Watch out! Not for the Poll Goonda but for the wild jumbos, big cats and leopards on the prowl! 52 polling booths get special protection

A new set of challengers spearhead BJP's quest to maintain their supremacy in coastal Karnataka against a struggling Congress desperately seeking a toehold in the region.

With the Congress aiming to break the BJP’s stranglehold in the area, the Bangalore North constituency emerges as a crucial battleground in Karnataka’s political landscape. The contest revolves around two seasoned politicians: Congress’s M V Rajeev Gowda and BJP’s Shobha Karandlaje, hailing from diverse backgrounds.

Mansoor Ali Khan, a passionate educationist and General Secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), is vying for the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat. In an exclusive interview with Bol India Bol, Mansoor shares his vision for the constituency, his plans to address key issues, and his determination to bring about positive change through governance and development initiatives.

As the political landscape gears up for the parliamentary elections in Karnataka, the spotlight shines brightly onBengaluru Central, a pivotal constituency in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ignited a controversy by distorting statements from his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, to target Muslims following a relatively low voter turnout in the first phase of polling. This maneuver has incensed the nation like never before.

K S Eshwarappa, who has defied the BJP top brass by refusing to back down from his decision to contest against the party nominee B Y Raghavendra in Shivamogga, finally got his comeuppance on Monday, when he was suspended from the party for six years.

In a desperate attempt to arrest the mounting criticism against his government’s shambolic attempt to play down the brutal murder of a college student in Hubballi last week, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah finally announced a CID probe into the matter on Monday.

Has the BJP under-estimated Uddhav Thackeray, the son of the fiery Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray who held Mumbai in thrall with his unique play on Marathi Manoos, the Maratha identity and Hindutva ?

Amidst reports suggesting a shaky start for the BJP in the initial phase of the general election on April 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi escalated his offensive against the Opposition, employing the "M" word for the first time in this campaign season. His "Islamophobic" remarks have triggered widespread anger from the Opposition and prominent Muslims.

The Lok Sabha polls have witnessed an advertisement war between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP-JDS combine in Karnataka, with the humble vessel 'chembu' in the eye of the storm.

Congress insiders expect a 2-3% shift of the Lingayat vote to the BJP, affecting Dharwad, Gadag-Haveri, Belagavi, Chikodi, Uttara Kannada, Kalburgi, Bidar and Davangere constituencies.

Launching a blistering attack on the Congress government in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the murder of a girl student, assault on people chanting bhajans and the recent blast at a cafe were pointers to dangerous trends developing in the state society.

As the first phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections concluded on Friday, the ruling BJP claimed the trend was in its favour while the opposition saw the clear emergence of an anti-Narendra Modi sentiment. Even as the unofficial betting on the side, the satta market was giving the BJP more than 300 seats, that too after only the first phase of polling.

In Karnataka's Vokkaliga battlefield, Mandya, the rising rhetoric is testing the loyalties of a community that has not taken well to former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, the NDA candidate’s embrace of the saffron side and is facing a strong challenge from Star Chandru of the Congress.

The year was 2004 and our host on that hot May afternoon in New Delhi was a picture of humility. Ensuring no one's plate remained empty, he moved around with ease but his guests were more eager to hear him speak. Indeed, it's a rare occurrence when the prime minister of the country extends an invitation to a select group of journalists for lunch.

A statement by Bengaluru Rural Congress candidate D K Suresh that the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was not an original Congressman and he assumed the top post twice, after joining the grand old party has aer off fresh fears of a rift in the state political circles.

Bringing to the fore the discontent within the Congress ranks over denial of tickets, the party candidate in Karnataka's Hassan, Shreyas Patel, has been left to fend for himself, with many leaders reluctant to join his campaign.

This is the constituency that is turning into a battle royale! Mysuru-Kodagu is emerging as one of the most hard fought and prestigious constituencies in the Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka, with the state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah attaching huge importance to the success of his party's candidate from this very seat.

For the Jarkiholis of Belagavi, blood is indeed thicker than water, at least in these Lok Sabha polls.

