Special session amid assembly elections draws Opposition criticism

While elections in Puducherry, Assam, and Kerala are scheduled for April 9, polls in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. In Tamil Nadu, polls will be held on April 23

The Congress on Friday alleged that the government has called a “special session” for passing Bills related to amending the women’s quota law and delimitation to “grab political mileage” in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu polls, which is a “gross violation” of the model code of conduct.

 

The Budget session of Parliament will reconvene on April 16 after a brief recess to pass Bills to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 816 so that the women’s reservation law can be implemented at the earliest, in what is expected to be the latest flashpoint between the government and the Opposition amid the poll season.

 

While elections in Puducherry, Assam, and Kerala are scheduled for April 9, polls in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29. In Tamil Nadu, polls will be held in a single phase on April 23.

  Asserting that the government’s push for rushed delimitation exercise would have “dangerous consequences”, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said: “We do not want any disturbance in the present differentials and relative strength”.

 

The government should not be in a hurry and call an all-party meeting after April 29, Ramesh said. 

In a post on X, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien called the legislation to empower women an election stunt.  

 

RJD MP Manoj Jha said the special session was expected but he questioned why it was delayed for over two years.

 

On March 24, all Opposition parties wrote to Rijiju and said all-party meetings will be called after April 29 as the model code of conduct is in place and political parties are busy with elections, he said.

 

BJP releases TN list; Annamalai not in fray

 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced names of 27 candidates for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, including Union Minister L Murugan and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, but its former state president K Annamalai is not in the electoral fray.

 

The absence of Annamalai, a former IPS officer who was the face of the party during the 2024 LS elections, from the list of candidates comes amidst reports of differences over seat allocation. “In the 2024 LS elections, they asked me to contest. Now, nobody has asked me to contest.” 

 

Mamata mocks Shah’s 15-day Bengal plan

 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday mocked Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement that he would camp in the state for 15 days, declaring that even 365 days would not help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because “people of Bengal do not like you”. Addressing a rally in Malda, Banerjee turned her guns on AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi without naming him, accusing the “Hyderabad cuckoo of the BJP” of engineering the protests in which judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision exercise were confined inside a block office.

 

‘Modi, Himanta prepared road map for tribals’

 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have prepared a road map for tribal development, and the BJP’s return to power in the state would ensure its implementation. Addressing a rally in Goalpara district’s Dudhnoi, he said the Congress never made an Adivasi woman the country’s President, but Modi changed that, and Droupadi Murmu became the nation's first citizen.

 

“The prime minister at the Centre and the chief minister in Assam both have a road map for the development of tribals in the state. It will be taken forward if people give the BJP a mandate for the third successive time,” Shah said.