Karnataka Wakf Board chairman Shafi Saadi's nomination revoked

Bypoll results in seven seats in six states gave the Opposition I.N.D.I.A enough reasons to look at future with more confidence with the bloc overcoming tough battles in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi and Jharkhand’s Dumri with ease, while sending signals for a realignment in West Bengal.

The Samajwadi Party retained Ghosi and JMM once again won Dumri where I.N.D.I.A parties stuck to each other, while in West Bengal’s Dhupguri, the Trinamool Congress overcame the challenge by Congress-backed CPI(M) and the BJP, a result which it will use to convince the Congress to leave its alliance with the Left.

The CPI(M) had the worst performance among the I.N.D.I.A partners, losing both Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura to the BJP despite support from the Congress, while it lost Kerala’s Puthupally to the grand old party. In Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar, the BJP retained its seat.

Altogether, BJP won three seats and lost one, Congress retained its Kerala seat, Trinamool added one seat by defeating the BJP, JMM showed it still has the zeal to win, and the Samajwadi Party hung on to its seat despite its sitting MLA shifting loyalties.

The most watched fight was in Ghosi where the I.N.D.I.A alliance was tested with Congress and RLD announcing support to the SP candidate and BSP calling to vote for NOTA.

With its MLA Dara Singh Chouhan resigning and fighting from the BJP, it was a prestige battle for the SP whose candidate Sudhakar Singh extracted revenge by defeating Chouhan by 42,759 votes, binning the saffron party’s gamble. Singh polled 1.24 lakh or 57.19 per cent while Chouhan got 88,688 (37.54 per cent).

Interestingly, the number of NOTA votes was only 1,725, appearing to indicate that a section of BSP voters preferred the SP candidate. In the 2022 polls, BSP polled 54,248 votes.

Dumri saw a tough battle initially but JMM fielded Bebi Devi, the widow of sitting MLA Jagarnath Mahto whose death necessitated the bypolls, getting the better of AJSU’s Yasodha Devi.

The BJP’s calculation was that the coming together of AJSU and the saffron party would help them conquer the seat. One thing that will comfort the combine will be the decrease in margin by half from 34,000 to 17,153 votes.

The Dhupguri victory will be a shot in the arm for the Trinamool Congress as it wrests the seat from the BJP defeating its candidate Tapasi Roy by 4,313 votes. Its candidate bagged 46.28 per cent votes while CPI(M) got 6.52 per cent, a statistic that the Trinamool will surely highlight to the Congress to dump the Left.

In Tripura, BJP won both the seats, wresting one from the Congress-backed CPI(M), which had boycotted the counting alleging wide-scale rigging, and retaining its sitting seat.

BJP's Tafajjal Hossain, the first Muslim MLA for the party, defeated CPI(M)'s Mizan Hossain by 30,237 votes. The BJP nominee bagged 34,146 or 87.97 per cent of the votes in the minority dominated seat while CPI(M) got just 3,909 votes or 10.07 per cent votes.

In Dhanpur where Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik's resignation necessitated the bypoll, BJP's Bindu Debnath won by a margin of 18,871 votes. He bagged 70.35 per cent votes while his CPI(M) rival Kaushik Chanda got 26.12 per cent.
Though Tipra Motha did not announce support for anyone, the meeting of its top leader Pradyot Burman with Home Minister Amit Shah was seen by the Opposition as a tacit understanding.

In Kerala’s Puthupally where Congress and the CPI(M) came face to face, the former’s Chandy Oommen retained his father former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's seat by a record margin of 37,719 seats. Congress in Kerala is projecting a vote against the CPI(M)-led government. BJP's Ligin Lal managed to get only 6,558 votes and lost his deposit.

Uttarakhand Bageshwar was retained by BJP’s Parvati Dass, who defeated Congress’s Basant Kumar by 2,405 votes. Though Congress supported SP in neighbouring Ghosi, SP did not reciprocate it in Bageshwar but could bag only 637 votes.

A warning that Mallikarjun Kharge issued to the Congress leaders and ranks on Sunday underlines the gravity of the crisis: “If you don’t work hard, democracy will perish, constitutional rule will be over.”

While Kharge was exhorting the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) to gear up for the battles ahead, Rahul Gandhi explained how to go about it: “Avoid irrelevant issues, don’t fall into the BJP’s trap. Listen to the voice of the people and ensure these voices are crystallised into policies and guarantees. That’s how the Congress system is designed.”

The Congress strategy will be evolved on these critical counsels. The election strategy for five states was discussed at the extended CWC meeting on the second day. The party issued a statement after the meeting, exuding confidence about victory in all the states. Kharge asked the workers to ensure outreach to voters aged between 18 and 25 and explain to them the ideology and history of the Congress.

Later, addressing a massive public rally in Hyderabad, the Congress launched six guarantees, telling the voters to trust the party that fulfilled its commitment to create the state of Telangana.

