Page 1012 - Politics
If Raj had worked hard, he wouldn't have to campaign for
Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde Sunday lashed out at MNS chief Raj Thackeray, saying had he worked hard in his political career like he did for his 'gudhi padwa' speech, there would not have been any need for him to campaign for other parties. Addressing a press conference here, Tawde said the engine (MNS election symbol) has stopped working and he (Thackeray) was trying to start it with with help from other parties. "If the MNS chief had worked hard in his political career earlier, there would not have been any need for him to campaign for others," the state education minister said. Thackeray Saturday addressed a gathering of his party workers in central Mumbai, where he lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah over the policies of the NDA government. He addressed the rally on the occasion 'gudhi padwa', which marks the traditional new year for Marathi Hindus. Thackeray also urged voters to defeat Modi and Shah in the upcoming ...
Union Minister SS Ahluwalia to contest from Burdwan-Durgapur in West Bengal
Union Minister and BJP leader SS Ahluwalia will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Burdwan-Durgapur Parliamentary constituency in West Bengal.The BJP on Sunday released the list of two candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal.Asis Kumar Biswas has been given the party ticket from Krishnaganj, which is a reserved seat for SC.In the current Lok Sabha, the 67-year-old Ahulwalia currently represents the Darjeeling seat in West Bengal.West Bengal will witness polls for its 42 Parliamentary constituencies starting April 11.The Lok Sabha election will start on April 11 and will end on May 19. The result will be announced on May 23.
We will snatch the 'chowki' held by every 'chowkidar': Akhilesh Yadav
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday claimed that the poor and marginalised will "snatch the post held by every chowkidar" and ensure the defeat of BJP by the SP-BSP-RLD "gathbandhan" (alliance) in the Lok Sabha polls.In an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yadav said, "He came as a 'chaiwala' and we all trusted him. Now when the elections are there, he has come as 'chowkidar'. This time, the poor, Dalit, backwards and marganalised will snatch the 'chowki' (post) of every 'chowkidar'."He was addressing a joint rally of the alliance at Deoband in Saharanpur in which BSP supremo Mayawati and RLD chief Ajit were also present.Attacking both Congress and BJP, the SP leader said that there is not much difference between the two parties."There is not much difference between Congress and BJP, if you will look at their policies. They are both same. Our alliance is meant to bring a change in the country, but Congress does not want that," he said.Taking on BJP, Yadav said, "They ..
Shah Mahmood Qureshi accuses India of 'hatching new plot' against Pak
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday alleged that India "is hatching a new plot and may resort to military aggression" against the country between April 16 and 20, according to Pakistan media."Pakistan has reliable intelligence inputs that India is hatching a new plot and may resort to military aggression against Pakistan between April 16-20," he said during a presser."An incident similar to Pulwama could recur in the occupied Kashmir Valley," Ary News quoted him as claiming, referring to the Jaish-e-Mohammed perpetrated February 14 Pulwama terror attack.India lost around 40 CRPF personnel when a terrorist from Pakistan-based terror outfit rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into their convoy in Jammu and Kashmir.The incident had widely been condemned, with the international community throwing its weight behind India in its fight against terrorism.India has asked Pakistan for substantive and verifiable action on terrorists and terror outfits on its soil. The United .
Congress in its charge-sheet accuses BJP of destroying constitutional institutions
A day before the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is expected to release its election manifesto, Uttarakhand unit of the Congress party on Sunday released a charge-sheet highlighting the failures of the BJP led government.The Congress party has accused the BJP of destroying the Constitutional institution. "BJP government is of the fascist ideology, which is in conflict with the basic principles of the country's Constitution," the Congress party has alleged in its charge-sheet.The charge-sheet was released here by senior Congress leader and former minister Navprabhat, the chairman of the Charge-sheet Committee."First time in the history of Independent India, the judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference and said that they were not being allowed to work," the charge-sheet reads highlighting the failures of the BJP led government.Last year, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph held a press conference and alleged that the then Chief Justice of ...
Robert Vadra to campaign for Congress in Uttar Pradesh
Businessman Robert Vadra on Sunday said that he would campaign for the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.Robert Vadra is the husband of Congress party general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.Robert said that he will also be present with his mother-in-law Sonia Gandhi and brother-in-law Rahul Gandhi during their filing of nominations.On being asked if he will campaign for Congress party for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, Robert told ANI, "Yes. All over India, after the filing of nominations (by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi)."When asked if he will go to Amethi and Raebareli parliamentary constituencies at the time of filing of nominations by Rahul and Sonia, Robert said, "Yes."Congress president Rahul Gandhi will file his nomination from Amethi parliamentary constituency on April 10 and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will file her nomination from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat on April 11.The polls in Amethi and Rae Bareli
Will give jobs in govt, non-govt. sector to extremely poor: Mayawati
Bhahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday said that the SP-BSP alliance comes into power at the Centre it will provide permanent jobs in both government and private sector to those below the poverty line.She was addressing a joint rally of the BSP and SP in the presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Ajit Singh at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, just a few days ahead of the ensuing general elections.Mayawati also slammed both the Congress and the BJP and said neither party will win the elections on false promises.She hit out at the Congress for its 'NYAY' scheme and said the poor are not going to benefit in any way from the scheme."The Congress party president in order to lure the votes of extremely poor has promised to give Rs. 6000. The poor are not going to benefit from it in any way. However, if our government comes to power then we do not promise Rs. 6000 but instead give jobs in government and non-government sector to the extremely poor in the ...
