NCP plans to field 40-45 candidates in Karnataka elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is planning to contest 40-45 seats in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections where the BJP, Congress and the JD(S) are locked in a triangular contest.
Pawar has summoned a meeting of party leaders in Mumbai on Saturday to finalise its plans for the assembly elections in Karnataka scheduled for May 10.
"We are meeting in Mumbai tomorrow to finalise our plans for the Karnataka elections," Pawar said here.
The move is also seen as an attempt by the NCP to regain the national party status it had to forego due to its depleted political fortunes in states such as Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur.
The NCP had written to the Election Commission for allocation of the alarm clock' symbol for the Karnataka Assembly elections, a request that was acceded to by the poll authority.
NCP leaders said that the party was planning to put up candidates on at least 40-45 of the total 224 seats, across the state and extend support to the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary region which is home to a sizeable Marathi-speaking population.
Pawar's announcement of plans for Karnataka came a day after his meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on the need to forge opposition unity to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The Congress has pinned its hopes of a big victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls as it yearns for a reversal of its sliding electoral performance since the loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Voting in the state will take place on May 10 and counting is scheduled for May 13.
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Minister Parameshwara says remarks on properties linked to drug peddlers 'misunderstood'
Tumakuru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Saturday said his recent remarks on the demolition of properties linked to those involved in narcotics trade were "misunderstood and misinterpreted".
His clarification follows remarks made two days ago on the government's uncompromising crackdown on the drug menace, including action against properties linked to foreign nationals allegedly involved in drug trafficking.
"It is unfortunate. It is taken in the wrong sense. I didn't mean that tomorrow itself I am going to send bulldozers and demolish the houses. That was not my intention. It was wrongly taken," he told reporters here.
Responding to Congress MLC K Abdul Jabbar's question in the legislative council on the growing drug menace in Bengaluru, Davangere and coastal districts, the minister on Thursday detailed the extensive enforcement measures initiated since the Congress government assumed office.
Pointing to the involvement of some foreign nationals, the minister had said, "Many foreign students from African countries have come to Karnataka. They are into the drug business. We catch them and register cases against them, but they want the case to be registered because once the case is registered, we cannot deport them."
"We have gone to the extent of demolishing the rented building where they stay," he had said.
