Parties vie for Vokkaliga vote that's crucial in nearly 100 Assembly seats in Karnataka

News Network
April 9, 2023

Bengaluru, Apr 9: As Vokkaligas (15 per cent of the population) are considered to be the second politically significant major community of Karnataka after Lingayats (17 per cent), the focus is on how whether there would be a shift in their voting stance in the May 10 assembly election as the ruling BJP has aggressively tried to woo them.

One can gauge the role Vokkaligas play in Karnataka politics from the fact that it has given seven Chief Ministers to Karnataka since independence and a PM.

As a retired IAS officer puts it, this is a community which has rich political awareness. “Of the 17 Chief Ministers Karnataka had, seven were from the Vokkaliga community. K Chengalaraya Reddy, Kengal Hanumanthaiah and Kadidal Manjappa, the first three chief ministers of the state, were from the Vokkaliga Community,” the officer said.

He added that H D Deve Gowda, a Vokkaliga, became the first person from Karnataka to occupy the post of Prime Minister.

The Old Mysuru region, the community's stronghold, comprises Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Kolar, Tumakuru and Hassan districts. The region has 58 assembly constituencies, which is more than one-fourth of the total number of seats in the 224-member House.

JD(S) represented 24 seats, Congress 18 and BJP 15 in this region in the current assembly. This apart, the community is present in sizeable numbers in Bengaluru Urban district comprising 28 constituencies, Bengaluru Rural district (four constituencies), and Chikkaballapura (eight constituencies).

A political activist Raje Gowda claimed that Vokkaligas dominate in all the 27 out of 28 assembly constituencies of Bengaluru urban district barring Anekal. In the Bengaluru rural district and Chikkaballapura, they hold sway, he added.

“We are scattered ideologically and do not vote en masse like certain other communities. This shows we are liberal in choosing our leaders, which can be seen either as our weakness or our strength,” Raje Gowda quipped.

H D Deve Gowda-headed JD (S) counts the Vokkaligas as its main vote base in the Old Mysuru region, where it's main fight is with the Congress though of late the BJP has been able to make some inroads.

Apparently, seeking to expand its base among this community, the BJP government came up with its 'reservation engineering' making the 2B category of four per cent reservation, exclusively for 'other backward Muslims' redundant and distributed the two per cent equally among Lingayats and Vokkaligas. With this, reservation for Vokkaligas has gone up from four per cent to six per cent.

The move pleased the revered seer of Vokkaliga community, AdiChunchanagiri Math pontiff Swami Nirmalanandanatha, who praised the BJP government.

As part of its Vokkaliga "appeasement" exercise, the BJP built a 108-ft tall Nada Prabhu Kempe Gowda's statue, the founder of Bengaluru and 16th century chieftain of Vijayanagara dynasty, near the Bengaluru International Airport.

Recently, Karnataka Minister Munirathna, who is also a filmmaker, came up with a plan to make a movie 'Uri Gowda-Nanje Gowda' based on a fake story. The fake story is based on a belief among a section of people that there were two Vokkaliga chieftains in erstwhile Mysuru kingdom by name Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda. It was not the colonial British army but these two chieftains who killed the 18th century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, a claim supported by even some BJP Ministers.

However, Munirathna dropped the plan after Swami Nirmalanandanatha asked him not to proceed with the project saying that there was no historical basis behind the story and it would only create confusion among people.

A Vokkaliga Sangha office-bearer said requesting anonymity that had the movie been made, it would have helped the BJP to garner more votes. “The 'Uri Gowda Nanje Gowda' project might have been dumped, but it is still discussed among Vokkaligas. Further, the increase in reservation will also have a bearing on the election, it seems,” he said.

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News Network
September 20,2023

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United Nations, Sept 20: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue of Kashmir during his address to world leaders at the high-level 78th session of the UN General Assembly session.

"Another development that will pave the way for regional peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia will be the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Kashmir through dialogue and cooperation between India and Pakistan,” Erdogan said in his address to the General Debate Tuesday.

"As Turkiye, we will continue to support the steps to be taken in this direction,” he said.

His comment comes weeks after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi during which both the leaders discussed strengthening trade and infrastructure relations.

Erdogan said it was a matter of pride that India was playing a role at the United Nations Security Council. He said he favoured making five permanent and 15 'temporary' members as permanent members of the UN Security Council.

"Those 20 (5+15) should be permanent members of the UNSC in rotation. But as you know, the world is bigger than five. When we say the world is larger than five, what we mean is that it's not only about the US, UK, France, China and Russia," he said.

In recent years, the Turkish leader has referred to the issue of Kashmir in his address to world leaders at the high-level UN General Assembly session.

Last year, Erdogan raked up the issue of Kashmir during his address to world leaders at the high-level UN General Assembly session here.

“India and Pakistan, after having established their sovereignty and independence 75 years ago, they still haven't established peace and solidarity between one another. This is much unfortunate. We hope and pray that a fair and permanent peace and prosperity will be established in Kashmir,” Erdogan had said.

