Bengaluru:

Karnataka Congress president and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has once again warned that if anyone crosses the line while making statements about creating more Dy CM’s posts or changing the Chief Minister, the party will take action.

Speaking to the media after an office bearers’ meeting in Bengaluru, Mr Shivakumar said, “I don’t need support from any legislator or seer. We need to build the party now. If anyone crosses the limits, the party will make its own decision.”

He announced that a fact-finding committee would be formed to investigate the reasons for the setback in the general election. “The Lok Sabha election result in Karnataka is not satisfactory. We expected to win more than 15 seats, but that didn’t happen. The committee will find out why the party suffered a setback in other regions of the state, except Kalyana Karnataka region,” he stated.

The study will be conducted in every assembly constituency. New faces and six women candidates were given opportunities, and two of them won. The media predicted that the Congress would win only two seats, but the party won nine MP seats, but it is not satisfactory. The party could have won four to five more seats, Mr Shivakumar said.

The fact-finding committee will analyse where the party went wrong and why people didn’t support it despite implementing all the schemes. There was no Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave in the state, and unlike the BJP there was no infighting within the Congress; the leaders worked unitedly, Mr Shivakumar claimed.

Zone-wise meetings will be held by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and himself, Mr Shivakumar stated. The fact-finding committee of the All India Congress Committee will visit every state, but as they can’t visit all the constituencies, the state Congress will give a report to them.

Mr Shivakumar informed that three teams have been formed to strategize for the by-polls in three assembly constituencies. “We have already received a report about the Shiggaon assembly seat. After July 3, a report on the Sandur seat will be submitted, and Minister for Agriculture N. Cheluvarayaswamy will submit the Mandya assembly segment’s report,” he stated.

Additionally, a letter has been written to the central government to increase medical seats to assist NRI students in Karnataka, and steps will be taken in favour of NRI students in 20 government-run engineering colleges, he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Amid voices raised in Congress for making more Deputy Chief Ministers in Karnataka, state Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said that there is “no demand”, adding that some people just wanted to have their names circulated in the news.

“There is no demand. All is this media creation. Some of them just wanted to have their names circulated in the news. That’s it,” DK Shivakumar said.

Earlier on June 25, Karnataka Minister and Congress leader KN Rajanna on Monday demanded additional Deputy Chief Ministers in Karnataka and asked the party high command to consider the request.

“Because of the parliament elections, it was delayed. I want the party’s high command to consider my request. Many ministers think that many communities who are supporting the Congress party should be given representation of Deputy CMs. But I am not the aspirant,” KN Rajanna told ANI.

The demand for more Deputy Chief Ministers was also raised before the Lok Sabha elections by the Congress leaders.

DK Shivakumar, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, serves as the only Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

The Karnataka Assembly elections were held last year in which Congress won 135 seats pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the only southern state it ruled.

BJP managed to win 66 seats. Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) bagged 19 seats. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha won one seat each.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

From a point where it was reportedly struggling to get ministers and lawmakers to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka, the Congress has now found itself facing a problem of plenty as well as a public feud in the prestige constituency of Kolar. Five legislators from the party, including a minister, have threatened to resign over the former MP from the seat pushing for his son-in-law to be named the candidate.  

The tussle has brought factionalism in the Congress out in the open in Karnataka, where the party is hoping to do well this time. In the last Lok Sabha elections, it had managed to get its candidate elected in just one of the 28 seats in the state and had also lost Kolar, where it had won every single time – barring one – since the first general elections in 1952. 

Since 1991, the constituency was won by KH Muniyappa, who is now the food and civil supplies minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet and is seeking a ticket for his son-in-law Chikka Peddanna. Even though the party has not announced the candidate yet, three MLAs from Kolar district, including a minister, and two members of the legislative council (MLCs) have already threatened to resign over the proposed move.

