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Ruling out any post-poll alliances, Amit Shah tells Zee News that BJP is confident of forming the next government in Karnataka all on its own.
New Delhi: Amit Shah has campaigned long and hard ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections. With just days to go before 5.6 crore voters cast their votes on May 12, the BJP chief – in an exclusive interview with Zee News – said his party is confident of cruising past the halfway-mark and is sure BS Yeddyurappa would prove to be a capable CM.
Here are excerpts from Amit Shah’s interview with Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary:
On why Karnataka needs to shun Congress for BJP:
The present scenario in Karnataka is alarming. Law and order has collapsed. The interests of the common man has been ignored for four years. Farmers are committing suicide – in fact there has been a 173% jump in farmer suicides since Congress came to power in the state. Karnataka needs a government which listens to the needs of the people, that worries for them and works for them.
On Lingayat issue:
We are at receiving end of issues like Lingayat. They (Congress) did not bring up these issues in last four years but only in the last six months. Our strategy has not changed because of it – people of Karnataka are intelligent enough to see through it. They (Congress) have only brought up such matters because of the upcoming elections. (Read more here)
On Rahul Gandhi campaigning for Congress in the state:
Congress has fought many elections under Rahul Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi may have been party chief but Rahul was at the helm of campaigning previously as well. Now that he is president of Congress, nothing has changed. He and his party will once again lose. It does not matter who leads the party in Karnataka – Rahul or Siddaramaih, problems of people have remained and they will punish Congress for it. People of Karnataka won’t tolerate being ignored.
On PM Narendra Modi campaigning for BJP in the state:
It is very unfortunate for the country that India previously had a PM who did not take part in election rallies. Reaching out to people by political leaders – even if he is the PM of the country – is part of democracy. We have to listen to the people, talk to them and devise how best to help them. There is nothing wrong in that. He (PM Modi) is a popular leader, why won’t he reach out to people?
On Yogi Adityanath campaigning for BJP in the state:
It is not just Adityanath who has campaigned for the party here. We have called CMs from other BJP-ruled states. (Madhya Pradesh CM) Shivraj Singh Chauhan came, so did (Chhattisgarh CM) Raman Singh. It all depends on how much time each can give. Adityanath is not the only CM to have come to Karnataka.
On naming Yeddyurappa as BJP’s CM candidate:
There is no trial against Yeddyurappa, cases against him have been quashed. Are we not considering courts as the final authority? Moral issues are only till cases are being heard in courts. There is no case against Yeddyurappa and he has passed all tests.
On the possibility of forming alliances after elections:
The question of post-poll partner does not arise because BJP is coming to power with full majority. We do not have pre-poll partner and won’t have post-poll partner either.
On possible anti-incumbency against Modi government at the Centre:
There is absolutely no anti-incumbency factor. In 2014, we promised what we would do. Now, we are showing what all we have done. In fact, it is this that will help BJP get blessings from people.

A woman in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha has given birth to a baby in a culvert instead of a hospital. The cause behind the happening is the apathy of the administration. After her house was destroyed by an elephant almost six months ago, she was not given any relief or compensation by government authorities.
A woman in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha has given birth to a baby in a culvert instead of a hospital. The cause behind the happening is the apathy of the administration. After her house was destroyed by an elephant almost six months ago, she was not given any relief or compensation by government authorities.
Hence, she was compelled to live without a house in Surubil village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha. According to a member of the Zila Parishad, the woman was no given any help following the destruction of her house by an elephant. “No aid of rehabilitation has been given,” said the member.
The administration has now taken cognisance of the incident after reports surfaced in the media. Speaking to news agency ANI, Mayurbhanj additional district magistrate said, “We will look into it and the culprits will be punished.”
According to reports, the woman did not get any help from Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), which is supposed to cater to the underprivileged section of the society, primarily women and children.

