Modi’s BJP strongest in Karnataka

Cabinet reshuffled, FM undergoes surgery

NEW DELHI, May 15, (Agencies): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party was set on Tuesday to win the largest number of seats in a big southern state election, giving him momentum for a reelection bid next year and opening a path for more reforms.

A government in Karnataka led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will help Modi silence critics who said his popularity had waned after the rocky adoption of a nationwide sales tax and a sudden ban on high-value notes late in 2016.

The BJP was leading in 105 seats in the election to the 225-member state assembly, the Election Commission of India said, with the opposition Congress party leading in 75 seats.

A party must have 113 seats to form a government and the BJP will probably have to seek the backing of smaller parties.

India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley was recovering in hospital Tuesday after undergoing a kidney transplant that forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reshuffle his cabinet.

Modi

Railways minister Piyush Goyal on Monday was assigned Jaitley’s duties managing Asia’s third-largest economy until the ruling party stalwart returns to good health.

12 dead in political violence:

Twelve people were killed Monday in clashes between rival political groups vying for village council seats in eastern India, police said. Ballot boxes were set ablaze and gunshots fired in West Bengal state, which has a history of fractious politics and polling violence.

“Crude bombs were found near several polling booths in the districts,” Sharma said.

Politician charged over wife’s death:

A charismatic Indian opposition figure and former top UN official was charged Monday over the death of his wife, reigniting a mystery that shook the country’s establishment.

Shashi Tharoor, 62, is accused of cruelty toward his wife Sunanda Pushkar and abetting her suicide in a five-star hotel room in 2014.

Delhi police said on Twitter they had now amassed enough forensic and other evidence to pursue the high-profile Congress party politician in court.