Belagavi, December 3: “Operation Lotus is not a new thing for BJP people. Ever since the coalition government came to power in the state, the BJP has been trying to poach the MLAs from other parties through Operation Lotus. But no MLA of the Congress would fall prey to their conspiracy”, said former minister Satish Jarkiholi.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday, he said that it was common that some of the MLAs in the party have differences of opinion. It was there in the times of all chief ministers.  But he did not have any information on giving complaint to the party high command against Siddaramaiah. “I am not in touch with any disgruntled MLAs. I don’t have information about it. But we have already apprised of our demands to the high command. We have appealed the high command to do the cabinet expansion as early as possible and it has promised of doing it”, he said.  

Cabinet expansion would help the government to do its administration easily. Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has already clarified that he would not take any MLAs to anywhere, he said.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Hyderabad (PTI): Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday appointed India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan as interim captain for the early part of IPL 2026, with Abhishek Sharma as his deputy, while Pat Cummins recovers from his injury.

Cummins has been sidelined with a stress injury on his lower back, which kept him away for a major part of the last Ashes series Down Under as well as the T20 World Cup.

"Pat Cummins will miss a few games while recovering from injury. Until he recovers, Ishan Kishan will be the captain and Abhishek Sharma will be the vice-captain," the franchise said on social media.

IPL 2016 winners SRH, however, did not specify the number of matches Cummins is set to miss.

Kishan's appointment as SRH's stand-in skipper comes after a successful run across formats.

The left-handed batter played a key role in India's title-winning campaign in the T20 World Cup, finishing as the fourth-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 317 runs in nine matches at 199.37. He averaged 80.25 and struck three half-centuries.

His exploits with the willow also saw Kishan rising to the No.2 spot in the ICC rankings for T20I batters, a list which is led by Abhishek.

Earlier this season, Kishan had captained Jharkhand to their first-ever title in India's premier domestic T20 competition, Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.