Page 1121 - Politics
Punjabi singer-actor-turned-politician Jassi Jasraj fielded from Sangrur by PDA
Punjabi singer-actor-turned-politician Jassi Jasraj has been fielded from Sangrur parliamentary seat by the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) on Saturday, said Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) chief Simarjeet Singh Bains whose outfit is a part of the tie-up. Jasraj, whose full name is Jasraj Singh Longia, has joined the LIP. In 2014, he had unsuccessfully contested from Bathinda seat on AAP ticket. Apart from the LIP, the other constituents of the PDA are the Sukhpal Singh Khaira-led Punjab Ekta Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Nawan Punjab party of suspended AAP MP Dharamvira Gandhi, the CPI and the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI). While the AAP has renominated its sitting MP Bhagwant Mann from Sangrur seat, the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal were yet to announce their candidates for the parliamentary constituency. Addressing the media here, Bains said, "Jassi Jasraj will contest from Sangrur seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections." On this occasion, the PDA ...
Taxmen raid residence of DMK leader Duraimurugan in TN, party
Income Tax sleuths on Saturday conducted searches at the premises of senior DMK leader Duraimurugan in Vellore district over suspected use of unaccounted money for electioneering and seized Rs 10 lakh of alleged "excess" cash. High drama was witnessed when DMK legal cell functionaries refused to allow teams of the tax department's election surveillance and monitoring and district static surveillance and flying squads to hold searches without a "warrant". Senior tax officials, later, armed with search warrants conducted raids. Searches have been conducted at Duraimurugan's residence, where some printouts with ward numbers written over them were found but the "main person," indicating assessee, has dismissed them as "junk" and further questioning is on, a a highly placed sources in tax investigation wing told PTI. About Rs 19 lakh cash was found. After allowing cash declared in election affidavit, an amount of Rs 10 lakh was "determined as excess" and seized, the source .
CPI-M's boost for Prakash Ambedkar in Solapur
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has thrown its "full and active" weight behind Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate Prakash Ambedkar who is contesting from Solapur Lok Sabha constituency of Maharastra, an official said here on Saturday.
Shivpal joins fray, to take on nephew in Firozabad
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) President Shivpal Singh Yadav, younger brother of former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, filed nomination papers from the Firozabad parliamentary seat on Saturday.
Ashraf Ghani holds peace consultations with Afghan leaders
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani held consultations with fellow Afghan leaders on the peace process on Saturday."This morning, I had a constructive meeting with prominent political leaders. In order to reach a unified stance on the peace process, I will continue the consultation with other politicians and representatives of all walks of life with earnest," Ghani tweeted on March 30..
Opposition's defeat certain as BJP-Shiv Sena contesting LS polls together: Uddhav Thackeray
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said that opposition's defeat is certain in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra as BJP and Shiv Sena are contesting the polls in an alliance with each other.Speaking to ANI, Thackeray said: "We did not come here to demonstrate our power. It is obvious that the alliance is already very powerful. Since the BJP and the Shiv Sena are contesting the polls in an alliance, opposition's defeat is certain."Earlier in the day, he addressed a gathering here, during which he reaffirmed his whole-hearted support to the BJP and its president Amit Shah by asserting that whatever issues they had in past are resolved and they would never 'stab it in the back.'Thackeray made these statements while sharing the stage with senior BJP leaders during the filing of the nomination of BJP chief Amit Shah.He also said that despite having differences in the past, BJP and Shiv Sena are together because of their ideologies.Maharashtra will go to polls in the .
UK opposes easing sanctions on North Korea
The United Kingdom (UK) has opposed the easing of sanctions on North Korea as per the country's Ambassador to the United Nations, Karen Pierce.She told NHK World that maintaining pressure on the reclusive state is necessary, despite China and Russia wanting to ease sanctions."The Russians and the Chinese want to get sanctions relief for North Korea," she said, adding that Britain is monitoring Russian ships which are helping transfer oil and other goods to North Korea "illegally" despite sanctions.The British Ambassador also highlighted that North Korean labourers working overseas, who reportedly earn the US $ 800 million per year, need to be sent back home.Pierce said that she would call on China, Russia, and other countries "to take action by the end of this year to send those labourers home."The new development comes after the United States refused to ease sanctions on North Korea during the Hanoi summit last month. This led to the second US-North Korea talks ending abruptly, ...
