BWF hosts seminar on ‘Global Economy and Repercussions on NRIs’

Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee (DCC) President Harish Kumar said that there is no question of him resigning for the party’s debacle in Dakshina Kannada (DK) Lok Sabha constituency.

 “If the party high command wishes to change the DCC President and appoint a new president, then I will continue to work as a party worker. I am an honest party worker and never engaged in groupism,” he told media persons.

To a query on an online campaign asking the DCC President to tender resignation, he said resignation is not carried in pockets. I am not a student of “WhatsApp University,” but I am a Congress student. I have grown in the Congress from student leader till the DCC President. The party has given me the responsibility by looking at my service to the party,” he said.

“None had tendered resignations to the post of DCC President when the candidates were lost in the past,” he clarified.

Stating that the Congress failed to win the Lok Sabha election in DK constituency inspite of united efforts by the leaders, he said “we had worked hard for the victory of the candidate. There were no differences of opinion among the leaders in the party. All of us are responsible for the defeat. We are all with Padmaraj and will strengthen the party further to face the upcoming elections,” he said.

“Padmaraj R Poojary had owned the responsibility for his defeat. All of us are responsible for the defeat and the candidate is not alone responsible,” he said.

He said “the party had a setback even in the state by bagging only nine seats. We had expected to win atleast 14 seats. However, our vote share has increased by two per cent when compared to the Assembly elections. Even in DK, Congress has won more votes.”

Harish Kumar said that he will also own the responsibility for the defeat of the candidates in South west graduates and teachers constituency. “We had expected a victory in the teachers constituency. However, the party had failed to bridge the gap among the graduates and teachers in the district.”

To a query on District in Charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao failing to visit the district as one of the reasons for the party’s debacle, DCC President said that Dinesh Gundu Rao was throughout engaged in the party’s campaign in the district.

Mangaluru: The Air India Express is all set to increase the frequency of its flights from Mangaluru to Abu Dhabi to a daily flight from July 22. 

At present, Air India Express operates four flights in a week to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

This will also result in an uptick in daily flights to Bengaluru to eight, with AIE and IndiGo restarting flights and AIE routing aircraft for enhanced Abu Dhabi operations.

At present, IndiGo and AIE operate a total of five flights daily on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector. From July 8, the daily flights on this sector will go up to six, with AIE restarting its second daily flight. 

This number will further increase to seven from July 22, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. AIE will operate this additional flight onwards to Abu Dhabi from Mangaluru.

The Bengaluru-Mangaluru leg will operate purely as a domestic flight, and Abu Dhabi passengers will board at Mangaluru.

From August 1, flights on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector will go up to eight on three days in a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, respectively. AIE will operate the third flight on these days to go with its two daily flights.

IndiGo will operate five daily flights, including the fifth flight which it announced in the summer schedule starting March 31. For operations on this sector that sees high passenger footfalls, AIE uses the Boeing-737 Max and IndiGo uses the Airbus series aircraft.

On the Mumbai-Mangaluru sector, AIE will operate the afternoon flight from July 16 in place of Air India, which will continue to operate the morning flight.

Currently, airlines from Mangaluru International Airport, operate five daily flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru, two daily flights to Chennai and Hyderabad, respectively, one daily flight to Delhi, three weekly flights to Pune and one weekly flight to Tiruchirappalli.

International flights operation includes two daily flights to Dubai by AIE, and four weekly flights by IndiGo, four weekly to Dammam, three weekly to Muscat, two weekly to Doha and Bahrain, and one weekly flight each to Kuwait and Jeddah – all by AIE.

Bengaluru: Incumbent Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is accused of rape and serial sex abuse, has lost against Congress’ Shreyas Patel.

Prajwal lost by 40,000 votes against Patel, which has helped Congress win the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency after 25 years. Patel had lost against Prajwal’s father H D Revanna from Holenarsipur in the Assembly polls last year.

When did the JDS-Congress tussle begin in Hassan? 

The rivarly between Deve Gowda and the Shreyas Patel's grandfather and Congress veteran late Putta Swamy Gowda began in 1985, when the latter contested against the former PM as an independent candidate but lost. Later, he defeated Deve Gowda from the seat in the 1989 state elections and also scored an upset in the 1999 general elections as well. 

In 1999, G Putta Swamy Gowda scored a major upset against HD Deve Gowda. Despite these setbacks, Deve Gowda has represented the constituency five times in the Lok Sabha. 

The rivalry continued for decades on end, with their next generations taking the fight forward. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prajwal Revanna won from Hassan with over 6.76 lakh votes and a vote share of 52.91 per cent. With this, he marked the entry of the third generation of Deve Gowda's family into politics.