Two ‘missing’ MLAs reach Vidhana Soudha ahead of floor test, join Congress camp

News Network

May 19, 2018

Bengaluru, May 19: The floor test in the Karnataka Assembly is scheduled for 4 pm today, as per the Supreme Court order. Senior BJP MLA K.G. Bopaiah, who was appointed as the Pro Tem Speaker by Governor Vajubhai Vala, will oversee the proceedings, which will also be telecast live.

BJP, with 104 seats, is seven short of the required number of 111. The Congress with 78 MLAs, the JD(S) with 36 and three others are also individually not in a position to form the government.

Assembly session began at 11 am on Saturday morning and the newly-elected MLAs took were sworn into the Karnataka Assembly. Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was sworn in alone on Friday morning by Governor Vajubhai Vala.

Pratapgouda Patil, the Congress MLA from Maski who went missing and was said to have joined the BJP camp, reached Vidhana soudha a few minutes earlier, sources said. He was said to have been holed up in a private hotel in Bengaluru.

Congress leaders issued the party whip to the MLA. BJP MLA S.R. Viswanath was seen trying to take the MLA away, but he refused and joined the Congress camp.

Anand Singh, the missing Congress MLA also reached Vidhana Soudha, along with his wife and son. He was welcomed by D.K. Shivakumar and taken inside.

Massive security arrangements

As per the directions of the apex court, the police have made massive security arrangements in and around the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature, for the smooth conduct of the floor test, reports news agency.

Public entry to the Vidhana Soudha has been restricted and officials and staff of the Secretariat are being allowed to enter the premises after thorough checks.

120 marshals of legislative assembly and 80 marshals of legislative council have been deployed today.

Comments

BJP doing strange things. Feku and shah scripting all these dramas

BJP will sabotage the floor test, no doubt in that

Nobody can predict BJP dirty tricks

BJP politricks will be a milestone in Karnataka political history

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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