Bengaluru, May 14: Prominent Vokkaliga pontiff of Adi Chunchanagiri Nirmalananda Natha Swamiji on Sunday appealed to the Congress leadership to appoint Karnataka party unit president D K Shivakumar as the next chief minister of the state.

In the wake of Congress getting a thumping majority in the Assembly polls, he also said Shivakumar is the most eligible candidate by all standards to head the state.

The Vokkaliga Sangha, which is the main body of one of the dominant communities of Karnataka, organised a meeting of Vokkaliga pontiffs where a unanimous decision was taken to request the Congress top brass to appoint Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga who has been steering the state unit, as the next chief minister.

"This programme has been organised to request all the seniors right from Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah to give Shivakumar an opportunity to run the administration and serve the society," Nirmalananda Natha Swamiji said.

He added that Shivakumar had suffered a lot while discharging his duty. "We all saw tears in his eyes yesterday, which were a mix of joy and pain. The man who toiled so much should get the result," the seer said.

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Chikkamagaluru: A wild elephant attacked a farmer sleeping in a coffee plantation near Hukkunda village in the Allur area of Chikkamagaluru district on Sunday morning.

Narayan Gowda, the farmer, was guarding coffee beans spread out for drying when the elephant lifted him with its trunk and tossed him aside. Fortunately, he landed on a pile of hay nearby, avoiding severe injuries. He sustained minor injuries and was admitted to a hospital.

The locals immediately informed the Forest Department officials, who rushed to the spot and took necessary action.

With increasing incidents of wild elephant menace in the region, villagers have urged the authorities to relocate the elephants to a different area.

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