Khaira alleged that CM is blatantly misusing his official authority and police machinery to influence the outcome of the bypoll.
Jalandhar : Accusing Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh of intimidating police officers and indulging in telephone tapping of opposition leaders to influence the May 28 Shahkot assembly byelection, leader of Opposition in state assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Tuesday urged the Election Commission (EC) to ‘send the CM on leave’ till the completion of bypoll.
“I have also urged the EC to appoint a protem chief minister in Punjab till the model code of conduct is in place so that Capt Amarinder doesn’t misuse the police and civil administration to influence the byelection,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said while addressing a press conference here.
Khaira said that in his complaint to the EC and the chief electoral officer, Punjab, he has also requested the poll panel to transfer Jalandhar SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar for “working under political pressure”.
He alleged that CM is blatantly misusing his official authority and the police machinery to influence the outcome of the bypoll, especially after Mehatpur SHO Parminder Singh Bajwa booked Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi Sherowalia and others, for illegal mining.
Khaira said Bhullar pressured the SHO to withdraw his resignation and sent him on a forced leave for two days, which was later extended to five days as they don’t want the SHO to investigate the illegal mining case against Ladi.
“Shockingly, the CM termed the FIR against Ladi as politically motivated and blamed opposition leaders, including me, and produced telephone call details of former SAD minister Daljit Singh Cheema and mine,” he said.
“The CM has indulged in unconstitutional phone tapping of opposition leaders, including me. The EC should register an FIR against him in this regard,” he said.
Khaira also demanded that the Punjab Police be immediately replaced with central paramilitary forces to oversee the byelection.
He said he has also demanded that further investigation into the FIR against Ladi be transferred out of Punjab, preferably to Chandigarh, Haryana or Delhi for an impartial inquiry.
He also demanded a separate FIR against Ladi on the basis of a sting operation, wherein he is seen demanding Rs 8 lakh per month ‘goonda tax’ from mining contractors.

While China has repeatedly claimed the island of Taiwan as part of its own territory, Hong Kong and Macau are regarded as part of the country with a certain degree of autonomy.
In what could lead to further worsening of ties with the United States, China has warned international airlines not to refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as independent territories. The country has said that failure to comply would result in heavy penalties, according to The Washington Post.
While China has repeatedly claimed the island of Taiwan as part of its own territory, Hong Kong and Macau are regarded as part of the country with a certain degree of autonomy. Now, China has warned international airlines not to refer to any of the three as independent areas – a move which has angered the US. Civil Aviation Administration of China reportedly sent a letter to 36 airline companies last month warning them to not violate the one-China policy. The list included a number of American companies like Delta and United Airlines. Most of these companies have said that it is a matter to be resolved by governments and that they should not be dragged into the controversy.
Already in the midst of a bitter trade feud with Beijing, Washington too has taken a grim view of the letter issued.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, Australia too has hit back saying its national career – Qantas – should not be intimidated by the Chinese.
People at large though appear divided over the stern warning. While some say it is a typical move from the Chinese to use strong words and coerce others, there are others who feel that – whether correct or not – China’s move is hardly surprising considering its position towards the three regions.

Congress withdrew its peitions in row over their listing in front of the five-judge bench.
NEW DELHI: The Congress has withdrawn its petitions in the Supreme Court challenging Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s rejection of the opposition parties’ proposal to remove Dipak Mishra from his post as the Chief Justice of India. The withdrawal was conveyed to the top court by senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal.
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court was hearing two petitions filed by Congress’s Rajya Sabha members – Pratap Singh Bajwa and Amee Harshadray Yajnik – challenging Naidu rejection of their proposal.
Sibal questioned the listing of the petitions before the five-judge bench. He told the court that his party would consider the order that set up the five-judge bench hearing the petitions. He contended that the Chief Justice of India could not pass orders allotting the hearing to the bench considering it is his removal that at stake.
The five-judge bench is headed by Justice AK Sikri, number six in seniority. The other members are Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and AK Goel, who are next in the sequence of seniority.
The senior-most judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph – have been kept out of the matter. These judges had held the controversial January 12 press conference in which they had virtually revolted against the CJI by raising a host of allegations against him.
MPs from the Congress and seven other opposition political parties had signed an ‘impeachment’ notice And presented it to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. He had rejected the proposal on April 23.
The Constitution of India does not make any provisions for the ‘impeachment’ of the Chief Justice of India. It only allows a proposal to be forwarded as a recommendation to the President after it gets the necessary vote in Parliament. The removal of a Chief Justice is then in the hands of the President.

