Page 1206 - Politics
LF will win both Lok Sabha seats in Tripura: Dhar
Convener of the Left Front in Tripura, Bijan Dhar Sunday claimed that the Left would win the two Lok Sabha seats in the state. Dhar, also the Central Committee member of CPI-M, ruled out possibility of any alliance with Congress or other regional political parties in Tripura saying Congress and BJP both work at the "behest of capitalist forces". "If the polls are held peacefully and in a free and fair manner, we are confident of victory in both seats," he told a meet the press programme organised by the Agartala Press Club here. He alleged that BJP made "false" promises and came to power but didnt fulfil any of the promises. "They (BJP) made such promises which are impossible to implement, so people were frustrated and started opposing them," Dhar said. He appealed to supporters of Congress, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and other regional political parties of Tripura to vote for CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha ...
Backroom warriors in full gear for battle 2019
While candidates in the Dangal 2019 are busy with campaigning, there is another lot of warriors working backstage: busy mining through election data and making assessments, devising strategies and analysing and re-analysing the trends.
BJP veteran denied ticket to return to farming
Former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker and eight-time Lok Sabha member, Kariya Munda, said on Sunday that he will return to farming after the BJP denied him ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Jharkhand.
Polls close in Thailand's first general election since 2014 coup
Thais began the nail-biting wait late Sunday to see whether the ruling junta will return to power as a civilian government, or if pro-democracy parties can triumph against the odds, as polls closed in the country's first general election since a 2014 coup. The Election Commission estimated 80 per cent of voters had turned out at schoolyards, temples and government offices across the nation, their enthusiasm fired by years of denied democracy. Sunday's crunch vote was foreshadowed by a cryptic last-minute warning from King Maha Vajiralongkorn to support "good" leaders to prevent "chaos". Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the palace is nominally above politics. But the institution retains unassailable powers and is insulated from criticism by a harsh royal defamation law. The election pits a royalist junta and allies against the election-winning machine of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and an unpredictable wave of millions of first-time voters. The kingdom remains ...
J-K: Panthic Morcha decides against contesting LS polls, to support Congress
Panthic Morcha, an organisation of over two dozen social and religious organisations of Sikhs, Sunday said it would not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and will support the Congress to strengthen "secular ideology" in the state. On March 18, the Morcha had announced prominent Sikh leader Avtar Singh Khalsa as its candidate from Jammu-Poonch parliamentary constituency, which is going to polls in the first phase on April 11. The Congress has fielded former minister Raman Bhalla from the constituency and enjoys support form the National Conference, which has sealed a pre-poll alliance with the party. The PDP had also decided against fielding any candidate from the two seats of Jammu and Udhampur to ensure that votes are not divided. "After meeting Congress state president G A Mir and other senior leaders, the core group of Panthic Morcha decided not to contest the elections and instead the community will vote for Congress candidate Raman Bhalla to ensure the win of the secular ..
Congress, JMM, JVM-P announce seat sharing, RJD unhappy
The Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) on Sunday announced an alliance in the state for the Lok Sabha battle but the RJD boycotted the deal after it was given only one seat to contest.
Syria Kurds urge world to take back foreign jihadists
Syria's Kurds warned Sunday that the thousands of foreign jihadists they have detained in their fight against the Islamic State group are a time-bomb the international community urgently needs to defuse. Speaking a day after Kurdish-led forces announced the final demise of the jihadists' physical "caliphate", the Kurdish administration's top foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar warned that its foreign captives still pose a threat. "There are thousands of fighters, children and women and from 54 countries, not including Iraqis and Syrians, who are a serious burden and danger for us and for the international community," Omar told AFP. "Numbers increased massively during the last 20 days of the Baghouz operation," he said, referring to the village by the Euphrates where diehard jihadists made a bloody last stand. The fate of foreign IS fighers has become a major issue as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces closed in on the once-sprawling proto-state the jihadists declared in ...