Will win more than 74 LS seats in UP, claims Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that the BJP will win more than 74 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections. He also termed the alliance of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party as "unmatchable.""BJP was never weak. It won 73 seats in 2014. BJP won 325 seats in 2017 Assembly elections. In the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, BJP will win more than 74 seats," the Chief Minister claimed while addressing a press conference here.Taking a dig at the SP-BSP alliance, the Chief Minister said, "Unmatchable alliance won't succeed. Oil and water cannot be together."The Chief Minister was speaking at a press conference organised to induct SP leaders Choudhary Virendra Singh, Manish Chauhan, and Harvinder Chauhan into the party. UP BJP president Mahendranath Pandey was also present on the occasion.Virendra Singh is currently an MLC from the Samajwadi Party. He has been elected to the state legislature six times and was a Cabinet minister in the Samajwadi
Lots done, lots left to be done: PM Modi in Assam
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said although a lot has been done by his government, a lot more is left to be done to take the country forward."Despite doing many things, still a lot is required to be done for taking the country forward. If something is left to be done somewhere, if speed was slow somewhere, if priorities were changed somewhere, I am here for your blessings to complete the work," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing a rally here on Saturday.The Prime Minister said that he never claimed to have completed all that needs to be done in five years."I have tried my best with sincerity to serve Assam and people of the nation, but my dear brothers and sisters I do not claim that I have completed all the work in five years. If those who have stayed for 70 years cannot claim then how can a person who is there for 5 years claim this?" he asked while making a veiled reference to Congress.The Prime Minister also referred to himself as the 'chowkidar' whom the Opposition is ...
Congress accuses PM Modi of speaking more than working
Congress on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running away from real issues and said that the lead campaigner of BJP likes "speaking more than working".It also alleged that the BJP-led central government splurged heavily on advertisements before the Model Code of Conduct came into force.I"The campaign for 2019 is intensifying. Our senior leaders are involved in it. Prime Minister Modi, who is the lead campaigner of the ruling party, also happens to be a controversial and widely-talked about Prime Minister in the history of India. He likes speaking more than working. There is no competition of ours with their vision, the way of work and their means," senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told a press conference here.He said, "In six weeks starting January 15..., Rs 4,000 crore of public money was spent only on advertisements. After the Model Code of Conduct came into implementation, the government advertisements have stopped."Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata ...
Nishad Party leaders en route to Delhi to meet Amit Shah
Nishad party chief Sanjay Nishad and sitting Member of Parliament (MP) from Gorakhpur Praveen Nishad have left for New Delhi to meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Saturday.Speaking to ANI, Sanjay Nishad said, "We are going to Delhi to meet Amit Shah and speak about my party's issues. It is a big party and under them, voices of the small parties could be heard."Sanjay also said seat-sharing will be discussed after talks with the BJP chief.Praveen Nishad, on the other hand, claimed that his party allied with SP and BSP last year, but has been neglected since then.On Friday, Nishad Party severed ties with the S-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. They also met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow later that day.
EC clean chit to Modi narrow view of complaint: CPI-M
A day after the Election Commission (EC) gave clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his "Mission Shakti" address, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday dubbed it a "narrow interpretation" of his complaint and said Modi's address to announce a feat achieved by scientists during the election campaign was a "gross misuse" of the office of Prime Minister.
If Article 370 goes, J&K will renew ties with India: Mehbooba
Article 370 of the Constitution is a bridge between Jammu and Kashmir and India and if it goes, people in the state will be forced to think if they want to be with New Delhi or not, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday.
Amit Shah to address two election rallies in Jammu next week
BJP president Amit Shah will address two election rallies in Jammu in the next week, state party president Ravinder Raina said Saturday. "Shah will first address an election rally in Sunderbani (Rajouri) and later in Udhampur on April 3," Raina told reporters here. This will be Shah's first visit to the state to canvass for party candidates. The party is fielding incumbent MP Jugal Kishore for Jammu Lok Sabha seat, which is spread across Jammu, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts and Union Minister Jitendra Singh is seeking re-election from Udhampur parliamentary constituency. On March 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed an election rally at Akhnoor near here. A BJP spokesman said Modi is likely to address another rally in Kathua district, part of Udhampur constituency, in the second week of next April. Besides Modi and Shah, union ministers Rajnath Singh,Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman, Uma Bharti, Smriti Irani, Jagat Prakash Nadda, ...
Economy suffered due to Modi's reckless decisions: Congress
The Congress Saturday alleged mismanagement of the economy by the government and that it has suffered due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "reckless" decisions. Senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said that in the past five years, India's economy is "gasping" instead of "galloping". "The government is destroying the credibility of Indian data by embellishing the data, fudging numbers and inflating figures. The fact is that there has been an monumental mismanagement of Indian economy under his watch. It is not galloping economy but a gasping economy, a struggling economy which has also suffered because of the reckless decision of Prime Minister Modi," he told reporters. The Congress leader claimed that Modi has to be held accountable for destroying tens of millions of jobs by demonetisation. "He has to answer for a hasty imposition of a flawed GST model which he claimed to be 'one nation, one tax', but it is one nation, five taxes which excludes 45 per cent of the revenue, ...