"I think it (the creation of Hindu Rashtra) will involve — indeed it already involves — constant and focused violence because there is a large-scale social acceptance of Hindutva,” literary scholar and feminist critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak observed in an interview to an English daily.

Falling in line with the party diktat and abandoning his earlier stance, former BJP MLA Preetham Gowda announced on Monday that he would join the campaign for Prajwal Revanna, the NDA candidate from Hassan.

A long innings in politics came to an end with the retirement of former Karnataka chief minister and former union minister M Veerappa Moily.

Adding a controversial twist to the parliamentary election scene in Karnataka, a Lingayat seer has decided to contest as an independent candidate from Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency.

Ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, political strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted a BJP victory for the third straight time but the opposition, - but naturally - feels many surprises could unfold in the states dominated by the saffron party, making it far from a straightforward verdict.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are much more than a mere battle of ballots for two of Karnataka's senior leaders and long-time political adversaries. For H D Kumaraswamy and D K Shivakumar, it is indeed a no-holds-barred tussle to claim pole position in the community they represent – the Vokkaligas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unwittingly entered the picture in the electoral battle in Shivamogga between miffed BJP leader K S Eshwarappa and his fellow party functionaries.

Dr Yatindra Siddaramiah, son of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah, has courted controversy by going against the directives of his father and criticising Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, a member of the Mysore royal family and the BJP candidate in the Mysore-Kodagu seat.

With the party top brass cracking its whip, the voices of dissent in the Kolar Congress unit seem to have died down, with the rank and file deciding to work in unison to ensure victory for its candidate K V Gowtham in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

A guessing game has begun in political circles on whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the party’s de facto leader, would contest from a second Lok Sabha constituency after sensing a rough ride in Kerala's Wayanad from the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP this time.

In the first signs of cracks developing in Janata Dal Secular's new alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, a section of the saffron party leaders, including former MLA Preetham Gowda, has held back from campaigning in Hassan for JDS candidate and sitting MP Prajwal Revanna.

Having met with little success so far in its quest to find the right leader for the politically-vibrant Mandya district of Karnataka, has the BJP struck gold with the arrival of Sumalatha Ambareesh into its fold, with the party eager to expand its base in the Vokkaliga-dominant region.

With the miffed veteran BJP leader K S Eshwarappa turning rebel and deciding to contest as an independent in Shivamogga, the power equations in the constituency could see a drastic change affecting the saffron party's hopes of a big victory for its candidate and incumbent MP B Y Raghavendra, with some asking whether there's more to the Kuruba leader's rebellion than meets the eye?

On the day of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance rally at Ramleela Maidan in New Delhi, a taxi driver told me, “Ati ho gaya (enough is enough)… Modi must go.”

“The Congress has five power centres.. ..they have their own lobbies and clash with each other,” said the former Mumbai Congress chief and the ex-MP Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday, in a brutal critique of the state of affairs in the grand old party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, effectively closing the doors on any rapprochement in the future.

K S Eshwarappa, miffed, stubborn and unrelenting who had flown out first thing in the morning, returned from Delhi late Wednesday night. Empty handed. Did the veteran BJP leader and former deputy chief minister meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah whom he claimed had asked him to come to Delhi for a reconciliatory meeting? Or did he return to Bengaluru after getting the cold shoulder? The BJP'S ' Chanakya mysteriously unavailable!

Just as the political winds seemed to be blowing in the BJP's favour, the Supreme Court delivered a subtle but significant blow against it on Tuesday. After six months in jail in connection with the alleged Delhi multi-crore excise scam, AAP MP Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the top court. The apex court's decision could not have been more timely for AAP and the INDIA bloc.

Even as Sumalatha Ambareesh announced her decision to join the BJP and her support for NDA's Mandya candidate H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday, she also threw light on how the Congress lost the plot in the whole affair.

No stranger to the spotlight, Sumalatha Ambareesh will once again occupy centre-stage on Wednesday, with the popular actor-turned-politician all set to announce her next move in Karnataka's political theatre.

Union home minister Amit Shah, who handles the political affairs of the ruling front in Maharashtra following the split that was engineered in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, has put Maharashtra on top of his list of priorities.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has alleged a witch hunt by the ruling BJP, is set to face more problems in the build up to the Lok Sabha elections. AAP's Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is already behind bars while other ministers in his cabinet are said to be under increasing pressure from the BJP to toe their line.