In 2020, Erdogan in his pre-recorded video statement to the General Debate had made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir. India had at that time termed it as “completely unacceptable”, saying Turkey should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply.

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News Network
September 18,2023

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Bengaluru, Sep 18: Prime accused in the Karnataka BJP MLA ticket scandal Chaitra Kundapura, an arrested Hindutva activist, has claimed the involvement of the top party leadership in the crime, sources said on Monday.

In a letter to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kundapura has demanded that transactions of industrialist Govinda Babu Poojari, a complainant in her case, be investigated under the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act. She also expressed her willingness to cooperate with the investigation, they added.

The sources further explained that Chaitra had made these revelations in a letter to the ED before her arrest.

She had shot the letter after Poojari, who paid over Rs 5 crore, started demanding his money back when he was denied the ticket.

An associate of Poojari had paid Rs 5 crore in cash.

Govind Babu himself also spoke to her about it. He got the money transferred for the ticket to contest the MLA election. He had given Rs 1 crore to one Manjunath, Rs 1.5 crore to Abhinava Halashri, Rs 3 crore to Vishwanath Ji.

She claimed that Poojari was advised by her to file a police complaint.

Chaitra claimed that she worked in a private company in Bengaluru and had confirmed information on illegal money transactions by industrialist Govind Babu Poojari.

This person had settled in Mumbai briefly and carried out the business. He runs a catering industry in Bengaluru.

“He was an aspirant for BJP MLA ticket and since I was a journalist, I wanted to carry out a sting operation on money transactions. Hence I called up Govinda Babu Poojari and his associate Prasad Poojari to collect information,” Chaitra stated in her complaint.

“I was in touch with those close to the businessman and gathered information with an intention to expose him,” she added.

She also alleged in her complaint that fortunately he did not get a BJP ticket to contest MLA election. Generally, the political parties don’t give positions to leaders once the elections are declared. But, surprisingly, BJP made Govind Babu Poojari as the Backward Classes Morcha Secretary.

After the posting, he had carried out a campaign for the BJP candidate Gururaj Ganthiholi in Baindur seat. During the campaigning, Govind Babu Poojari started to identify with state and national leaders. “I strongly suspected the involvement of influential leaders in the scam,” her complaint read.

Sources explain that Chaitra maintains in the complaint that she didn’t have evidence to prove these charges and she recorded the call from Govind Babu Poojari that he had lost Rs 6 crore for BJP ticket and advised him to lodge a police complaint.

Karnataka police have arrested Chaitra Kundapura and her associates on charges of cheating Rs 5 crore and threatening industrialist Govind Babu Poojari promising him MLA ticket from BJP.

The prominent religious leader Abhinava Halasri is absconding in the case.

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News Network
September 14,2023

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Kozhikode, Sept 14: In the wake of the Nipah outbreak in this north Kerala district, a holiday has been declared for all educational institutions here on Thursday and Friday.

The holiday was declared by Kozhikode District Collector A Geetha who in a Facebook post said educational institutions can arrange online classes on the two days for students.

However, there will be no change in university exams schedule, she added.

A 24-year old health worker became Kerala's fifth confirmed Nipah case on Wednesday since its recent outbreak.

Meanwhile, a 24-hour control room was set up in the neighbouring district of Wayanad following the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode. The Wayanad district administration also constituted 15 core committees to lead the prevention and surveillance activities and effectively deal with emergency situations.

The virus strain seen in the state was the Bangladesh variant that spreads from human to human and has a high mortality rate, though it is less infectious, the government said.

The condition of all 76 people who are in the high-risk contact category remains stable, State Health Minister Veena George had said.

The government had also said that 13 others who have mild symptoms are now being monitored in the hospital, and only a 9-year old child - among those infected - is in the Intensive Care Unit.

It had said that monoclonal antibodies have been ordered from ICMR to treat the child. It is the only available anti-viral treatment for Nipah virus infection, though it has not been clinically proven yet.

A review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also held in the wake of the outbreak of the brain-damaging virus.

The high-level meeting chaired by the CM analysed the situation thoroughly and "we have come to the conclusion that all the possible prevention measures are in place and there is no need to panic," George had said.

The minister had also said the WHO and ICMR studies had found out that the entire state of Kerala is prone to getting such infections, not just Kozhikode.

People living in forest areas have to take the highest precautions, George had said, and added that the latest case of the Nipah virus originated within five kilometres of a jungle area.

Four more wards - three in Villyapally panchayat and one in Purameri panchayat- in Kozhikode district had been declared as containment zones yesterday in addition to those announced on Tuesday.

Considering the serious nature of the disease, the Kozhikode administration had on Tuesday declared seven village panchayats-Atanchery, Maruthonkara, Tiruvallur, Kuttiyadi, Kayakkodi, Villyapalli, and Kavilumpara- as containment zones.

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