Rahul to launch Cong poll campaign from north Karnataka in March

News Network

February 23, 2019

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will kick-start the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign from north Karnataka on March 9. He will address a public meeting in Haveri and then tour other States.

The BJP, too, had launched its party campaign from north Karnataka — in Hubballi on February 10. Twelve of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State are from this region. Of these, in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress won four (Ballari, Kalaburagi, Raichur, and Chikkodi).

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday convened a meeting of the party’s office-bearers to ensure the success of Mr. Gandhi’s rally, chalk out a poll strategy, and discuss deployment of manpower for campaign work. It was decided to deploy three KPCC secretaries for each constituency to oversee the campaign, Mr. Rao said.

Meanwhile, the District Congress Committees (DCCs) have been told to hold district-level party rallies in each district in the coming days to galvanise party workers. The Raichur DCC will hold its meeting on Saturday.

On the lines of the ‘Vistarak’ booth-level campaign of the BJP, Mr. Rao told Congress office-bearers to focus on strengthening the booth-level committees to ensure co-ordination among party supporters. KPCC vice-president B.L. Shankar, MLC Prakash Rathod and presidents of all district Congress units attended the meeting.

Seat-sharing

The Congress and the Janata Dal (S) are likely to reach a pact on sharing seats for the Lok Sabha elections before the launch of the former’s poll campaign on March 9.

Since the Congress had won more seats in the region in the Assembly elections, the party is expected to get a majority of the seats in north Karnataka. The region is expected to witness a straight fight between the Congress and the BJP.

K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, who arrived in the city on Thursday for talks on seat-sharing, had to leave early on Friday on account of another pressing assignment. KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao had met JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda on Thursday while on Friday, Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar met the former Prime Minister.

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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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