Dancer Sapna Choudhary flips, says hasn't joined Congress
Haryanvi folk singer and dancer Sapna Choudhary on Sunday categorically denied joining the Congress party and said she is not part of any political party.Choudhury also claimed she has not signed any membership form of the Congress party and said that a photograph of herself with Priyanka Gandhi is an old one."I have not joined the Congress party. The photograph with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is old. I have met Priyanka Gandhi several times before and she is very good but I am not going to campaign for any political party," she told media persons.Her statement comes a day after photographs surfaced in which she is seen signing some papers.The singer, however, said she had no idea of the photographs."I cannot tell what kind of paper was that and I am not sure of when it is. I meet with people of all parties and I am an artist. I am not joining politics. When I will join politics, I will come out in the open", she said.However, contrary to Chaudhary claims, images have also emerged of the ..
BJP will turn India into religious state: CPI-M
If the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returns to power after the Lok Sabha polls, it would turn India into a "fully religious nation", Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Central Committee member Bijan Dhar said here on Sunday.
Kashmiri Pandits thanks PM for his 'bold step' to ban JKLF
A Kashmiri organisation Sunday welcomed the Centre's move to ban separatist organisation JKLF and holdingits founder, Yasin Malik, responsible for thegenocide of Kashmiri Pandits. TheGlobal Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora, a joint initiative of Kashmiri Pandit organisations in India and abroad, has been persistently and vehemently demanding the formal acknowledgement that what the Kashmiri Pandits suffered was nothing but genocide, a statement said. The organisation thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "his bold and honeststep" in recognising that the militant movement in "Kashmir is not about liberation, not about economic suffering, not about justice but a theo-fascist movement which hasbrought great suffering to the land and its people," the statement added. "It is so heartening to see that our Prime Minister means business as far as dealing with Pakistan's machinations in Kashmir is concerned," the statement reads. The "victory" (ban on JKLF) has been achieved because of the ...
Where were farmers' well-wishers when they faced starvation: UP CM asks Cong
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Sunday asked the Congress where were the well-wishers of farmers during 2012-17 when they faced starvation. The chief minister posed the query shortly after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a blistering attack on the UP government over alleged unpaid dues to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore to sugarcane farmers. "When our government was formed, the pending cane dues were around Rs 57,800 crore. The amount was bigger than the budgets of many states. But we paid it," asserted Adityanath. "In the previous regimes of the SP and BSP, nothing was done for the sugarcane farmers, (and) as a result, they died of starvation (bhukhmari)," he added. Earlier during the day, Priyanka Gandhi had attacked the state government over the alleged unpaid dues of sugarcane farmers, claiming in a tweet that 'chowkidars' (watchmen) were only working for the rich, not for the poor. The UP chief minister struck back and asked, "Where were the ...
NDA govt turned 'politics of destruction into politics of
The NDA government has turned opposition's "politics of destruction into politics of development" in the past 60 months, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha asserted Sunday, claiming that people will give a befitting reply in the Lok Sabha election. Addressing BJP workers at the party's "Vijay Sankalp" programme in East Singhbhum district, Sinha said the opposition parties have united against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their "desperate attempt to grab power". Describing the Mahagathbandhan' as 'Mahamilavat', Sinha said, "The Modi-led government has closed shops of the opposition parties during its tenure. They (opposition) are now forming an alliance out of fear of Modi, but the people of the country will give them a befitting reply," Sinha, who is fighting to retain his Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat, said. Listing the development projects undertaken by the central government in Jharkhand, including the multi-purpose Konar dam in his home district ...