India planning to attack us: Pakistan Minister
India is planning to attack Pakistan after staging a "mishap" in Jammu and Kashmir and this could happen between April 16 and 20, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday.
Turkey slams Netanyahu's 'irresponsible' remarks on settlements
Turkey on Sunday condemned what it called Benjamin Netanyahu's "irresponsible" remarks after the Israeli leader said he planned to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins upcoming elections. "West Bank is Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in violation of int'l law," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter. "Prime Minister Netanyahu's irresponsible statement to seek votes just before the Israeli general elections cannot and will not change this fact." Netanyahu's comments on Saturday came just days before the closely fought polls on Tuesday and was widely seen as an appeal to rightwing voters, who do not believe in the feasibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "Yet another example of how Netanyahu uses electoral politics to justify occupation and undermine the two-state solution," said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "If he is re-elected, will this be a triumph of 'democracy' or occupation? Will Western ..
At first UP's oppn rally, Mayawati says BJP 'panicking', Cong dividing votes
BSP supremo Mayawati Sunday said the BJP is "panicking" and will face a defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, as she addressed the first rally of opposition grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh, where she also slammed the Congress, saying it does not want the grouping to win and will only divide votes. Flanked by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal's Ajit Singh, Mayawati said the Congress and the BJP have ruled the country for majority of the period post-Independence, but they followed "wrong" policies. "The Congress has failed, despite ruling for so many years. In the Congress-ruled states, wrongful practices came to notice...so they eventually lost their voter base," she claimed. For the BJP, she said, it failed to fulfil it promises and, therefore, it "will keep advertising its hawa-hawai (lofty) schemes till the poll results are announced". "If the prime minister (Narendra Modi) was serious about welfare of poor, they would not have been inaugurating schemes after polls
IT dept ropes in CRPF during searches against people linked to Nath
For the pre-dawn searches conducted against people linked to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday, the Income Tax department had roped in the armed personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to keep a vigil. Generally, the I-T department takes the help of the local police during such operations. According to eyewitnesses, during the I-T searches conducted at the residence of Praveen Kakkad, former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Nath, in the Vijay Nagar area of the city, armed CRPF personnel were seen posted outside the house. Sources said a team of the local police was seen deployed about 200 metres from Kakkad's house during the raid. Officials said the entire operation was carried out by the Delhi unit of the I-T department in a very secretive manner. Besides Kakkad's house, at least five other premises were also raided, including Kakkad's office and premises of his close aides, they added. During the operation conducted ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a huge
Rahul unable to name PM face of 'Mahagathbandhan': Shah
BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for being unable to name the prime ministerial face of the 'Mahagathbandhan' if it is voted to power. "Rahul Baba (Gandhi) is not able to tell the people who is the leader of the Mahagathbandhan. He does not know who will be prime minister if the alliance wins the upcoming polls," Shah said at a BJP rally in western Odisha's Bargarh. While Narendra Modi is all set to become the PM once again as the leader of the NDA, Gandhi cannot answer who will be the prime minister if their grand alliance comes to power, the BJP chief said. "Someone told me Mayawati will be PM on Monday, Akhilesh (Yadav) on Tuesday, Lalu Yadav on Wednesday, Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday, Stalin on Friday and Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, while Sunday will be a holiday," Shah mocked. This kind of leadership cannot take the country forward, he said, adding, Congress has ruled the country and Odisha for several years since Independence, ..
Institutions "destroyed" under Modi rule: Kumaraswamy
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Sunday said the only 'contribution' of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre is that it had "decimated" the constitutional institutions in the country during the last five years. Addressing reporters at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) on his arrival here to campaign for Congress-JD(S) alliance candidates in the coastal belt, he said the BJP MPs in the region had "failed" to address the problems of people in the region. Citing the Centre's decision to privatise airports including MIA and the merger of profit-making Vijaya Bank with the Bank of Baroda, he sought to know from BJP on what count the people in Dakshina Kannada district should vote for them in the coming elections. He said the self-respect of people belonging to the region has been hurt by these decisions. Can Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to come here on April 13, ask votes from people for these 'achievements?' he asked in a ...
