Muslim League’s Ashraf leads in Manjeshwar

Mangaluru, May 3: The Mangaluru City Corporation will resort to water rationing from May 5 as the Thumbe vented dam, which supplies drinking water to the city, is facing a shortage in water storage.

Instead of daily supply, water will be supplied on alternate days, the Executive Engineer (Water Supply) at the corporation said in a release.

The release said that water will be supplied to Mangaluru City North on May 5. There will be no water supply to Mangaluru City North on May 6. Instead water will be supplied to Mangaluru City South on May 6. Likewise the supply on alternate days will continue.

The inflow in the Netravathi has stopped, the release said, requesting people to cooperate with the corporation and not waste water for washing vehicles and other purposes.

An engineer at the corporation said that water level at the dam stood at 4.27 m on Wednesday against the full storage level of 6 m. If water is supplied daily to the entire city (Mangaluru City North and Mangaluru City South) the existing storage will last only for 16 days, the engineer said. Hence the decision to supply water on alternate days has been taken to supply water till May-end.

The BJP has opened its account in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The party's candidate from Gujarat's Surat constituency, Mukesh Dalal, has won the polls as all his opponents are now out of the fray.

BJP's Mukesh Dalal elected unopposed from the Surat Lok Sabha seat after all other candidates withdrew from the contest, the party's Gujarat unit chief CR Paatil said today. Today was the deadline for withdrawing nominations.

The nominations of the Congress party's Surat candidate and his substitute were rejected by the returning officer over alleged discrepancies in paperwork, a development that the Congress called an attempt at "match-fixing".

"Surat has presented the first lotus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I congratulate our candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat Mukesh Dalal for getting elected unopposed," Mr Paatil posted on the microblogging website X, referring to the BJP's election symbol.

Eight candidates - seven of them independents - and Pyarelal Bharti of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) withdrew their papers.

The nomination papers of the Congress's Surat candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected on Sunday after the district returning officer Saurabh Parghi found discrepancies in the signatures of the proposers.

The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress's substitute candidate from Surat, was also found invalid.

The returning officer had said the four nomination forms submitted by the two Congress candidates did not appear genuine. The proposers, in their affidavits, had said they had not signed the forms themselves, the returning officer said in the order.

Congress lawyer Babu Mangukiya said the party will approach the high court and the Supreme Court for relief.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in a post on X said the Surat developments indicate "democracy is under threat". "Our elections, our democracy, Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution - all are under a generational threat. This is the most important election of our lifetime," Mr Ramesh said.

Mr Ramesh alleged the "distress" of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners and the business community in PM Modi's "Anyay Kaal" and their anger have "spooked the BJP so badly that they are attempting to match-fix the Surat Lok Sabha polls, which they have won consistently since the 1984 Lok Sabha elections."

Bengaluru: All India Mahila Congress President Alka Lamba on Monday accused the BJP and JD(S) of being silent over the alleged sex scandal involving Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna and said the horrifying case of violence against women has shocked the nation.

"More than 3000 videos with hundreds of women being sexually harassed, violated and even brutalised by MP Prajwal Revanna over the past few years have shaken the conscience of Kannadigas and Indians alike," she told at a press conference here.

Prajwal (33) is grandson of JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. JD(S) joined the NDA in September last year. He was the NDA candidate in Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, which went for polls on April 26.

According to police sources, he left the country after voting was over.

The Congress government in Karnataka on Sunday constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the alleged sex scandal.

Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days.

Lamba said the horrifying case of sexual violence against hundreds of women has shocked the nation.

"These acts of sexual brutality against hapless women has revealed the depravity of MP Prajwal Revanna, but the silence and sheer apathy of the BJP and JDS in this horrendous case is absolutely shameful," she said.

She alleged that in these videos, some recorded against the consent of the victim, women are seen pleading to be spared but the MP continues to brutalise and sexually violate them. Party 'karyakartas', panchayat members, elderly women, women who came asking for help to him and even maids have not been spared.

"The horrible fact is, that the acts of this sexual predator MP Prajwal Revanna was endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he campaigned in Old Mysuru Region on April 14th, 2024," she alleged.

"....the BJP JDS are still silent which shows you their true Anti Woman DNA!! Will the BJP or JDS answer?".