Bangalore/Sangli, Apr 23: Political bigwigs like Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar, S. M. Krishna and R. R. Patil went to cast their votes in the second phase of elections to the Lok Sabha in Bangalore and several other places of Karnataka as well as many other constituencies in Maharashtra on Thursday.

In Bangalore, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Naidu and Kumar exercised their franchise with their supporters in tow.

Chikkballapur (Karnataka), Apr 21: Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily has said that his constituency is free from all caste considerations.

Moily, who is contesting elections from the Chikkballapur parliamentary constituency, described his constituency as democratic and secular.

Bidar (Karnataka), Apr 15 : Continuing her attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday termed him a "slave of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)".

Addressing an election rally here, Sonia Gandhi called Advani incompetent and a leader who couldn''t take decisions on his own.

"It is Advani, who is a slave of the RSS because he wants to protect his chair. This is the reason why he fulfills each and every wish of the RSS," claimed Gandhi.

Mangalore, Apr. 9 : The eighth of March, 2009 is a special day for the Jews for worshipping the Sun: the day comes once in 29 years.

Mysore, Apr. 6 : Sri Ram Sene leader Pramod Muthalik was taken into preventive custody on Monday.

"Muthalik had come to visit the Kyatharamanhalli suburb, where group clashes took place this week," Mysore police said, adding that the prohibitory orders had been imposed in the area under Section 144.

"Muthalik was taken into preventive custody as soon as he landed in Mysore," they said.

The Sri Ram Sene was involved in an attack on a Mangalore pub in January.

Kolar, Apr. 6 : A World War II abandoned runway in Veerapura village near Kolar witnessed another historic event when the Nishant indigenous engine Unmanned Air Vehicle took its test flight from here.

The indigenous powering engine, a wankel Rotary type was original project of VRDE, Ahmednagar. It was later jointly designed and developed by NAL, a CSIR lab, VRDE, Ahmednagar and ADE, Bangalore.

The first flight took off on March 31 and climbed to an altitude of 1.8 Kilometers effortlessly before cruising for 35 minutes.