The objection stems from the fact that Mr Pedanna getting the ticket would ensure representation for communities classified as Scheduled Castes (SC)-Left in Karnataka as opposed to the SC-Right, which the legislators are pushing for. 

The MLAs who have threatened to resign are G Manjunath (Kolar Assembly constituency), KY Nanjegowda (Malur constituency) and MC Sudhakar (Chintamani constituency) and the MLCs are Anil Kumar and Naseer Ahmed. Mr Sudhakar is the state’s higher education minister and Mr Ahmed is the political secretary to chief minister Siddaramaiah.

While the MLCs met the Legislative Council chairman and showed their resignation letters to journalists, the MLAs were planning to meet the Assembly Speaker. 

Mr Sudhakar said, “I have all respect for the party high command, but here we want others to get representation. That is the only issue. Since some people are trying to put pressure on the high command to get the seat, we thought there is no point continuing. We would rather sit at home than continue.”

Later, all the legislators decided to hold off on their resignations after being asked to do so by Mr Siddaramaiah and Congress state chief and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. Urban Development Minister BS Suresha rushed to meet the legislators to convince them not to resign.

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Muniyappa, who is a seven-time MP from Kolar and lost to the BJP’s S Muniswamy in 2019, said he could win the seat again if given the chance but will abide by the party leadership’s decision. 

“These things happen but, unfortunately, it has reached a peak now. We had all met the chief minister and deputy chief minister. I told them I had lost the elections only once and appealed to them to give an opportunity and I would win the seat. They (the other side) also proposed some names. All MLAs had decided to leave the decision to the party high command and we will abide by it. That was the end and this is a surprise development.”

“I don’t want to say anything on the issue. I am a disciplined soldier of the party and will abide by whatever the leadership decides,” he added.

Key Constituency

The BJP and its ally, Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal Secular, also had disagreements about who would keep the Kolar constituency, with the latter finally getting it in its quota of three. For the Congress, the seat is doubly important because the party swept to power in the state in the Assembly polls last year and has been hoping to make a significant dent in the 25 constituencies the BJP had won in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. 

Political Scientist Professor Sandeep Shastri said, “This is clearly a problem for the Congress. They lost the seat after many elections last time and now, in their effort to regain it, several groups in Kolar are fighting for space. It will be a test for its conflict management.”

On whether the Congress’ scale of victory in the 2023 Assembly polls, when it won 135 of the state’s 224 seats, also comes with a flipside, Mr Shastri said, “It is about local level unity in the constituency – do faction leaders come together to get their candidate to win or do they use the opportunity to get their candidate to lose.”

He pointed out that it will be critical for the Congress to push its message of five guarantees, which was a key factor in its Assembly polls win. 

(With inputs from PTI)

Bengaluru:

Karnataka’s ruling Congress is having trouble finding candidates to field in the Lok Sabha elections. Sources told NDTV that several ministers of the state — which is also the home state of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge — have already turned down the request to contest. Reason: No one wants to leave positions of power in the state and dive into uncertainty, sources indicated.

In the 2019 general election, the BJP won 25 seats, the Congress won one and HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal secular, which is currently in alliance with the BJP, won one seat. One seat went to an Independent, supported by the BJP.

This time, with the party’s victory in the state in last year’s assembly election and good response to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress is hoping for a change in fortune.

Sources said the party’s Central leadership wants ministers of Siddaramaiah government to contest some of the state’s 28 Lok Sabha seats. The ministers on the Central leaders’ list include Satish Jarkiholi, B Nagendra, Krishna Byre Gowda, K H Muniyappa, H K Patil and Ishwar Khandre. But sources said none are on the same page.

Several, including Lakshmi Hebbalkar, have  refused.

Ms Hebbalkar, the minister of Women and Child Development in the Siddaramaiah government, said she wants her son Mrinal Hebbalkar to contest.

“This is the hope of the people of Belagavi and the leaders here, his name has also been recommended,” Ms Hebbalkar told reporters.

