Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah will travel to Delhi for the election committee meeting on March 7, emphasising the importance of finalising the candidate list….reports Asian Lite News
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar announced that the Congress party’s central election committee will convene in New Delhi on March 7 to finalise the first list of Lok Sabha candidates in Karnataka. He confirmed a prior meeting with Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Shivakumar, also the state Congress chief, stated that he and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will travel to Delhi for the election committee meeting on March 7, emphasising the importance of finalising the candidate list.
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Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh has said that the Congress party has finalised its seat sharing with all other parties of the INDIA bloc except in West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir.
The Congress leader made the remark while addressing a press conference in Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur district on Tuesday, when he arrived here with the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
On being asked about where the INDIA alliance stands as Lok Sabha elections are draws closer, the Congress leader said, “INDIA alliance started in Patna on June 23, last year. After that, the second meeting was held in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18. The third meeting of the alliance was held in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1 and the fourth meeting was held in Delhi on December 19 last year. There were a total of 28 parties in the alliance. After the formation of the INDIA alliance, suddenly the Prime Minister tried to revive the dead NDA alliance. We would be aware that when the India alliance was announced, the talk of NDA had started. Where does NDA come from? Take out two ‘I’ from INDIA, Imandari (honesty) and Insaniyat (humanity) and it becomes NDA.”
He also took a dig at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who recently switched sides to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is a part of INDIA bloc saying he (Nitish Kumar) is a master of ‘Palti’ (switching sides).
“There were a total of 28 parties in the INDIA Alliance but of these a party leader (Bihar CM Nitish Kumar) switched sides. His history is of ‘Palti’ (switching sides). He is a master of Palti. Out of 28 parties, 27 were left and later one more party left INDIA bloc and joined NDA. So we became 26. But I want to say that 26 parties are strong parties,” he added.
The Congress leader further said, “Now out of 28 parties, 26 parties are with us and one or two more parties may join us in Maharashtra. We are strong and our seat sharing formula in Jammu and Kashmir is being finalised. There has been some delay (referring to seat sharing issue) in West Bengal but the Congress Party has finalised the seat sharing with all the other parties. Only two states left are West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.”
When asked whether Congress is in touch with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Jairam Ramesh said that they were hopeful that some middle path would be worked out and were trying their best.
“Mamata Banerjee is part of the INDIA Group. The Left parties are also the Part of India group. Mamata Banerjee attended Patna, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi meetings of the INDIA Group. She has said that her priority is to defeat the BJP and strengthen India. That is also the priorities of the Congress party. We are hopeful that some middle path will be worked out. Let us see we are trying our best,” the Congress leader said. (with inputs from agencies)
SC Relief For DK Shivakumar
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday said that he wants to offer “sashtanga namaskara” – a type of salutation where one lies flat on the stomach with all limbs touching the ground – to the Supreme Court after it quashed the ED case against him.
Talking to reporters, Shivakumar said that the news from the Supreme Court about the relief in the ED case was the biggest happy moment in his life amid the difficulties.
“The advocates are calling one after the other. I have not committed any mistake. The people are coming to know that the officers of ED had erred. I will narrate soon what the CBI is doing presently,” he said.
“Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and others were in the Supreme Court. There is nothing beyond the SC verdict. I went to jail with confidence, now also I have the same confidence. The CBI are torturing people around me. But, no one is the enemy here, this is all the rule of nature,” he added.
The apex court on Tuesday quashed a money laundering probe initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him.
A bench, headed by Justice Surya Kant, was hearing a special leave petition filed by the Congress leader against the Karnataka High Court decision refusing to quash the summons issued to him by the central agency.
The ED initiated a probe against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on the charge sheet filed by the Income Tax Department.
During the probe, the ED discovered approximately Rs 200 crore unaccounted cash belonging to Shivakumar and claimed that the money was parked in over 317 bank accounts across 20 banks, all under Shivakumar’s control.
The ED also alleged the discovery of benami properties worth over Rs 800 crore linked to Shivakumar.
Shivakumar was arrested in this case on September 3, 2019. However, he was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in October 2019. In May 2022, the ED filed a charge sheet against him in the matter.
In his plea against the ED probe, Shivakumar contended that the offence of criminal conspiracy cannot be invoked in the absence of predicate offence and the offence under the Income Tax Act not being a scheduled offence, proceedings under the PML Act cannot be continued.
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