Yeddyurappa uses executive meet to target Eshwarappa

Mysuru, May 7: The rift in the State BJP came to the fore again at the executive committee meeting at Mysuru on Saturday, with party president B S Yeddyurappa making ample use of his presidential address to take indirect potshots at his bete noire K S Eshwarappa and other detractors.

Yeddyurappa at a press conference on Friday had claimed that all was well in the party but his Saturday address proved otherwise. Yeddyurappa urged the party cadres to bring Other Backward Class and Dalit leaders into the party fold.

"Approach OBC and Dalit leaders and bring them to the party. They are all in favour of the BJP and not any parallel organisation," he said taking a dig at Eshwarappa's association with Sangolli Rayanna Brigade, a forum of OBCs and Dalits.

Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa did not greet or acknowledge each other. While the BJP president mentioned the names of all the leaders on the dais, he only referred to Eshwarappa as 'leader of the opposition'.

While there were five sessions on day one, Eshwarappa was not given a forum to speak. Eshwarappa's name does not figure in the list of speakers for the concluding day too.

Yeddyurappa recalled that in 1991, when he was state president and Union Minister Ananth Kumar was general secretary, scion of Mysore royal family, the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja?Wodeyar, and the chairmen of first and second Backward Classes Commission L?G?Havanur and T?V?Venkataswamy respectively, had joined the BJP.

“Their entry into the BJP did not make us insecure. Instead we worked together to strengthen the party at the grassroots,”?Yeddyurappa?said, making an indirect reference to Eshwarappa and his supporters' criticism that those associated with the Karnataka Janata Party?(founded by Yeddyurappa) were getting prominence in the BJP. Eshwarappa had recently organised a "Save BJP" convention in Bengaluru where Yeddyurappa was blamed for sidelining party loyalists.

Later in the day, MLC?K?B?Shanappa is said to have been openly critical of the rift while placing the political resolution before the meeting. “Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa are working in different directions despite being in the same party. If this continues, we can all forget about Mission 150 (winning that many seats) in the 2018 assembly election,” Shanappa said.

The two-day meeting is being held amid a feud between Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa, which hit a new low in the last few days, prompting the central leadership to depute Muralidhar Rao, BJP national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, to Bengaluru for damage control.

Eshwarappa has been openly criticising the style of functioning of Yeddyurappa, blaming him for taking unilateral decisions and denting the morale of party workers. His continued association with the Rayanna Brigade, has upset Yeddyurappa.

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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