First list of Cong candidates for Karnataka polls ready; to be out in a day or two

Bengaluru, May 21: Senior Congress leaders in Karnataka, who are being offered the Speaker's post in the new Assembly, are unwilling to take the responsibility, sources have said, adding that a fear of jinx surrounds the post.

Series of leaders who became Speakers in Karnataka have lost elections and their political careers ended. The jinx continued with the defeat of Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri, the former Speaker in the ruling BJP government. His defeat shocked the party and Kageri was distraught as the defeat had raised the question on his strengths as a strong leader.

Political experts maintain that since 2004, whoever sat on the coveted post have suffered severe setbacks in their political careers.
    
Krishna from K.R. Pet constituency, who was the Speaker in S.M. Krishna-led Congress government in 2004 lost the election in 2008.

Senior Congressman Kagodu Thimmappa, who donned the role of Speaker in 2013 lost subsequent elections in 2018. K.B. Koliwad, five term member of assembly, who was speaker in 2016 lost general elections in 2018 and also lost by-polls in 2019.

Rameshkumar, who was the speaker in Congress - JD(S) government in 2018, lost election in the May 10 election.

Congress party is finding it difficult to convince seniors for the post. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced that veteran Congress leader R.V. Deshpande will become pro rata Speaker and new speaker would be elected in the three-day maiden session starting from Monday.

Sources in Congress said that Dr. G. Parameshwara straight away rejected the offer and was made a cabinet minister. The party is contemplating to make any one from the seniors like T.B. Jayachandra, H.K. Patil, B.R. Patil and Y.N. Gopalakrishna as speaker. None of them, however, are interested, sources said.

Jayachandra, who had lost his seat to BJP in 2019 bypolls, had emerged victorious this time. H.K. Patil is a prominent Lingayat leader from Gadag, and is considered for plum cabinet berth. And so is B.R. Patil from the Aland constituency.

Former CM Jagadish Shettar and senior BJP leader K.G. Bopaiah, who were the speakers in the BJP government in Karnataka, lost in the recently concluded Assembly polls, thereby facing setbacks in their political careers.

All the leaders, who are  being offered the post, are maintaining that they would prefer to remain MLAs rather than become the Speaker, Congress sources said.

Eying plum cabinet berths other than Speaker is one of the reason, but mainly it is the fear of jinx that is seeing them refuse the responsibility, sources said.

Mangaluru, May 25: Mangalore University has approved and introduced job-oriented diploma, certificate, and undergraduate courses during its first academic council meeting for the year 2023-24 on Monday.

The meeting was presided over by Mangalore University vice-chancellor PS Yadapadithaya and other officials. Yadapadithaya said that job-oriented courses have been introduced in line with the National Education Policy- 2020. The colleges can start those courses this academic year.

Kishore Kumar CK, registrar, MU, said, “Two certificate and a diploma programme have been introduced. One among them is the certificate programme in ‘Retail management in gems and jewellery’. It is offered in association with a jeweller.

The MU has approved a certificate programme in hair and beauty therapy (HBT) and a diploma programme in designing and treating hair. The duration of the certificate course and diploma programme is six months and one year, respectively. Both newly introduced certificate and diploma courses have high demand in the job market.”

With demand for the UG programme in Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) at an all-time high post-pandemic, MU has introduced two specialisations— BCA in Artificial Intelligence and BCA in Data Analytics. “Each course can be started in any college with an intake of 60 students,” Kumar said. Besides this, a lot of colleges under MU have requested an additional BCA batch this academic year and the same was approved during the meeting.

Bengaluru, May 27: Karnataka got a full cabinet on Saturday, with 24 Congress MLAs taking oath as ministers, a week after chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar and eight other ministers were sworn in.

The Congress on Friday announced the names of 24 more ministers, taking the strength of the cabinet to 34, the maximum allowed under the law.

Of the new names, six hail from the Lingayat community, four from the Vokkaliga community, three from scheduled castes, two from scheduled tribes, and five from other backward classes. The Muslim, Jain, Brahmin and Namdhari Reddy communities have one representative each in this list. Only one woman is part of the cabinet.

The announcement came after four days of hectic deliberations between Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and the Congress leadership in Delhi, attempting to strike a balance between the aspirations of leaders from different castes, regions and allegiances. This was made particularly tricky given the Congress’s impressive victory, the best in the state since 1989, winning 135 seats in the 224-member assembly.

Here's the list of ministers who took oath:
HK Patil
Krishna Byre Gowda
N Cheluvarayaswamy
K Venkatesh
HC Mahadevappa
Eshwar Khandre
Kyathasandra N. Rajanna
Dinesh Gundu Rao
Sharanabasappa Darshanapur
Shivanand Patil
Timmapur Ramappa Balappa
SS Mallikarjun
Tangadagi Shivaraj Sangappa
Sharanaprakash Rudrappa
Patil Mankal Vaidya
Laxmi R Hebbalkar
Rahim Khan
D. Sudhakar
Santhosh S Lad
NS Boseraju
Suresha BS
Madhu Bangarappa
Dr MC Sudhakar
B Nagendra