BJD will play a major role in govt formation at Centre: Naveen
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday claimed that the BJD will win all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha and play a major role in government formation at the Centre in the coming elections in which no national party will be able to get a majority. "No national party will be able to win majority in Lok Sabha election this time. BJD will have decisive role to play in formation of the next government at the Centre," the Biju Janata Dal president said while formally kick starting his party's poll campaign at a rally in Nayagarh. Claiming that the BJD will win all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, Patnaik said this will give an opportunity for putting an end to the "historical injustice" meted out to the state. Assembly election is also scheduled to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls in four phases in Odisha next month. In 2014, BJD had won 20 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 117 of the 147 assembly segments. Mounting a blistering attack on the BJP-led Government at the .
Modi's rallies in Kolkata, Siliguri on April 3
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two rallies - one at north Bengal's Siliguri and other at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground -- on April 3 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a party leader said on Sunday.
Cracker of a contest for Thiruvananthapuram LS seat
Of Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats, Thiruvananthapuram is the one that is expected to see a cracker of a contest, with three heavyweights in the fray - Congress Shashi Tharoor who seeks a hat-trick of wins from the constituency, former Mizoram Governor Kummanem Rajasekheran and CPI legislator and former state Minister C. Divakaran.
SDF launches campaign to connect with voters
The ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has launched the "Ma Pani Chamling" campaign to build an inclusive manifesto, incorporating people's aspirations for the upcoming polls.
BJP to lodge complaint against Surjewala over Yeddy diary allegations
The Karnataka BJP will lodge a police complaint against Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala for his "baseless allegations" attributed to a diary allegedly belonging to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, which the I-T department has dismissed as "forgery document". The Congress had on Friday sought an investigation by the Lokpal into a media report that alleged bribes of Rs 1,800 crore were paid to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) top brass by Yeddyurappa. The allegation was based on photocopies of BSY's purported diary which was submitted to the Income Tax (I-T) department on Saturday but was dismissed as a "forgery document" and a "set of loose papers". "There is a statement by the income tax that the diary is a forgery document. It is now proved that the Congress has failed miserably in its attempt to malign our party leaders' image," BJP spokesperson and MLA S Suresh Kumar told a press conference. "Since it is evident that Surjewala used forgery document, he should be ..
'Chowkidars' only working for rich: Priyanka Gandhi
Taking a swipe at the BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said these 'chowkidars' (watchmen) are only working for the rich and are not bothered about the poor. She attacked the Uttar Pradesh government while citing a media report on Twitter that claimed the dues of sugarcane farmers had crossed Rs 10,000 crore in the state. "The families of sugarcane farmers toil day and night but the Uttar Pradesh government does not even take the responsibility of paying their dues," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said. "Rs 10,000 crore of farmers' dues means everything, including their children's education, food, health, and the next produce comes to a standstill. These chowkidars only work for the rich and do not care about the poor," she claimed. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was recently appointed the Congress general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East. All BJP leaders in the country had recently followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in adding 'Chowkidar' to ...
Electioneering gathers momentum in Uttarakhand
With the BJP and Congress announcing their candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttarakhand, electioneering on Sunday picked up momentum. The process of filing nomination papers ends on Monday.
Guj LS poll: MP dropped from BJP list hits out at party
Surendranagar MP Devji Fatehpara, who was denied a ticket by the BJP for the April-May Lok Sabha polls, blamed two party colleagues for his ouster. The BJP, which Saturday released a list of 15 candidates, dropped Fatehpara from Surendranagar and replaced him with Mahendra Munjpara. Talking to reporters, Fatehpara said he had been denied a ticket at the behest of former minister Jayanti Kavadiya and MLA Dhanji Patel, a charge both of them denied. "I have been denied a ticket at the behest of Jayanti Kavadiya and Dhanji Patel. Kavadiya has been against me for a long time. Now, he has got the company of Dhanji Patel. Both of them brought in Munjpara because they wanted someone who is obedient, someone who follows their orders," Fatehpara told reporters in Rajkot. While Kavadiya, a former MLA from Dhragandhra seat of Surendranagar, was a minister in the state government prior to 2017, Dhanji Patel won the 2017 Assembly polls from Wadhwan. "The BJP has done injustice by ...