The 'achche din' Modi talked about was his own: Ajit Singh
RLD chief Ajit Singh took a swipe at the BJP's "achche din" promise on Sunday, saying the good days were not meant for the people of the country but for Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Addressing a rally here, which witnessed the top leadership of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance coming on one platform to kick-off the joint campaign of the "mahagathbandhan" for the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls slated for April 11, Singh said, "What has PM Modi done in five years? He was not talking about your achche din, but his own achche din." Elated over the massive turnout at the rally, Singh, a prominent Jat leader from the area, said it was an indication that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was going to be wiped out in the coming polls. "The BJP will not just be defeated but will be wiped out," he said, adding that the Constitution had given the right to the people of the country to evaluate the performance of a government and, if not satisfied, change it in five years. "The coming ...
India planning to attack Pakistan again this month: Qureshi
Pakistan has "reliable intelligence" that India is planning to attack again between April 16 and 20, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Sunday, amid tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district in February. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. Addressing a press conference in his home town of Multan, Qureshi said the government had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan". "A new mishap could be staged...And its purpose will be to justify their [India's] ...
Lok Sabha elections this time will bring 'mahaparivartan': Akhilesh Yadav
Accusing the BJP-led NDA government of creating more rifts in the society than the British during colonial rule, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav Sunday said this time, the Lok Sabha elections are to bring a "mahaparivartan". Kicking off a joint campaign of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance here in western Uttar Pradesh, Yadav asked the BJP leaders to resolve not to lie during the auspicious occasion of 'Navaratri'. Referring to the 2014 parliamentary election, the Samajwadi Party chief said, "He (Modi) came as a chaiwala (tea-seller) and we all believed (him) for the sake of 'achche din' and crores of jobs. But now, when elections have come again they say they are chowkidar (watchmen)." "This time, we all will together snatch the 'chowki' (seat) of every single chowkidar," he said. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi coining an acronym 'SARAB' (alcohol) from the initial letters of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party tie-up, Yadav said, "Our alliance is ...
Pro-Maratha outfit joins BJP-Sena alliance in Maharashtra
The Maharashtra Kranti Sena (MKS), a recently formed pro-Maratha political outfit, on Sunday joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. MKS founder president Suresh Patil was one of the leaders who earlier spearheaded the agitation to seek reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and education. The party, which recently named 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, will now withdraw its nominees in support of the saffron alliance, Patil told reporters here. Nine candidates who earlier filed their nominations on MKS ticket will withdraw from the race, while the remaining will not file their papers, he said. Patil, who had also filed his nomination from Hathkanangale seat, said he was joining the BJP-Sena alliance as a partner and that his support was "unconditional". "The welfare and development of the Maratha community is my priority. The Congress and NCP betrayed the Marathas. The current state government led by ...
UK nerve agent victim meets Russia's envoy in London: Reports
A British man poisoned along with his partner with a nerve agent, amid an assassination attempt on a Russian ex-spy in England blamed on Moscow, met its top UK envoy on Saturday, according to reports. Charlie Rowley, 45, whose partner Dawn Sturgess died after exposure to the toxin, held a 90-minute meeting with Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko at Russia's embassy in London, Britain's Sunday Mirror said. "I went along to ask them 'why did your country kill my girlfriend?'" he told the tabloid newspaper. "But I didn't really get any answers. I just got Russian propaganda," Rowley added, saying Yakovenko's explanations of Russian innocence in the plot were "ridiculous". Rowley and Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three children, who lived near the southwestern English city of Salisbury, fell ill on June 30 last year. Authorities determined they had been exposed to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the latter days of the Cold War. The poison was ...
In Gautam Buddh Nagar, BJP faces BSP-SP alliance threat, Cong may surprise
BJP heavyweight Mahesh Sharma has returned with accounts of his development work, Congress is hoping a young Arvind Kumar Singh would regain a seat it lost in the 1980s and BSP's Satveer Nagar, a rural favourite, could pull off a victory as a coalition face in Gautam Buddh Nagar. The district is known for its high-rise apartments, expressways, plush corporate offices and the metro rail in Noida and Greater Noida, while issues related to land acquisition of farmers, high fees in private schools, unemployment, flat buyers, and road traffic plague the constituency with a large rural population spread in 1,186 villages. It is widely but inaccurately identified only as Noida, a high-tech satellite city of Delhi with smooth roads that lead one to interiors of the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh. The Lok Sabha seat is spread across Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Khurja and Sikandrabad assembly segments, with the last two technically falling in Bulandshahr district. Of the 22.97 lakh voters, 6.68 ...
Don't divide votes, Congress-BJP are same: Akhilesh
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday branded the BJP and the Congress in the same bracket and urged people to shun both and vote en bloc for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh.