Ramadan fast in coastal Karnataka from March 23 as new moon is sighted

The Congress won the Karnataka assembly elections by promising free electricity, free ration and unemployment allowance in its poll manifesto, taking cue from the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday.

He said the AAP has succeeded in its efforts to bring some change in the country's political discourse as other parties are also now seeking votes on issues like education and health.

He was addressing AAP leaders who won seats in just-concluded Uttar Pradesh local body elections.

"The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has tried to change the narrative of the country's politics. If you look at Karnataka polls, the Congress party has won on our manifesto," Kejriwal said.

"We said we will provide free electricity, they (Congress) also said so. We said we will provide unemployment allowance, free ration, and Rs 1,000 (per moth to women, They also said so," he said.

The BJP is also now making such promises, he said, adding, political parties earlier used to seek vote on the basis of caste and religion.

The AAP won three Nagar Palika chairperson seats, six Nagar Panchayat chairperson seats and six Nagar Nigam councillor seats besides several wards in the urban local body polls that were held in Uttar Pradesh in two phases — on May 4 and May 11.

More than half of the AAP's victorious candidates belonged to the minority community, according to the poll results available on the state election commission's website.

Kejriwal congratulated the AAP's Uttar Pradesh unit leaders, saying it was a "difficult" election as the state is considered a BJP stronghold. "You worked hard and defeated the BJP, the SP and other parties."

Kejriwal said the AAP leaders' victory in several seats in the local body elections is an indication that people of Uttar Pradesh "are ready for change". "They want good governance and development in the state," he added.

He said the AAP will now focus on expanding its foothold in Uttar Pradesh and contest the next assembly polls with full strength.

"We will build our organisation with the help of Sandeep Pathak (AAP national organisation secretary). We will form active committees of 10 members in every village and booth. Once our organisation is built in Uttar Pradesh, no one can stop us," he said. 

Kejriwal asked the elected representatives to work for the people in various sectors like health and education so that the AAP is strengthened in the state.  

"All of you have got more responsibility now… If you do good work in Uttar PRadesh that fragrance will spread across the state. We will get an entry in Uttar Pradesh through you," he added.

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

Bengaluru, May 14: Congress candidate from Jayanagar, Sowmya Reddy, has pleaded for the support of people saying she will continue to fight against injustice after she was defeated by 16 votes by BJP candidate CK Ramamurthy in recounting.

"Grateful for all my people of #Jayanagara who voted for me and @INCKarnataka cadre & leaders who had my back throughout. Thanks to the thousands of you who have showed solidarity. I plead your continued support to fight this injustice of foul play in the Jayanagar elections," tweeted Sowmya Reddy.

BJP's CK Ramamurthy had demanded the vote recounting after he lost to Sowmy. Later in recounting, Sowmya dramatically lost to Ramamurthy from the Jayanagar Assembly seat in Karnataka.

There was high drama after Ramamurthy was declared winner by mere 16 votes. Congress has scored big by winning 136 seats followed by BJP 65 and JDS 19 in the 224-member Karnataka assembly on Saturday.

The polls to Karnataka's 224 Assembly seats were held elections on May 10 and and the results were announced on Saturday.