Why shouldn't Modi get credit for Balakot strike, asks Rajnath
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Saturday asked if former prime minister Indira Gandhi can be credited for liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan, why should not Prime Minister Narendra Modi be credited for the Balakot air strike. Singh was addressing a rally here in support of BJP president Amit Shah, who filed his nomination from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency later in the day. "It was the bravery of our forces that they divided Pakistan into two parts. One remained Pakistan, while Bangladesh was formed (out of the other)," he said. "After the war, our leader A B Vajpayee praised Indira Gandhi in Parliament. She was also praised all over the country," Singh added. Referring to the Pulwama attack, the home minister said, "When our 40-42 CRPF soldiers lost their lives in a fidayeen attack, Modiji gave a free hand to our forces." "If Indira Gandhi can get the credit of dividing Pakistan in 1971, why shouldn't Modiji get the credit for what he has done in Balakot," Rajnath asked. "If .
36 candidates in fray across Kanker, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund
Thirty-six candidates are left in the fray after the last date of withdrawal in three Lok Sabha constituencies where polling will be held in the second phase of electionsin Chhattisgarhon April 18. Elections to 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in three phases: April 11, April 18 and April 23. "Thirty-six candidates are left in the race for Rajnandgaon, Kanker (ST) and Mahasamund after the last date of withdrawal (March 29)," an election official said. A total of 54 candidates had filed nominations -- 24 for Rajnandgaon, 18 for Mahasamund and 12 for Kanker. After scrutiny of papers and withdrawal, 14 contestants remained in the fray in Rajnandgaon, 13 in Mahasamund and nine in Kanker, he said. The BJP has denied ticket to its sitting MPs, including Abhishek Singh, son of former chief minister Raman Singh, in these three seats. Abhishek has been replaced as party nominee by Santosh Pandey, general secretary of the state BJP, in high-profile Rajnandgaon seat. The
One killed in 'significant' escalation in eastern Ukraine ahead of vote
One Ukrainian soldier has been killed in a flare-up of the conflict with Russian-backed rebels in country's east, the army said Saturday, one day before the country's presidential election. Kiev's armed forces said in a statement that the situation had "escalated significantly" in the previous 24 hours, accusing rebels of using heavy weaponry banned by peace agreements. The army added that four of its soldiers were wounded in large-calibre mortar and artillery attacks. The rebel authorities did not announce any casualties on their side. Since 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in the war which erupted after a popular uprising ousted the pro-Kremlin president and Russia annexed Crimea. Kiev and its Western backers accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms across the border to fan the flames of the conflict. Moscow has denied the claims despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. On Sunday, Ukraine is to hold presidential polls in which the current pro-Western leader Petro ..
Former Congress minister joins BJP in J-K
In a jolt to the Congress ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha election, its senior leader and former minister Sham Lal Sharma joined the BJP on Saturday, along with a group of his supporters. Sharma, who resigned from the post of senior vice president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) in May last year over some differences, joined the BJP in the presence of its national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna and state unit chief Ravinder Raina. "With the joining of Sharma, along with state leader Subash Langer, six municipal corporators from Jourian and Akhnoor, youth leader Naresh Sharma and hundreds of activists, we have now virtually ensured Congress-mukt (free) Jammu," Raina told reporters here. Raina also welcomed former additional principal chief conservator forests M J Sharma into the party fold. "I will work with dedication and honestly for the BJP," Sharma, who had won twice from the Akhnoor Assembly constituency and was a minister in the National ...
Taxmen raid residence of DMK leader Duraimurugan in TN, party functionaries resist
Income Tax sleuths on Saturday conducted searches at the premises of senior DMK leader Duraimurugan in Vellore district over suspected use of unaccounted money for electioneering and seized Rs 10 lakh of alleged "excess" cash. High drama was witnessed when DMK legal cell functionaries refused to allow teams of the tax department's election surveillance and monitoring and district static surveillance and flying squads to hold searches without a "warrant". Senior tax officials, later, armed with search warrants conducted raids. Searches have been conducted at Duraimurugan's residence, where some printouts with ward numbers written over them were found but the "main person," indicating assessee, has dismissed them as "junk" and further questioning is on, a a highly placed sources in tax investigation wing told PTI. About Rs 19 lakh cash was found. After allowing cash declared in election affidavit, an amount of Rs 10 lakh was "determined as excess" and seized, the source said. "We did .