Man booked for delivering Azaan outside DC office in protest against BJP MLA’s remark

Mangaluru: Congress MLA, who is one of the only two Congress candidates who managed to defeat saffron candidates in twin districts Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in recent Karnataka Assembly polls, said that the party would introspect and analyse the reasons for the poor show in coastal belt. 

Khader, who registered a straight win for the fifth time from Mangaluru constituency, said: “The priority of the new Congress government will be to provide good, clean and transparent administration for the next five years, and ensure peace and harmony in the state.”

He added: “We will not engage in politics of hate and discrimination. We have won the confidence of nearly 90% of the people across the state, and will win the confidence of the people wherever we have failed. While the exact reasons for the defeat in coastal districts is yet to be ascertained, there could be some kind of negative publicity on social media too against the party.”

To a query, Khader said that several projects initiated by the Congress government in the past were not completed by the BJP government, and that they will try to complete the same.

To another query, he said, “We treated all equally, when we were in power in the past, but that did not happen during the BJP’s rule, and as opposition MLAs got a raw deal in the distribution of funds. Sometimes, I think we should pay back in the same coin, but we will not resort to such cheap politics.”

“The Congress will also fight for its right, and ensure that they get all the schemes from the central government. A lot of discrimination is happening, and the Congress government in Karnataka will not let it happen, and will fight for its right,’’ he said, adding that it is unfortunate that the BJP MPs from the state have failed to raise their voice over this.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday, reacting to the party’s victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, said that he did not fight a divisive battle, and that “the strength of crony-capitalism was defeated by the power of poor.”

Addressing a press conference in party headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi said, “the markets of hatred have closed down, and shops of love have opened in Karnataka.”

The BJP lost its only bastion in the south today, with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai conceding defeat shortly after the Congress leads moved past 130 seats. The BJP is ahead on 60-plus seats and HD Kumaraswamy's JD(S) in over 20 seats.

Conceding defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters: "In spite of a lot of efforts put in by the Prime Minister and the BJP workers, we have not been able to make the mark. Once the full results come, we will do a detailed analysis... We take this result in our stride to come back in Lok Sabha elections."

In the 2018 elections, the BJP had won 104 seats, the Congress 80 and the JDS 37 in Karnataka. The BJP's BS Yediyurappa formed government but resigned before a majority test. Then, the Congress and the JDS formed a coalition government. The coalition government lasted 14 months after which 16 MLAs switched to the BJP, toppling the government and bringing the BJP back in power.

The Karnataka results is expected to boost the Congress ahead of next year's general elections and the assembly polls in three states later this year. The party is hoping to make a comeback in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is also hoping to win back Madhya Pradesh, where its government crashed in 2020 with the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists.

The results will be crucial for the BJP in terms of next year's national elections. The state accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats. While the BJP vote share in the assembly polls has not dropped in comparison to 2018, the elections indicate that the party has not been able to make its much-needed breakthrough into the Vokkaliga and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes votes.

The Congress gains have hugely cheered the opposition. "The message from Karnataka is that the 'end' of BJP's negative, communal, corrupt, rich-oriented, anti-women-youth, social-divisive, false propaganda, individualistic politics has begun," tweeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Bengaluru, May 20: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief Siddaramaiah and state party president D K Shivakumar took oaths as Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Saturday, days after political drama over the grand old party's CM pick.

The swearing-in ceremony of the two veteran leaders was attended by Congress top brass, as well as by multiple Opposition leaders, amid the grand old party's push to forge Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who attended the event along with his sister and the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, took the stage to reiterate his party would fulfil the five guarantees it had promised. A decision will be taken in the very first cabinet meeting, which he said would be held in a few hours.

Top Opposition leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, CPI's D Raja, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, PDP's Mehbuba Mufti, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, were in attendance in a symbolic display of Opposition unity against the BJP ahead of next year's general elections. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were conspicuous by their absence from the mega event.

Mere days ago, the Congress swept Karnataka, bagging 135 seats in the state and reducing the BJP to a tally of 66.

Details awaited.