“I have come to know from the media… even when my brother was chosen to be made a member of the Legislative Council, all the leaders of the district together took this decision,’ she added.

Social Welfare Minister SC Mahadevappa has flatly refused, without citing any reason.

“I am not a Lok Sabha candidate. I will not contest elections. I will try for the victory of whoever the high command gives the ticket to,” he told reporters.

Sources said the party is going to take a hard line on the issue. State party chief DK Shivakumar said, “Everyone will have to accept whatever the party high command decides, even I will have to accept it. We all are here because of the party. Everyone will accept the decision and will win most of the seats”.

Congress general secretary in charge of the state, Randeeep Surjewala, said, “Only one minister has been asked to contest so far and he has asked for time to consider the matter”.

New Delhi:

Voting for four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka is on today amid suspense over potential cross-voting, which drove the Congress to move all its MLAs to a private resort on Monday.

Five candidates are in the Rajya Sabha race, including Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar from the Congress, Narayansa Bhandage from the BJP, and Kupendra Reddy from JD(S).

The voting began at 9 am and will go on till 4 pm before the counting at 5 pm.

The Congress, which has 134 MLAs, faces a tough challenge from the BJP with 66 MLAs, JD(S) with 19, and four others. The Congress claims the support of two independents and Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha among the ‘others’ and is confident of securing three seats. Interestingly, G Janardhana Reddy, a mining baron and a former BJP minister from Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha, met with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday

The contest intensified after the BJP-JD(S) alliance fielded its second candidate, Kupendra Reddy, despite having the strength to secure only one out of the four available seats.

Mr Reddy said that his party, as part of the NDA, has not sought any favors from anyone but acknowledged that there could be cross-voting.

“Most probably cross voting will happen. If we threatened someone or asked for votes, they (Congress) should have complained to the Election Commission. We did not ask for votes from anybody,” Mr Reddy said.

HD Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) chief, said that the Congress had been attempting to destabilise his party from the outset, leading them to nominate a candidate to demonstrate strength. He assured that there would be no cross-voting from JD(S).

“Since Day 1, the Congress has been trying to destabilize the JDS. In order to demonstrate our strength, we asked our candidate to file a nomination. There will be no cross-voting from my party,” Mr Kumaraswamy said.

In this Rajya Sabha election in Karnataka, each candidate needs 45 votes to secure victory when only four candidates are in the fray. However, if there are more candidates, preference votes come into play, complicating the electoral dynamics.

The election is triggered by the retirement of Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekar from the BJP and Congress members GC Chandrashekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain, and L Hanumanthaiah, whose terms expires on April 2. MLAs are using an open ballot system to cast their votes.

 

The budget has proposed a revenue surplus of ₹402 crore, breaking the trend of revenue deficit budgets for the past two years

February 17, 2023 10:08 am | Updated 02:59 pm IST

Aided by a buoyant economy, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai presented a ‘please-all’ revenue surplus budget with no tax hike on February 17, less than 100 days ahead of Assembly elections in the State. The budget outlay has, for the first time, crossed the ₹3 lakh crore mark, and is pegged at ₹3,09,182 crore, up from ₹2,65,720 lakh crore in 2022-23.

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Fiscal deficit has been reined in at ₹60,581 crore, or 2.60% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). With borrowings of ₹77,750 crore, the liabilities at the end of 2023-24 are pegged at ₹5,64,896 lakh crore, or 24.20% of GSDP, thereby satisfying all parameters of Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2002.

The budget has proposed a revenue surplus of ₹402 crore, breaking the trend of revenue deficit budgets for the past two years, when the budgets did not comply with the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2002.

Also read: Ceiling for interest-free loans to farmers increased from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh

The Budget speech is also being seen as a poll pitch for the ruling BJP and an exercise in “articulating the legacy” of Mr. Bommai. CM Bommai had earlier described the Budget as a “Budget for the voiceless”, with a focus on “farmers, working class, poor, and women”, setting its political tone.

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