Few doubt that the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community is back in the BJP's pocket in Karnataka and will vote en masse for the saffron party in the upcoming parliamentary polls, which is hoping to sweep Kalyana Karnataka (formerly Hyderabad-Karnataka) and Kittur Karnataka (Mumbai-Karnataka) regions, in the polls scheduled over two phases on April 26 and May 7.

On Sunday-March 31, all roads in the national Capital led to the Ramlila Grounds.

The NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Saturday renominated his daughter Supriya Sule for the prestigious Baramati Lok Sabha seat sending out a clear message to the ruling Maha Yuti - consisting of the BJP, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) - that he is ready to face their challenge.

Has a Congress leader struck a secret deal with a BJP stalwart that will impact not one but two constituencies in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls? Reliable sources have told bolindiabol.live that a deal has been reached between former chief minister and Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency BJP candidate Jagadish Shettar and PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi whose daughter, Priyanka Jarkiholi, is contesting as the Congress candidate from Chikkodi parliamentary seat.

Did the ruling Congress Party blunder by giving tickets to candidates they brought in to Kolar and Chikkaballapur even though they have little connect with these Lok Sabha constituencies? Both the candidates for the Kolar and Chikballapur seats dominated discussions in the screening committee meetings due to various factions pulling in opposite directions putting the party’s interest second.

Late on Friday, the Congress party announced candidates for three of the total four Lok Sabha constituencies which have been pending.

Former Chief Minister and Mandya Lok Sabha United candidate H.D.Kumaraswamy broke with tradition on Sunday by not sitting on his high horse like he would have done in the past.

A conciliatory meeting was held under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to resolve the controversy surrounding the ticket for Kolar Lok Sabha constituency as the fight between two factions, one led by Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer affairs K.H.Muniyappa and the other by former speaker K.R.Ramesh Kumar, in Bengaluru on Thursday hit a new low.

The timing of the arrest of Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, the timing of the freezing of the accounts of the Indian National Congress, the timing of ED and CBI raids on Trinamool Congress' Mahua Moitra, timing of ED heat on Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter, Veena, the timing of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's arrest and ED-CBI accelerating action against the Opposition have raised questions on the state of India's democracy.

Arvind Kejriwal has established a pattern of making headlines, setting records, and defying conventional political norms. His Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has experienced both soaring triumphs and resounding defeats under his leadership.

Rumblings within the ruling Congress party is coming to the fore after five legislators threatened to resign their membership if a son-in-law of Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer affairs K.H.Muniyappa was given a ticket for Kolar Lok Sabha constituency.

In a sign that the BJP rank and file are not entirely happy with the distribution of tickets in this drought hit region, a person attempted self immolation by dousing himself with diesel as a protest against B.V.Nayak being denied a ticket for the Raichur Lok Sabha seat.

It has been decided that former chief minister and Janata Dal Secular leader H.D.Kumaraswamy will contest as the NDA candidate from the high -voltage Mandya Lok Sabha constituency which would go to polls along with another 13 constituencies in the first phase of polling to be held on April 26.

Deputy Chief Minister D.K.Shivakumar is on a two-day temple run ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls that would decide his political future as well as of his younger brother, D.K.Suresh who is facing a strong contender this time.

BJP on Tuesday announced it would contest all 13 seats in Punjab on its own

Recent comments by India and China display firmness in their stands. India is unwilling to back down. My assessment.

One of the BJP’s most colourful leaders made a grand return to the party, but Gali Janardhan Reddy’s ‘Ghar vapsi’ wasn’t exactly greeted with smiles from party seniors like his once close friend, B. Sriramulu.

Understanding the sentiments of the people of Uttara Kannada, the BJP has denied a ticket to the sitting MP Anant Kumar Hegde who had repeatedly embarrassed the party.

The BJP high command is learnt to have asked its state leaders to stop placating the miffed former minister, K.S.Eshwarappa who is bent on contesting against B.Y.Raghavendra from Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat, after his son, K.E.Kantesh was denied a ticket.