The BJP called her by her ‘real name’ after the Congress did so with Yogi Adityanath.
As the Karnataka Assembly election 2018 gets closer, the social media battle between the BJP and the Congress is getting nastier by the day. The Congress had on Friday taken a shot at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, referring to him with is birth name. The BJP responded in kind on Tuesday morning by dragging former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Sonia is set to begin her campaign in Karnataka with a rally in Bijapur. This is the first time in about two years that the former Congress chief is hitting the campaign trail. The last time she campaigned was in Varanasi, in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2016. She had fallen ill in the middle of a roadshow, and had been rushed for medical attention.
The Karnataka unit of the BJP took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to pay the Congress back in kind for a stinging tweet from Friday. “Today, Ms. Antonio Maino is here in K’taka to save her last citadel from falling! Madam Maino, K’taka needs no lessons from the person who was solely responsible for wasting India’s 10 precious years. And to Congress, need to remind you of your ‘import’ jibe?” read the tweet from the BJP’s Karnataka unit.
The tweet referring to Sonia Gandhi using her purported birth name of Antonia Maino (with which the BJP seems to have made a typo), which she gave up after marrying Rajiv Gandhi, came in response to an equally cringeworthy tweet from the Congress, which had referred to Adityanath as ‘Ajay Bisht’, which was his name before he renounced it to become a monk.
“We are glad that Mr Ajay Bisht was able to take some lessons of good governance from CM @siddaramaiah and is headed back to be with the people of Uttar Pradesh in their time of need,” read the Congress tweet, which came after he cut short his campaign in Karnataka to return to his CM duties.
The run-up to the polls has been vicious, especially on social media. Both major parties have devoted significant energy to the online battles, considering the age demographics and high level of connectivity in the state.
Karnataka goes to the polls on May 12, and the counting of votes will take place on May 15. The BJP is angling to take power in the state for the second time, while the Congress will be trying to hold on to power.

Elderly women and children who are raped are not ‘asking for it’ either.
NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has suggested that governmental agencies may be able to do little to stop violence and crimes against women, since many of these crimes are committed by people who are either friends or family. She also dismissed the normal rape-apologist claim that women who dress a particular way are ‘asking for it’.
“What efforts can be made by external agencies, when you have known people absolutely violating the women?” Nirmala said at an event in New Delhi on Monday evening, reported news agency ANI. The comment underscores the fact that significant number of crimes against women happen in their homes, and not out on the streets. It also underlined the difficulties that agencies like law enforcement or commissions for women face when attempting to deal with such crimes committed by family members or friends.
India’s first full-time woman Defence Minister was also in no mood to tolerate the lame ‘explanation’ that a woman may have been sexually assaulted because of the kind of clothes she was wearing at the time of the incident. “Some people say about the way women dress. Then why does rape happen of elderly people? Why does rape happen of toddlers?” Nirmala said.
Her comments come in the middle of a period of increased focus on the women’s safety and the perceived rise in violence and crimes against them. They also come at a time that her government responded to the recent abduction, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua by promulgating an ordinance to give child-rapists the death penalty.
The views Nirmala expressed through these comments have been put forth for years by activists. They have repeatedly sought to raise awareness that a significant share of crimes against women are committed by family members and friends, and not by strangers on the street, as usually portrayed.
Activists also question the efficacy of knee-jerk reactions like changing law to make punishments more stringent, repeatedly pointing to the fact that sexual assault cases have a very low conviction rate in the country. They also point out that even the death penalty does not prevent certain crimes from continuing to happen.

An Uttar Pradesh-based woman has claimed that that the son of a BJP legislator has sexually assaulted her. Demanding justice, the victim sat on a ‘dharna’ outside the Collectorate office in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Lucknow: An Uttar Pradesh-based woman has claimed that that the son of a BJP legislator has sexually assaulted her. Demanding justice, the victim sat on a ‘dharna’ outside the Collectorate office in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
A case has been registered against the accused, reported news agency ANI. The details of the case are still sketchy.
The cases comes days after massive public outcry over Unnao rape case.
In June, 2017, the Unnao victim – a minor at the time – visited MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s residence with a relative seeking a job, where she was allegedly raped by the legislator and others. Despite several attempts, the victim failed to register a case.
The case came into limelight after the victim and her family tried to set themselves ablaze in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s house in April 2018. Later, the victim’s father, who was held by police, died in the jail with post-mortem suggesting serious injuries on his body.
The CBI later arrested the BJP legislator on Friday night for alleged rape of a minor. The action had came barely hours the Allahabad High Court ordered the probe agency to arrest Sengar, stating that he was influencing the “law-and-order machinery”.

