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

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.

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.

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.