This could be a wake up call for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who would see the force and fire in the Opposition's rally being held at the historic Ramleela Maidan in New Delhi on March 31 against the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The arrest of the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections sparked off an international debate with Germany becoming the first major global power to remind India that the Delhi chief minister has the right to "fair and impartial trial."

Even as there has been a buzz about Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K.Shivakumar at loggerheads over the selection of candidates for the parliamentary polls to be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7, a survey has indicated that the ruling Congress Party could get 15-16 seats of the total 28 seats due to confrontation within BJP on naming of candidates for 21 seats.

A political analyst once compared the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal's journey to Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray." He said-"everytime Dorian does something evil, mean or selfish, his picture ages." But then the comparison pauses there--the end perhaps will not be as dark.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorte (ED) has strengthened the Opposition’s unity and revived their fighting spirit ahead of the the Lok Sabha elections. This has also kicked off a debate in the political circles whether it was a wise move or a self goal by the BJP.

The ruling Congress party has come under fire for giving tickets to sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and wives of the ministers and ignoring its foot soldiers.

There were no surprises in the list of the Congress candidates announced for 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka which go to the polls in two phases on April 26 and May 7, with the Congress brazenly pushing back against charges of Pariwarvad by giving tickets to the sons, daughters and kith and kin of several incumbent ministers in the Cabinet of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

In a move that is being widely seen as a bid to deflect attention from the embarrassing amount of cash in the BJP’s kitty, after the Election Commission of India uploaded the Electoral Bonds data with numbers matching donors with political parties, the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested for the liquor gate scam.

New Delhi, 21 : Is the ruling BJP not as sure that ‘Modi magic’ will ensure it a third term at the Centre? This is the question after the government agencies are using every weapon in their book to target the opposition parties financially, ahead of the polling for the Lok Sabha, and tying up with small parties across a number of states.

The BJP lived to breathe another day after former chief minister D.V.Sadananda Gowda announced that he would not quit the party. But, going ahead, he said his further course of action will be the 'purification' of the party, bluntly indicating that he did not believe all is well in the saffron party.

At a time when undeterred by the spectre of Gaza war, thousands of Indian youth are turning up in Israel for jobs, being lured to Russia on a promise of jobs and then forced to fight in the Ukraine war, when there's at least 50% increase in the number of Indian students taking admissions abroad, when a large number of children have no access to quality education--the contours of India's political discourse appear to be shaped by cultural nationalism, religious identity and the ever persistent cauldron of caste politics.

Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar who had quit the BJP to join the Congress only to make a quick ‘ghar wapasi’ back to the BJP has been asked to contest from the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency, making it the first time in his 30 year political career that he will contest the Lok Sabha polls.

Alarmed over reports that former chief minister and senior BJP leader, D.V.Sadananda Gowda was being inducted into the Congress Party, leaders from the BJP are learnt to have offered the former chief minister, a ticket to contest from Chikkaballapur seat which is currently held by B.N.Bache Gowda of BJP

The Congress fighting with its back to the wall laid out the outlines of its poll manifesto by revealing its campaign theme of "5 Nyays." The ""5 Nyays" are supposed to be the five pillars drawn from the recently concluded Congress scion, Rahul Gandhi's, two month old Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

Maharashtra is going to be a tricky state for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls with the ruling party unsure if it can win the 48 seats, even in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 'Chanakya' Amit Shah, and not even after breaking the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). This is evident as it is now holding seat sharing talks with Raj Thackeray's MNS, the RPI (Athavale) and a couple of smaller parties in addition to the splinter groups of the Shiv Sena and the NCP.

The Janata Dal (Secular) which had inked an alliance with the BJP for the coming parliamentary election, is all set to break with the saffronists, after being treated shoddily by the state BJP leaders.

Grabbing the opportunity that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi virtually gifted the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a huge swipe at the I.N.D.I Alliance for “insulting Hindu ‘Shakti’.

The miffed BJP leader K.S.Eshwarappa who has waged a war of words against former chief minister B.S.Yediyurappa after his son was denied a ticket to contest the Haveri Lok Sabha seat, upped the ante on Monday when a leaked audio surfaced of a prominent RSS functionary encouraging him to contest in Shivamogga.