As the electioneering has entered the final phase for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, voters are debating about their choice. During 2013, JD(S) had won five out of seven seats in Hassan district, the rest two by Congress.
Hassan: On the face of it, many people in Hassan district take pride in the fact that one of India’s prime ministers HD Deve Gowda of Janata Dal Secular (JD(S)) was from this place, but there is also unhappiness over lack of development, growing unemployment and farmers’ distress. Their main grievance is that the district has not been developed enough like Shivamogga and Bengaluru despite electing political heavyweight Gowda as MP for five times from Hassan, a JD(S) bastion, dominated by Vokkaliga community to which he belongs.
As the electioneering has entered the final phase for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, voters are debating about their choice. During 2013, JD(S) had won five out of seven seats in Hassan district, the rest two by Congress.
“We are facing drinking water problem for last 10 years. Because of poor rains, the groundwater level has gone down and the two borewells which 150 houses depend upon, are not working properly,” Vanjashri Gowda who stays in Sathigala area of Sakleshpur constituency said.
As a result, Gowda, who works in a coffee plantation, walks about 2 km daily to fetch drinking water from small streams that flow nearby. “These borewells with hand pumps were installed when Deve Gowda became chief minister for the first time (in 1994). Thereafter, there has been no development,” she says and adds that even roads are equally bad here.
Unemployment, crash in coffee and pepper prices, white-stem borer disease in the coffee crop, wild elephant attack on human beings among others are problems haunting people of Sakleshpura constituency, where there is triangular fight between JD(S), Congress and BJP.
Malleshappa, who owns 15 acres of coffee plantation in Sakleshpura says, “We had high expectation from Deve Gowda. He is known as ‘mannina maga’ (son of the soil). What has he done for poor farmers?”
“Pepper prices have crashed due to cheaper imports. If the situation continues, farmers will sell the agriculture land and look for jobs in cities. The price we get for the produce does not cover the cost of production,” he said.
Similarly in the Hassan constituency, unemployment and drinking water problem have become major poll issues. “Youth are getting educated from here but not getting jobs. They have to migrate to Bengaluru for jobs, where with meagre salary they cannot afford a living. There are no industries here,” BJP candidate from Hassan constituency Pritam Gowda claimed.
On the drinking water crisis, he said there is “lack of willingness” from incumbent JD(S) MLA HS Prakash to ensure people get smooth supply of water. “Hemavathi river is just 15 kms away. They have taken water from this river to places like Tiptur, Tumkur and Arsikere through Hassan. Hassan people are not getting drinking water,” he said.
The BJP candidate, who is contesting polls for the first time, said, “Deve Gowda has done good things but not good enough.
“Defending the development work undertaken by the JD(S), the party candidate and sitting MLA HS Prakash blamed both UPA and NDA government for not releasing funds for addressing the drinking water problem. “Now, Rs 117 crore has been sanctioned under the clean water programme ‘Amruta’. Pipelines have been laid till Hassan. If the work gets completed in the next six months, there will be water supply for 24X7,” he said.
Prakash further said that the JD(S) supremo was prime minister for 11 months and as chief minister of the state for 16 months. “He has done enough work. People feel that development can happen only under JD(S).”

Many parts of Delhi-NCR received light rain on Tuesday morning.
NEW DELHI: Delhi and its surrounding areas saw light early morning showers on Tuesday, even as the region braces itself for more thunderstorms and strong winds. Schools have declared a holiday across the National Capital Region (NCR), and officegoers have been cautioned about the possible severe weather conditions that could take place through the day.
The dust storm that hit the Delhi-NCR region on Monday night brought with it some amount of rain. The strong winds that accompanied the dust storm brought down trees in a number of places across the urban sprawl. Traffic density on the city roads has been lower than usual in the early hours of the day.
Some flights have been reported delayed at Delhi airport because of the adverse weather conditions.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted thunderstorms and squalls (strong gusts of wind) across Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh and western parts of Uttar Pradesh. It has said wind speeds during the squalls could reach 50 to 70 kmph. The IMD said a thunderstorm hitting the region was ‘very likely’. It predicted similar conditions but with hail for Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The IMD’s forecast however puts the entire region in the clear for Wednesday and Thursday.
The advisories issued by the Delhi government and Delhi Police remain in force for Tuesday. The advisories asked residents to stay indoors as far as is possible. They also advised those who find themselves in the midst of dust storms to take shelter under solid structures. Car users have been asked to remain in their vehicles with their parking and emergency lights turned on.
All government services have been placed in a state of alert for Tuesday. Emergency services have been put on standby. Water and power utilities have been asked to keep teams on the ready to restore any services that may be disrupted by the thunderstorm.
More than 120 people have been killed and more than 300 injured across five states in the northern region in dust storms, thunderstorms and lightning strikes over the past. Many of these casualties have occurred in parts of Rajasthan and western UP.