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State of the Region

KARNATAKA

DEC DES �Karnataka Polls: Asaduddin Owaisi’sAIMIM to Support Janata Dal (Secular)

HYDERABAD The AIMIM on Monday announced its decisionto back the JD(S), led by former PM HD Deve Gowda, in theMay 12 Karnataka Assembly elections. The party presidentAsaduddin Owaisi said it has decided to support the JD(S)

after “due consideration and consultations”. Earlier, the party hinted atfielding its own candidates in the polls. “All our efforts and endeavourwould be to ensure that the JDS gets maximum number of seats. (HD)Kumaraswamy should become the chief minister and the party led byDeve Gowda should be ruling Karnataka,” Owaisi said.

�DMK to Form Human Chain on April 23Demanding Cauvery Management Board

CHENNAI DMK-led opposition parties will hold human chaindemonstrations in all the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu on April23 urging the Centre to immediately set up the CauveryManagement Board (CMB). The decision to stage the protest

was taken on Monday at a meeting of opposition parties chaired by DMKworking president and Leader of the opposition in the state assembly MK Stalin. The human chain protest, to be held between 4 pm and 5 pm, isboth to urge the Centre to immediately set up the CMB and to condemnthe AIADMK regime for “not taking” action on the matter, Stalin said.

�Hoax Hartal Call over Kathua IncidentTriggers Tension in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM A 'hoax' hartal call on social mediato protest the alleged gangrape and murder of an 8-year-oldgirl in Kathua region triggered tension in various parts ofKerala on Monday, prompting the police to sound a high

alert. A message was spread via social media platforms since Sundaythat a state-wide hartal against the Kathua incident would be observedon Monday, urging people to join the protest. Hundreds of people weretaken into custody in various places of the southern state for blockingpublic transport buses, forcibly downing shutters of shops and peltingstones at vehicles in the name of hartal.

�DMK Bats for Adding SC/ST Act to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution

CHENNAI The DMK on Monday said the Centre should takesteps to include the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Actunder the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which is be-yond judicial review, in the wake of the recent apex court

order 'diluting' some of the provisions of the Act. In remarks that camedays after Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan mooted a similar proposal,DMK working president MK Stalin said the 'dilution' of the legislation bySC has caused anguish to the oppressed. Though the laws placed in theNinth Schedule of the Constitution cannot be challenged in court, theSupreme Court had held years ago that judicial review was a basicfeature of the Constitution.

�Kerala Doctors Continue Stir, Govt Says Talks only After Strike is Called Off

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Medical services in Kerala conti-nued to be hit on Monday due to the ongoing strike by go-vernment doctors, even as the CPI(M)-led LDF governmentwarned that action will be taken if the stir was not withdrawn

immediately. Health minister KK Shylaja said the government wouldhold talks with the doctors only after the strike was called off. Govern-ment doctors in Kerala launched an indefinite stir on April 13, protestingthe suspension of a doctor at a health centre at Palakkad and extensionof out-patient (OP) time.

South Scan

Sowmya.Aji@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: Dissidence has hit both Con-gress and BJP in Karnataka after the twoparties announced their candidate lists formost constituencies for the May 12 assemb-ly elections, with many rejected aspirantsthreatening to contest as rebels.

the Congress is facing trouble in about 20out of the 218 constituencies where it an-nounced its candidates, while BJP is facingtrouble in about 10 seats after having an-nounced candidates for 154. Congressworkers vandalised the party office inMandya, where sitting MLA, film star Am-bareesh has been given the ticket. One ofhis supporters, Ravikumar, claimed thatAmbareesh had promised him the ticketthis time but had reneged on it.

In some other constituencies such as Kop-pal, Kolar, Kollegal, Jagalur, Kittur and Pu-likeshinagar, Congress aspirants ex-pressed anguish over being overlooked.

Some, like Prasanna Kumar in Pulikeshi-nagar and VR Sudarshan in Kolar, are said tobe in talks with the opposition JDS and BJPto shift parties. Congress leaders, however,said it’s a minor issue. “Considering that 218candidates have been announced, disside-nce in just 20 constituencies is not bad at all,”an outgoing cabinet minister told ET. Candi-dates for six seats are yet to be announced.

Congress working president Dinesh Gun-du Rao said the party is reaching out to alldisappointed aspirants and trying to solvethe problem. “It is a sign that the party iscoming back to power. We will find ways tosolve the issues with all aspirants to what-ever extent possible,” Rao said. The BJP isfacing dissidence in several seats, with dis-gruntled aspirants threatening to contestas rebels in seats like Dharwad, Sagar,Chikpet and Gulbarga Dakshin.

Rejected TicketAspirants Wantto Rebel againstCongress, BJP

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Cong is facing troublein about 20 of the 218

constituencies for which itannounced its candidateswhile BJP is facing rebels inabout 10 seats

Sowmya.Aji@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:Karnataka chief min-ister Siddaramaiah had no optionbut to go with his first choice ofChamundeshwari as his assemblyconstituency after the Congress de-cided that he should contest fromonly one seat for the May 12 polls.

