World Bank ranks UAE, Bahrain as top nations in Arab world for human capital

The BJP has selected Kishore Kumar Puttur as its candidate for the bypoll to Karnataka Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Local Authorities’ Constituency. The by-election will be held on October 21.

Kishore Kumar is presently serving as the General Secretary of Dakshina Kannada BJP unit. He had served as vice president of State BJP Yuva Morcha from 2014 to 2016.

The by-election will be held to the seat vacated by Kota Srinivas Poojary of the BJP who has been elected as the Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikmagaluru Lok Sabha constituency. The vacancy was created on June 15, 2024 following Poojary’s resignation to the Council. His term in the council was till January, 2028.

In the last Council election held for the dual member constituency in December 2021, Poojary had secured 3,672 votes while the Congress candidate Manjunath Bhandary had secured 2079 votes. Poojary and Bhandary had secured required votes from the first preferential votes and had won the election.

There were several aspirants for the BJP ticket including former MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, DK BJP president Satish Kumpala, Mangaluru divisional in-charge Uday Kumar Shetty, former minister Pramod Madhwaraj and former Udupi district BJP president Kuilady Suresh Nayak.

The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the election. KPCC working president Manjunath Bhandary in a recent press meet in Mangaluru had said that an opportunity will be given to congress leaders from Udupi district to contest by-election.

The Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Local Authorities’ Constituency has 6037 voters including 3551 from Dakshina Kannada comprising eight MLAs, one MP. The last date for filing nomination is October 3 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is October 7. The counting will be held on October 24.

Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao reminded that V D Savarkar was not against cow slaughter as he himself was non-veg eater, PTI reported on Thursday.

"As a Brahmin he was eating meat, and he was openly propagating eating meat," said the minister at an event in Bengaluru.

Reacting to Gundu Rao's claim, BJP MP Anurag Thakur called Congress a "factory of lies" as he warned that India won't tolerate any disrespect towards Savarkar.

"By disrespecting Veer Savarkar they have shown that they don't respect freedom fighters. During the Congress government, Sardar Bhagat Singh was termed a separatist in textbooks...By making those who want to break the nation join the congress party, Rahul Gandhi is taking forward the ideology of 'tukde tukde' and he is a 'modern Jinnah' who speaks ill of the country abroad...," he said.

Meanwhile, a court in Maharashtra's Nashik district summoned Congress MP Rahul Gandhi earlier this week in a defamation case filed against him for his alleged objectionable remarks against the Hindutva ideologue.

The complainant, who is the director of an NGO, claimed he watched a press conference addressed by Gandhi in Hingoli and also a speech made by the Congress leader in November 2022.

He alleged that Gandhi, on the two occasions, by his words and visual representations knowingly harmed the reputation of Veer Savarkar and also tried to defame the latter's image in the society.

According to the complainant, Gandhi said "Savarkar is BJP and RSS jin" which was defamatory in nature.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the dire consequences of the Israeli regime’s ongoing deadly aggression against the regional countries.

“The Israeli regime is dragging the entire region into a catastrophe,” the top diplomat told the Saudi royal in the Arab country’s capital Riyadh on Wednesday.

Araghchi was referring to the regime’s October 7, 2023-present genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, as well as its escalated attacks on Lebanon, which have claimed thousands of other lives.

“Insight, wisdom, courage, and cooperation are what the region needs to overcome this challenging time,” he added.

Araghchi said he had held “very important” discussions with bin Salman concerning “vital issues of common concern.”

He also commented on an earlier meeting with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan, noting that the countries would always be bonded as a result of geographical contiguity and stay each other’s brothers through faith.

“Together, the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia can award the region with security and stability,” he said, adding, “This requires a higher level of political will.”

“I am glad to have taken the first steps down a long path alongside my Saudi counterpart today.”

Araghchi left Tehran for the kingdom on Wednesday on a regional tour that took him to the Qatari capital of Doha next.

He had visited Lebanon’s capital Beirut on October 4 as part of a two-day tour, holding talks with Lebanese officials before visiting the Syrian capital of Damascus the following day to meet with Syrian leaders.