Category: NATIONAL NEWS

Bengaluru, May 16 (DIN NEWS) BJP’s Karnataka unit chief B S Yeddyurappa today said he met Governor Vajubhai Vala and asked him to allow him to take oath as chief minister as the party had emerged the single largest party. Soon after he was elected leader of the BJP legislature party, Yeddyurappa drove to the Raj Bhavan here and handed him a letter about his unanimous election to the post. Yeddyurappa said he requested the governor to allow him to take oath as chief minister as early as possible. The governor,…

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Panaji, May 15 (DIN NEWS) The junior alliance partners in the BJP-led Goa government today said the importance of regional parties cannot be undermined in politics. The remarks came two days after BJP chief Amit Shah said his party aimed to win in at least 35 out of the total 40 seats in the next Goa elections. The Manohar Parrikar-led state government, which came to power after the elections in March last year, is currently supported by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the Goa Forward Party (GFP), and three Independents. The…

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New Delhi, May 15 (DIN NEWS) Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily today described early trends suggesting a BJP victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls as “quite disappointing and attributed his party’s loss to wrong caste management . The Congress should not have raised the Lingayat issue before the polls, Moily said, adding that the party had not managed caste equations well in its electoral strategy. He also defended Congress president Rahul Gandhi and praised him for engaging in a positive campaign as against the negative campaign carried out by Prime…

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New Delhi, May 14 (DIN NEWS) Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is undergoing a kidney transplant operation at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today, sources at the hospital said. Jaitley, 65, was admitted to the hospital on Saturday and taken to the operation theatre at 8 am today, the sources said. The minister, suffering from a kidney ailment, has been undergoing dialysis for the last one month. According to sources, nephrologist Dr Sandeep Guleria from Apollo Hospital, also the brother of AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, who is a…

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New Delhi, May 14 (DIN NEWS) After a 19-day pre-Karnataka poll hiatus, petrol price was today hiked by 17 paise a litre and diesel by 21 paise as PSU oil firms began passing on the spike witnessed in international rates to consumers. Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 74.80 per litre from Rs 74.63 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 66.14 a litre from Rs 65.93, according to a price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies. With this, diesel prices have touched a record high while petrol…

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New Delhi, May 13 (DIN NEWS) There is a necessity for a whistleblowers act to protect RTI users as the system has strategised to stall free flow of information to disempower and stop such activists, says Aruna Roy, who spearheaded the Right to Information Act movement. She also feels that there is still a need to see the RTI as a larger democratic and people’s constitutional tool to make power truthful and accountable and put pressure on the political establishment, which it cannot ignore or distort. According to Roy, the RTI…

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Bengaluru, May 13 (DIN NEWS) A day after the Karnataka Assembly polls, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today asserted that the Congress would retain power in the southern state and said this was his last election. Speaking to reporters in Chamundeshwari constituency, one of the two seats from where he contested in the high-stakes polls along with Badami in north Karnataka, the Congress leader said: “This will be my last election.” To a question on the possibility of a Dalit chief minister, he said, “It is fine if the party decides to have…

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Bengaluru, May 12 (DIN NEWS) Congress president Rahul Gandhi today urged the people of Karnataka to participate in the “festival of democracy” by voting in large numbers. Gandhi also welcomed first-time voters to take part in the electoral process. “Voter exercising his right without fail is the sign of functional democracy. I welcome all my young friends who are casting their vote for first time in Karnataka,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Kannada. “I request people of Karnataka to celebrate this biggest festival of democracy in large numbers with fervour,…

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Bengaluru, May 12 (DIN NEWS) About 24 per cent polling was recorded within the first four hours after voting began for the fiercely fought Karnataka Assembly polls this morning. Polling is being held in a single phase for 222 out of 224 seats in a three-cornered contest among the ruling Congress, the BJP and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s JD(S). According to state electoral authorities, the highest 31 per cent voting was recorded in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts respectively at 11 am while Bengaluru urban recorded the lowest…

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Damoh (MP), May 11 (DIN NEWS) Over 100 girl students of a government hostel in Madhya Pradesh are forced to defecate and bathe in the open because of water scarcity in toilets, says its warden, at a time when every state is trying to achieve the ‘Open Defecation Free (ODF)’ tag The hostel in Madiyadoh village, about 60 km from the district headquarters, has toilets, but shortage of water has rendered them useless, forcing students to defecate in the open, an official said. The hostel’s inmates, Class 6 to 12 students,…

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