threatened them. I am aware of it. I will not speak on it now," Shivakumar said.
JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda joined the BJP-led NDA last year.
The ruling Congress, which has 135 MLAs in the 224 member Assembly, with the support of Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha and two Independents is expected to retain three seats out of the four RS seats.
The BJP and JD(S) with 66 and 19 members, respectively, are in a position to jointly win one seat in the elections, in which MLAs will vote.
The Congress has fielded Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain and G C Chandrasekhar. Former MLC Narayansa Bandage is the BJP candidate.
In a surprise move, JD(S) leader and former Rajya Sabha Member D Kupendra Reddy too filed a nomination last week, forcing a contest.
According to official sources, each candidate has to get 45 votes to win if there are only four candidates in the fray. In case there are more candidates, then preference votes will kick in.
Asked if Congress was working on a counter strategy to secure opposition votes for elections, Shivakumar said, "We don't need it. We have won 136 seats (in the assembly) and two Independent MLAs have identified themselves with us. I will not talk about others who are with us. We will demonstrate it and then we will talk."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
