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LIVE! Congress-JD-S coalition in Karnataka faces litmus test in bypolls

07:53  Congress-JD-S coalition in Karnataka faces litmus test in bypolls:  

The results for three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies in Karnataka that Saturday went to the bypolls, seen as a prestigious popularity test for the ruling Congress-JDS coalition, will be declared today.

    

An estimated 67 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the bypolls for five constituencies.

    

A total of 31 candidates were in the fray from all the five constituencies, though the contest is mainly between the Congress-JDS combine and the BJP.

The bypoll results will determine the fate of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita Kumaraswamy, state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra and former Chief Minister S Bangarappa’s son Madhu Bangarappa and others.

    

Among the interesting things that one needs to watch out for is to what extent BJP would be able to make inroads into the JD-S bastion of Mandya and the Congress stronghold of Jamkhandi.

    

Of similar interest would be to what extent the Congress will be able to regain its significance in its erstwhile party stronghold of Ballari, the seat earlier won by its top leader Sonia Gandhi.

    

The outcome of the bypolls is expected to have a bearing on the equations between the Congress and JD-S for the 2019 polls and also be a factor in determining the respective bargaining power of the two parties.

    

The bypolls were seen as significant as the coalition partners contested together, terming it as a “prelude” to the May 2019 general elections and called for a similar “grand secular alliance” against the BJP at the national level.

— PTI

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00:30  Nihalani moves HC against censor cuts in his forthcoming film:  

Former censor board chief
and filmmaker Pankaj Nihalani moved the Bombay high court on Monday against
a Central Board of Film Certification order directing 20 cuts in his soon-to-release production
venture, Rangeela Raja.

Nihalani, in his petition, said the
suggestion of the CBFC was
unjustified and uncalled for as he firmly believed that the film was not
vulgar in any manner.

The filmmaker also hit out at the present
head of the CBFC, Prasoon Joshi, and said he was ‘politically
motivated’.

He further alleged that when a film was submitted for
certification, the screening committee of the board took about 21 days
to decide.

However, in this case, it took 40 days.

On November 2,
the committee passed an order, asking for various cuts to be made in
the film.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday
before a vacation bench of the high court.

Nihalani’s tenure as
CBFC chief was marred with controversies as various flmmakers had
accused him of asking for arbitrary cuts in their films, leading to him
being replaced by Joshi.

With Rangeela Raja, Nihalani re-unites
with actor Govinda after 25 years.

They have earlier worked together in
films like Ilzaam, Shola Aur Shabnam and Aankhen.  — PTI

Source: Rediff