Mamata suffers forehead injury
KOLKATA, Jan 24: Mamata Banerjee injured her forehead on Wednesday, after her car had to make a sudden halt to avoid a collision with another vehicle here, a senior official said.Banerjee, who was seated in front beside the driver, was injured after her head hit the dashboard, he said.The accident took place when the CM was returning to Kolkata from an administrative review meeting in Purba Bardhaman.Later in the evening, she went to the Raj Bhavan to meet Governor C V Ananda Bose.“All of a sudden, a car came in front of us at high speed. By God’s grace, I was saved as my driver was alert. I am not feeling well as I am having pain and swelling. I have taken some medicines,” Banerjee said.“At times, people misuse vehicles; as was the case when a person pretending to be a BSF jawan was caught outside my residence. The police is looking into today’s incident. I won’t comment on it further,” she added. (PTI)
Kharge’s aide joins BJP in K’taka
BENGALURU, Jan 24: In a setback to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in his home turf Kalaburagi, his aide R. Rudraiah on Wednesday quit Congress and joined the BJP at the party headquarters Jagannatha Bhavan here.Rudraiah, a retired Karnataka Administrative Service, was identified with close circles of Kharge.He joined BJP in the presence of Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka, MP S. Muniswamy, MLA Shivaraj Patil and MLC Chalawadi.Rudraiah hails from the Dalit community and rendered services as a senior officer in the state irrigation department. He was a ticket aspirant from Lingsugur constituency in the last elections from the Congress party. After failing to get the ticket, Rudraiah had contested from the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and secured 13,764 votes. (IANS)