A fire occurred on Sunday at a mass wedding ceremony in Sindhanur taluk, Raichur district, Karnataka. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had attended the event earlier.
Authorities confirmed there were no casualties and the fire was extinguished. Further information is awaited.
Separately, DK Shivakumar has described the legal and administrative dispute surrounding the Sringeri assembly constituency as a “disgrace to the nation” and an “organised crime” against democracy. This statement follows a court-ordered recount of postal ballots on Sunday in Karnataka.
The controversy stems from the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, where Congress candidate TD Rajegowda narrowly defeated BJP candidate DN Jeevaraj by 201 votes, with 279 postal ballots initially rejected. Shivakumar accused DN Jeevaraj of misusing officials and committing fraud related to the postal ballots. He said, “I had not imagined they would stoop to this level. It has been reported that former MLA DN Jeevaraj misused officials and committed fraud in postal ballots. Our local candidates and agents had filed complaints. After the vote count, our agents, their agents, and officials had all signed off. After that, this has been done. This is a disgrace to the nation and democracy.”
Shivakumar urged vigilance from all political parties and called for a thorough investigation, stating, “All political parties must be very vigilant about this matter. A conspiracy was hatched to tamper with the postal votes received by our candidate and invalidate them. A thorough investigation must be conducted into this. We will fight using every legal and judicial avenue available. A similar injustice has been done in the Jayanagar constituency as well. We will fight this legally.”
The recount mandated by the Karnataka High Court in April 2026 involved re-verification of the 279 rejected postal ballots. Upon conclusion of the recount, Rajegowda’s margin of victory increased by two votes, from 201 to 203. The 2023 election results showed Rajegowda winning 59,171 votes to Jeevaraj’s 58,970.