13 killed as SUV collides with car in Karnataka 100 days: Thackeray settles into new role without hiccups
Bengaluru/Chennai, March 6: Thirteen people, including five women and two children, were killed and five critically injured in a road accident in Karnataka early Friday, police said.
The mishap occurred when an SUV collided with a car that had crashed against a road divider at Amruthur near Kunigal in Tumakuru district, police added.
Twelve of them died on the spot and a childsuccumbed in a hospital, police said adding they included a four-member family — man, wife and their two children.
Four critically-injured persons were hospitalised.
Among the dead, 10 were from Tamil Nadu and three from Bengaluru. All of them were pilgrims.
"Thirteen persons (ten in the SUV and three in the car) have died. The incident occurred past midnight. A car crashed against the road divider and another car collided with it," Tumakuru superintendent of police K. Vamsi Krishna said.
"While the people in the SUV were returning from thetemple town of Dhramasthala (in Dakshina Kannada district), the four people in the car were on the way to Dharmasthala," Vamsi Krishna said.
Police personnel had to struggle to pull the bodies out from the mangled vehicles.
Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Palaniswami, condoling the deaths, said the 10 victims, hailing from Chikkanappalli village in Krishnagiri district were returning home when the mishap occurred after a pilgrimage to Dharmasthala. Five women, three men and two children were killed in the accident.
Mumbai, March 6: Completing hundred days in office, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has managed to walk a tightrope so far, deftly handling issues such as NPR- CAA and Muslim quota while heading the alliance between his party, pro-Hindutva Shiv Sena and the “secular” CongressNCP.
Mr Thackeray, who had never held any position in any government before he was sworn in as chief minister on November 28, 2019, seems to have settled in his new role quickly, mainly owing to his calm manner and capacity to take along the heavyweights in his cabinet, observers say.
The unlikely coalition came to power after longtime allies Shiv Sena and BJP parted ways over the chief minister’s post despite winning Assembly polls. After taking over as CM, Mr Thackeray admitted in the legislature that he was inexperienced.
Interestingly, he chose not to keep major portfolios with him, instead distributing them among his experienced colleagues such as Sena’s Eknath Shinde, NCP’s Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil and Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat.
A senior minister said Mr Thackeray gives space to all senior leaders in his cabinet. “He favours decisionmaking by consensus, taking every one along,” the leader said. He also enjoys a good rapport with NCP president Sharad Pawar.
Owing to different ideologies of its constituents, the government has dealt with some thorny issues such as the stand on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the CAA and NPR, and reservations for Muslims. But Mr Thackeray did not allow the Opposition BJP to corner him on any of these issues.
On CAA and NPR, he initially said there was nothing objectionable about these measures, but then set up a cabinet sub-committee to “study and advise” the government on what stand should be taken.