Congress leader Khushbu slaps man at Bengaluru rally for misbehaving with her

Mangaluru, Sep 11: A bank official was found dead inside the swimming pool of a prominent hotel in the heart of Mangaluru city today morning.

The deceased has been officially identified as Gopu R Nair, hailing from Thiruvananthapuram in the state of Kerala.

According to preliminary information, Nair had checked into the hotel on Sunday, and the tragic incident occurred in the early hours of Monday when he left his room at approximately 4 a.m.

A case has been registered at jurisdictional Pandeshwar police station and investigations are on.

Bengaluru, Sept 22: Former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy met BJP national president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Friday, to officially join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA. This will further strengthen NDA and vision of Hon PM @narendramodi Ji for “New India, Strong India,” said Nadda on X (formerly Twitter).

Kumaraswamy said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda also may hold talks on this, if required.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Kumaraswamy said, "Today formally we discussed about joining hands with the BJP. We've discussed the preliminary issues formally. There is no demand (from our side)."

Talks on alliance between the two parties have been in the limelight ever since veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, who is also a parliamentary board member of the party, had earlier this month said his party will have an understanding with JD(S) for the Lok Sabha elections, and the regional outfit will contest in four LS seats in Karnataka, which has a total of 28 constituencies.

JD(S) had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress, as both parties were then running a coalition government under the Chief Ministership of Kumaraswamy.

The BJP and the JD(S) have sealed their alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2024 in Karnataka, BJP leader and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa confirmed on Friday. The agreement has been for four seats, Yediyurappa said adding that Amit Shah agreed to give four Lok Sabha seats to JD(S). JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda recently met BJP chief JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah and the meeting indicated that BJP and the JD(S) would walk into an alliance -- only the details were pending.

JD(S) came into an alliance with the Congress and formed the government with HD Kumaraswamy as the chief minister. The government was ousted after it lost the trust vote in 2019, a year after it came to power.

According to reports, JDS wanted to contest from Mandya, Hassan, Tumakuru, Chickballapur and Bengaluru Rural. BJP reportedly agreed to let it contest on four seats -- Kolar, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru rural.

The move comes days after Deve Gowda claimed that his party was neither with the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) nor with the NDA. JD(S), Deve Gowda said, would fight the Lok Sabha elections independently.

Once an ally of the Congress -- though unnatural -- JDS was not invited to the INDIA meeting held in Bengaluru. "Some (Karnataka) Congress leaders did not want me... Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is my good friend (but) since Congress doesn't want me... I skipped," Deve Gowda said when the second meeting of the opposition alliance was held in the city.

A meeting was held on Wednesday at the residence of Deve Gowda to seek the opinion of the party functionaries on the prospective alliance. Most leaders have given their opinion in favour of an alliance with the BJP.

In 2019 Lok Sabha election, JDS won Hassan where Deve Gowda's grand nephew Prajwal Revanna contested.