Sonia Gandhi, who was instrumental in creating Telangana, was asked to launch the guarantees. Rahul and Kharge entreated the voters to judge the party on its track record, reminding them how all the guarantees were fulfilled within the first three months in the neighbouring Karnataka.

The guarantees for Telangana are: Rs 2,500 for every woman per month, free bus travel for women across the state, gas cylinder for Rs 500, Rs 5 lakh for every homeless person for construction of a house, Rs 4,000 per month for senior citizens, Rs 10 lakh health insurance for the citizens, Rs 15,000 per acre for farmers every year and Rs 12,000 for agriculture workers.

Rahul spent most of his time at the public rally on trying to convince the people that the BJP, K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS and Asaduddiun Owaisi’s AIMIM have a partnership and work as a team. He recalled how the BRS helped the Narendra Modi government in Parliament and outside on every critical occasion over the last nine years. He said the ED-CBI and income tax, which have been targeting all Opposition leaders, kept aloof even as thousands of crores were looted in Telangana.

He said the new state was not created to empower the KCR family, and his government must be ousted to empower the poor, farmers, workers, women and youth. He accused Owaisi of disturbing the Congress in all states to help the BJP. Amidst loud cheers, he declared: “Nobody can save the KCR government now, not even Modi.”

Kharge also concentrated on explaining to the people how the Congress track record inspires confidence, recalling the nation-building process in the initial decades after Independence and recent schemes like the MGNREGA and the Food Security Act. He said the politics of Modi and KCR rests on lies — both these leaders make false promises to mislead the voters. He said KCR pushed a surplus-budget state into financial bankruptcy.

Bengaluru, Sept 15: The Karnataka government on Friday organised a mega event of reading the Constitution's preamble as part of the 'International Day of Democracy' celebrations with tens of lakhs of people participating in the programme from India and abroad at the same time.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiaha led the celebrations, along with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and several other guests, by reading the preamble -- "We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens....," in Kannada from the grand steps of 'Vidhan Soudha' here with a large number of school students and others in front of them joining in unison.

In June, the Karnataka government made it mandatory for all students of schools and colleges, whether government, aided or private, to read the preamble daily. It also made it compulsory to have a portrait of the preamble of the Constitution put up at all government and semi-government offices in the state.

Addressing the gathering, Siddaramaiah said the government has fulfilled four of the five 'guarantees' (pre-poll promises of the Congress) and "walked the talk".

"Protection of the Constitution is the duty of every citizen Our Constitution opens with We the people of India. If the wishes of the Constitution are not effectively understood and followed, it is not possible to build an equal society," the chief minister said.

As per the aspiration of the Constitution which calls for equal society and highlights secular principles, Siddaramaiah said his government has implemented schemes for the prosperity of all and their purpose was to return money back to the public to improve their lives.

"Our government has implemented programmes for the prosperity of all, as per the aspirations of equal society and secular principle of the Constitution," he said.

The chief minister said anti-Constitutional forces are trying to destroy the Constitution and implement Manusmriti again. He called on the state to be alert and aware about this.

"Destroying the Constitution and enforcing Manusmriti means 90% Indians will be forced back into slavery," he said and warned that a lot of conspiracies are going on for this.

Siddaramaiah said that after the adoption of the Constitution, the democratic system was officially implemented in India.

"The democratic system has been formed in our land since the time of Buddha and Basavanna (12th-century social reformer) The debates held in the Parliament during the promulgation of the Constitution seem to reflect the importance of our Constitution and the mindset of the opponents of the Constitution," the chief minister added.

Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa, and several other Ministers and Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma also attended the event.

Mahadevappa had said on Wednesday that nearly 2.28 crore people from all walks of life within the country and abroad, have registered to read the Constitution's preamble.

"From within the country and abroad, 2, 27, 81,894 people have made online registration. We had expected 5 or 10 lakh people to register, but this has become a movement," Mahadevappa had said.

He had said that those from corporate, private, government and banking sectors, people from industries and NRIs from several countries have come forward to participate, and have registered.

"The intention is to make people, especially the youth, understand the idea of the democracy and the Constitution, and thereby they know the main purpose of the preamble, to lead a life with dignity, freedom and equality," Mahadevappa added.

The Social Welfare department had said that anyone who wants to read the Constitution on the same day (September 15) and at the same time of the main event, and get a participation certificate issued by the Government of Karnataka, needs to register.

On September 15, they can upload a video or picture of them reading the preamble, upon which they will be approved to download participation certificates from the same website, it said.

The minister spoke about the importance of making it mandatory to read the preamble at all formal functions of the state government, besides all schools, colleges and educational institutions.

Meanwhile, in view of the mega event, Bengaluru Traffic Police also issued an advisory suggesting diversion of vehicles to ensure smooth flow of traffic.