Siddaramaiah had plans to con-test from Badami in Bagalkote dis-trict also. Party workers in the 90-seat North Karnataka region,which includes Bagalkote, are un-happy about his decision to not con-test from this seat, but party sourc-es said it would have been “nothingshort of disastrous” if he had drop-ped Chamundeshwari instead. “Itwas a ‘chappan inch ki chhaati’ mo-ment for Siddaramaiah when heannounced that he would take onJDS in their stronghold of Cha-mundeshwari,” a senior Congress

leader told ET. “If he drops Cha-mundeshwari now, that wouldamount to running away and caus-ing irreparable damage to the Con-gress and to his image, on whichthis election is riding.”

Siddaramaiah’s detractors saidhe vacated Varuna just to give a safeseat to his son Yathindra who hasbeen given the party ticket fromthat constituency. His supporters

say he made the move to ensure thatboth Varuna and Chamundeshwa-ri comes to the Congress. “He wasconsidering contesting from Bada-mi also as Bagalkote district elect-ed Congress in seven of the eightseats in 2013. This time, party work-ers there said if the CM himselfcontests from there, it will counterany anti-incumbency and give aboost to our workers there.”

The Old Mysuru region, whichshould have been a cake-walk forSiddaramaiah as he hails fromthere, has seen a lot of anger and re-sentment among villagers due to anagrarian crisis and neglect of infras-tructure. This leaves the field openfor the JDS and to a lesser extent, theBJP. Former PM Deve Gowda andhis son HD Kumaraswamy, who isthe party’s CM candidate, have chal-lenged Siddaramaiah to “win if youcan” from Chamundeshwari, whichis dominated by their community,the Vokkaligas.

The BJP has also announced itsaim to defeat Siddaramaiah. BJP’sCM candidate BS Yeddyurappa’sson Vijayendra is tipped to contestagainst Siddaramaiah’s son Yath-indra in Varuna, dominated bytheir community, the Lingayats.

“The campaigning and results ofthe two constituencies will have ad-ditional ramifications,” a BJP lead-er told ET. “If Siddaramaiah pullsit off, it means the Congress hasbeen successful in beating all fac-tors against it.”

Chamundeshwari is CM’sReply to JDS-BJP Threat

CM Siddaramaiah hit the campaign trail at Chamundeshwari on Monday

ANALYSIS

Sowmya.Aji@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: Neither sons of BJPchief ministerial candidate BSYeddyurappa have made it to thesecond list of candidates for theMay 12 assembly polls. They arestill in the race as the BJP is yet tofinalise candidates for 70 seats inthe 224-member assembly.

Former mine-lord G JanardhanaReddy’s brother Somashekara

has been given the ticket for Balla-ri City despite party presidentAmit Shah earlier telling themedia: “We do not have anythingto do with Janardhana Reddy.”

Somashekara Reddy is perceivedto be a strong candidate to take onCongress’ Anil Lad, also a mine-lord, whom Reddy defeated by1,000 votes in 2008 in the same con-stituency. Sanna Fakirappa, uncleof BJP’s new Dalit face B Sriramu-lu, has been given the ticket forBallari Rural. Sriramulu origi-nally represented this constituen-cy but has been moved to Molkal-muru in Chitradurga district,leaving Fakirappa, a former MP,to face the Congress’ B Nagendra.

Party sources said they were ex-pecting the candidature of BY Vi-jayendra, Yeddyurappa’s secondson, to be announced for the Varu-

na seat where chief minister Sid-daramaiah’s son Yathindra is theCongress candidate. “We don’tknow why there is a delay as thecandidature is almost certain,” aparty member said.

Yeddyurappa’s elder son BYRaghavendra is tipped to get theRanebennur ticket, though partysources said this may not comethrough in the last minute. “We

are accusing the Congress of dy-nastic politics; so it is a bit hard togive three tickets to Yeddyurap-pa’s family,” a BJP leader said.

The BJP has, for the first time,given tickets in neighbouring con-stituencies to a couple, withShashikala Jolle contesting fromNippani and husband Appa SahebJolle from Chikkodi-Sadalga,both in Belagavi district.

“Most of Yeddyurappa’s follow-ers have been accommodated inthis list,” a BJP leader said.“While several of them are thebest choice in terms of winnabili-ty, we are not sure what the impactis on the image the party is tryingto project.”

The party is yet to announcenames for several constituenciesmainly because there are too manycontenders, a BJP leader said.

BSY’s Sons Absent in BJP’s Second List A BJP LEADER SAID...

We are accusingthe Congress ofdynastic politics;

so it is a bit hard to givethree tickets to Yeddyu-rappa’s family

CCI NG 3.7 Product: ETBangaloreBS PubDate: 17-04-2018 Zone: Bangalore Edition: 1 Page: ETBGECO User: michelle.wilfred Time: 04-16-2018 23:27 Color: CMYK

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