Union Minister Pralhad Joshi alleges 'horse trading' of Congress MLAs amid Karnataka power tussle
Hubballi (PTI): Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Saturday claimed that "horse trading" of Congress MLAs is underway in Karnataka amid the alleged power tussle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar.
He also claimed Shivakumar's visit to jailed MLAs Vinay Kulkarni and KC Veerendra, also known as Puppy, in Bengaluru Central Prison was aimed at securing their support.
"There is infighting in Congress. Siddaramaiah does not want to leave the CM’s position, and Shivakumar does not want Siddaramaiah to continue as CM," Joshi told reporters here.
"Because of such a situation, both the camps are trying to purchase MLAs. You might have seen that Shivakumar has gone to jail to meet the MLAs to seek their support and pay whatever their price is," he added.
Accordgin to Joshi, the situation has reached a point where "horse trading" of Congress MLAs is going on. The administration in Karnataka "has collapsed due to the ongoing power tussle."
"The state is witnessing misadministration as there is no one to address issues arising from excess rains and poor road infrastructure," the union minister claimed.
He also criticised Bengaluru police, once on par with Delhi and Mumbai, saying "daylight robberies are now common", without elaborating much.
"Because of political instability, lack of direction, guidance, and control over bureaucracy, the administration has totally collapsed. It is in doldrums," Joshi alleged.
On Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding a maize price crash due to the alleged import of 17.94 lakh metric tonnes, Joshi said the figures were false.
"The CM has spoken about the import of 17.94 lakh tonnes of maize. People are giving false information. It is most unfortunate that the chief minister is sharing figures without taking proper inputs. Last time, during the sugarcane agitation, he did the same, and when I responded, he had no answers," the union minister said.
Two years ago, he said, 9.5 lakh MT was imported due to low sugarcane production.
"This time, no import has happened. Between 50,000 tonnes and one lakh tonnes were imported because India also exports maize. There is no import happening this time. When we are exporting more and importing less, so it is all bogus things he (CM) is telling," he claimed.
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Karnataka: Indigo disruption forces newlyweds to attend reception online
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): The venue was all decked up and a delicious spread ready for the invitees. But Megha Ksheerasagar and Sangam Das could not be present for their own wedding reception, thanks to the national flight disruptions that has sent many passengers across the country into a tizzy.
The newlyweds' reception was fixed here on December 3, but the couple was forced to attend their grand event only via video conference due to the disruptions in top carrier Indigo's operations, mainly due to crew woes.
Not meaning to miss the important day, the couple appeared on a large screen at the venue through video conferencing from Bhubaneswar, greeted the guests and apologised for not being personally present.
Instead, the bride's parents graced the occasion at the scheduled reception venue--Gujarat Bhavan, here, on behalf of the couple that had tied the knot on November 23 in Odisha's Bhubaneswar.
According to the family, the couple, both software engineers, work in Bengaluru. The reception was arranged at the bride's native place in Hubballi on Wednesday.
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To be part of their special day, the couple had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru-Hubballi route for December 2. Some relatives had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Hubballi route. However, due to operational disruptions, IndiGo flights were continuously delayed from 9 am on December 2 until early morning on December 3, and were eventually cancelled.
"My daughter's wedding happened on November 23 and we had organised a reception at our native place in Hubballi for people here. The flight kept getting delayed and at the last moment, at around 4 am, it got cancelled. Now what could we do after that. We had to come up with some solution. Then I decided to do the reception online. I immediately arranged for a screen and asked my daughter and son-in-law to join the reception online," the bride's father Anil Kumar Ksheerasagar told PTI Videos.
He urged the central government to take corrective measures so that public, being the tax payers, don't suffer.
"What the problem with IndiGo is, we don't know. My daughter and son-in-law were supposed to come via an IndiGo flight but that got cancelled. IndiGo alone can't be blamed. The government must understand that it is in case of emergencies that people prefer flights. Some measures need to be taken to resolve this issue. When the PM's flight gets cancelled, he is taken by helicopter. Why is the same not done for us, the common people. We also have emergencies, don't we. The government must think of this, and if they ignore public woes, they should remember that we are also VIPs because we pay tax."
Relatives had come for the reception from across the country--Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bagalkote, Davangere and Belagavi.
"I didn't know what to do as relatives and guests had come from so many places. I was stressed, but then I quickly decided to do it online," Ksheerasagar said.
As the couple could not travel to Hubballi, the bride's parents sat in place of the newly-weds at the reception venue and conducted the rituals, while the bride and groom, dressed up in Bhubaneswar, attended their grand reception online.
