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A day after a Vokkaliga seer publicly urged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to step down in favour of his deputy D K Shivakumar, a prominent seer from the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayat community on Friday called for ministers from his community to be considered if there is a change in the CM post.

Channasiddharam Swamiji of Srishail Peetham stated that if the Congress decides to change the state chief minister or create additional deputy chief minister positions, preference should be given to legislators from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

Speaking to reporters at Yadur village in Chikkodi taluk, the seer emphasized that people from the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community have voted for Congress in large numbers.

"If the Congress wants to change the chief minister or create more deputy chief minister posts, community members like M B Patil, Ishwar Khandre, S S Mallikarjun, and veteran Shamnur Shivashankarappa should be considered. During the government formation, Veerashaiva-Lingayat votes were decisive. Therefore, Veerashaiva-Lingayat ministers should be given priority and their experience utilized. I urge that they be given an opportunity," he said.

Talks in this regard have been held with Kashi, Ujjani, and other seers of Panchapeethas, and there is an understanding about the chief minister's post within the Congress. The grand old party should walk the talk, he added.

On Thursday, Vishwa Vokkaliga Mahasamastana Math seer Kumara Chandrashekaranatha Swamiji had raised the pitch for Shivakumar as CM during the Kempegowda Jayanti event, which commemorates the birth anniversary of Bengaluru's founder, in the presence of both Siddaramaiah and the deputy chief minister on the dais.

Mangaluru: A 21-year-old woman was allegedly electrocuted in a village in Belthangady taluka in Dakshina Kannada district, police said on Friday. 

The deceased has been identified as Pratiksha Shetty, they said, adding that the incident happened in Shibaje village within the Dharmasthala police limits on Thursday evening.

According to police, the woman had stepped out of her house to collect a parcel when she was electrocuted. An insulator of an electricity wire had broken and fallen into the water-filled trench, resulting in Pratiksha’s electrocution. 

She was heading towards the main road, just 100 meters from her home, to collect an online parcel she had ordered. The trench, which becomes waterlogged during the monsoon, lay in her path. 

She was electrocuted on the spot. Her father, Ganesh Shetty, also received a shock while attempting to rescue her.

Pratiksha was a resident of Bargula hamlet in Shibaje village, a police official said. The body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem, the official added.

This is the second incident of electrocution this week. Earlier, two autorickshaw drivers had come into contact with a live cable in Pandeshwar in Mangaluru city on Tuesday and died, police said.

Two persons narrowly escaped after their car fell into a river while driving through a forest in Kasaragod district of Kerala on June 27 morning.

Thashreef (36) of Pullur and his friend Abdur Rasheed (35) from 7th Mile were travelling from Ambalathara, Kanhangad, to Uppinangadi in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada when the accident occurred on the Palanji old bridge on the forest road connecting Kuttikol and Pandi at around 6 a.m.

Rashid was behind the wheels following the directions shown on Google Maps.

As they drove onto a bridge over the Pallanchi River, which lacked barricades and was submerged due to heavy rainfall, they mistook it as a road. It was dark outside and the path was not visible leading to the accident.

The car drifted about 150 meters before getting stuck in some plants. The duo managed to escape by lowering the side windows. Soon they informed their relatives about the accident via phone, who subsequently alerted fire force officials.

Fire force along with local residents rescued Rashid and Thashreef, who sustained minor injuries in the accident. Efforts to retrieve the car from the river are ongoing. 

Notably, a new, taller bridge was constructed 500 meters from the accident spot four years ago, but Google Maps still shows the old bridge.