Narendra Modi’s superstitious streak? Just as he did in 2019, and hours before the EC poll announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick started his poll campaign in Kalaburgi with a searing indictment of the Siddaramaiah government’s misgovernance.

Amidst the raging controversy over the electoral bonds beneficiaries, the Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls whereby for the first time in India’s history, elections for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be held in seven phases. Spread over one and a half months, the voting will be held from April 19 to June 1.

In a case that explode in the BJP's face, former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa was left red-faced with embarrasment a day before elections are set to be announced, after a woman filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the veteran BJP leader on Friday accusing him of sexual assault of her minor daughter.

Amidst the Electoral Bonds controversy, which has cast a shadow over the BJP's moral stance, party strategists continue to exude an air of confidence, brushing off concerns regarding any potential electoral repercussions.

In a move that is being seen as undermining India's federal structure, a high-level committee has recommended holding simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies. This is to be followed by a synchronised local body polls within 100 days.

In what is being seen as a major push to retain its winning edge in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP axed as many as nine sitting MPs from the list of 20 candidates announced on Wednesday.

With the chances of getting tickets to contest the coming parliamentary polls getting more and more difficult , a few top guns in the BJP have resorted to a show of strength sending a strong message to the party bosses that denying them a ticket would be unacceptable.

In the heart of Delhi amidst the aromatic haze of freshly brewed coffee a senior BJP leader declared "West Bengal is our Kohinoor." His words carried the weight of a centuries old treasure coveted by all. In a strategic move, the BJP was going all out to capture the state boasting 42 Lok Sabha seats - a formidable prize that ranked third in terms of electoral significance, trailing behind Uttar Pradesh with 80 seats and Maharashtra with 48.

Days before the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha polls, a fast paced political drama unfolded in Haryana. The BJP not only went for a change of guard but also gave a signal to the backwards by elevating its OBC leader and state unit president, Nayab Singh Saini as the new chief minister of the state.

Lack of consensus seems to be coming in the way of finalisation of the list of candidates for 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.

With weeks to go for the Lok Sabha polls - and with one eye clearly on sweeping up votes in West Bengal - the government on Monday notified the contentious Citizenship Amendment (CAA) rules.

The naming of a Congress candidate for the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency may have have closed the doors for the sitting MP Sumalatha Ambareesh from getting a ticket from the Congress, as she had hoped. But is the BJP also getting cold feet?

In an uncomfortable optics for the Modi government, days before the expected announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, election commissioner Arun Goel resigned on Saturday night.

No one saw this coming! When the Congress high command announced 'Star Chandru" as being given the Congress ticket for the politically high -voltage Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, it set off huge speculation in the sugar bowl of South Karnataka.

Taking a cue from the BJP, the Karnataka leaders of the Congress Party seem to be going ahead with the experiment of building new leadership in those districts where the existing leaders are becoming old and irrelevant.

Ahead of the general elections India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh with the largest number of Lok Sabha seats (80) is witnessing 'a battle of the bulge' to capture 21 percent of the Dalit votes in the state.

The Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency is all set to witness a colourful battle of the clans between two powerful political families who have been arch-rivals for more than three decades.

Narendra Modi had the son of a long-serving former minister and Bihar deputy chief minister, Samrat Choudhary, chivalrously hail him on the dais when he attacked the parivarwad (nepotism) within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance parties.

Seemingly impervious to BJP’s unceasing attacks on nepotism, and ‘pariwarvad’ Karnataka ministers, reluctant to contest the coming parliamentary polls are pushing the high command to give tickets to their sons and daughters, promising they would do everything to ensure the victory of their kin.

The ruling Congress Party is falling back on a tried and tested strategy which it had used in the last year's Assembly polls in the coming parliamentary polls to counter the perceived ‘Modi wave’ in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

The women electorates have never been as important as they are now for the politicians and the political parties.

Chennai, March 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a southern sojourn as he steps into election mode said Monday that he quit his home at the age of 16 for the nation which is his family, in an obvious counter to criticism by former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav that Modi did not have a family.