Amid DKS-Siddaramaiah tussle, new claims for Karnataka CM post; Lingayats, Dalits raise voice

News Network
May 16, 2023

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Bengaluru, May 16: The Congress's cautious approach to resolving the 'DK Shivakumar or Siddaramaiah' conundrum in Karnataka has triggered a side-effect -- new claims from different caste groups for the chief minister post. 

The All India Veershaiva Mahasabha, which represents the influential Lingayat community, has bid for the top post, citing that 34 of the newly elected Congress MLAs are Lingayats. The swing of the Lingayat vote, once a key support base of the BJP, has been identified as a key factor in the Congress win this time.

Another claim has come in from the Dalit community. Supporters of veteran Congress leader G Parameshwara held a demonstration, demanding that the Dalit leader be chosen for the Chief Minister post. At the gathering in Tumkur, placards reading "a Dalit should be CM" were waved.

In a letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha has said that the Congress had fielded 46 candidates from the community and 34 of them won.

The organisation has key Lingayat leaders among its members. Its president is 91-year-old Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, Karnataka's oldest MLA who won from Davangere South this time.  

"Further more, we wish to bring to your kind notice that our community has played a major role in electing other smaller communities in other 50 constituencies. This shows that the traditional voters of the BJP has shifted its loyalty to Congress party, thereby supporting the Congress party to win 134 constituencies in the state," the letter adds.

The community, which accounts for 17 per cent of Karnataka's population, can potentially swing outcomes in nearly 100 seats. It is the community's electoral significance that saw all parties vie for its support and promote Lingayat leaders in the run-up to the polls.

The organisation has further suggested that it is important that the Congress retains the support of the community for the general election due next year.

"Considering the above facts, we now urge the Congress party to give a chance/consider (a) Veerashaiva Lingayat community leader for the post of Chief Minister of Karnataka state," the letter states.

The organisation has also requested the Congress chief to ensure a number of cabinet berths for the community "which is proportionate to the number of MLAs of our community".

The demand for the Chief Minister post, however, seems more like a pressure building tactic as the two tallest Congress leaders in Karnataka are in running for the job and no third name has been come up in discussions so far.

Once a key support base of the BJP, the Lingayats backed the Congress this time, results in the seats dominated by the community have indicated.

Former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who switched from the BJP to the Congress days before polls, said that the Lingayats support the Congress this time.

A key factor behind the Lingayat swing could be the removal of BS Yediyurappa, BJP veteran and tallest Lingayat leader in Karnataka, as chief minister over corruption charges. While the BJP replaced him with Basavaraj Bommai, another Lingayat leader, the results indicate it did not help the party's poll prospects. Even the last minute move to scrap 4% reservation to Muslims and its reallocation among Lingayats and Vokkaliga did not not work in the BJP's favour. 

The seeds of Congress' current dilemma over the choice of a chief minister were, in fact, sown during their poll campaign. To take on the BJP's formidable election machinery, the party avoided projecting a single leader as the face of its campaign. Instead, it projected the trio of Mr Shivakumar, Mr Siddaramaiah and its national chief Mr Kharge as leading its Karnataka push.

While Mr Shivakumar belongs to the influential Vokkaliga community, which dominates southern Karnataka, Mr Siddaramaiah is a Kuruba, a backward caste group that has sizeable presence in central and northern Karnataka. With the Dalit roots of its national president Kharge, Congress got a panel of leaders that appealed, in total, to a huge chunk of Karnataka's population.

While this hugely benefited the Congress campaign and paved the way for its victory, the competing claims for the top job are now proving to be a hurdle in its decision-making.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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News Network
November 25,2024

Udupi: Six junior artists from the prequel of Kannada blockbuster film ‘Kantara’ were injured, when the bus they were travelling in overturned in the district, police said on Monday.

According to police, the accident occurred near Jadkal on Sunday night when the mini-bus carrying the crew of the film overturned.

“The incident happened while they were returning to Kollur after completing the shoot at Mudoor in Jadkal. The mini-bus was carrying 20 junior artistes when it met with the accident,” a police officer said.

The injured were rushed to hospitals in Jadkal and Kundapur for treatment, they said.

The Kollur police are investigating the matter.

"The news making rounds is completely false. The Kantara: Chapter 1 team began shooting at 06:00 AM today, and everything is proceeding as normal. A minor accident occurred 20 kilometres away from the shooting location, involving a local bus carrying some members of the Kantara team. However, no injuries were reported," a source close to the production said.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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