Page 1334 - Politics
AICC has shortlisted names of 15 LS and 105 Assembly
Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik Wednesday said the AICC Central Election Committee (CEC) has shortlisted the names of 15 candidates for Lok Sabha and 105 nominees for state Assembly elections. The candidates list for the remaining six Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly constituencies will be finalised by the CEC at its meeting on March 16, Patnaik said on his arrival from the national capital. He said the AICC will most probably release its candidate list for the first phase of polls on April 11 in four Lok Sabha seats and 28 assembly segments in Odisha by March 18. Four phase polling will be held in Odisha on April 11, 18, 23 and 29 for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. Meanwhile, ruling BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday said that the party was working on its candidates list and it will be released at proper time.
AICC has shortlisted names of 15 LS and 105 Assembly
Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik Wednesday said the AICC Central Election Committee (CEC) has shortlisted the names of 15 candidates for Lok Sabha and 105 nominees for state Assembly elections. The candidates list for the remaining six Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly constituencies will be finalised by the CEC at its meeting on March 16, Patnaik said on his arrival from the national capital. He said the AICC will most probably release its candidate list for the first phase of polls on April 11 in four Lok Sabha seats and 28 assembly segments in Odisha by March 18. Four phase polling will be held in Odisha on April 11, 18, 23 and 29 for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats. Meanwhile, ruling BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday said that the party was working on its candidates list and it will be released at proper time.
Sabarimala row a constitutional issue, says BJP gen secy Rao
BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao Wednesday criticised Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena's directive not to use the Sabarimala temple row in the coming Lok Sabha polls, saying it was not just a matter of religion but a "Constitutional issue". "Sabarimala issue is the issue of the public and it is a matter related to human rights and fundamental rights," he told reporters here on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He was replying to a question on the raging controversy over the state CEO's directive to the political parties when the general elections were just weeks away. "...its is constitutional issue and not just a religious matter..it is becoming part of the discussion and discussion is there..," he said. When pointed out that the issue of Ayodhya and Babri Masjid had been mentioned by leaders during the time of polls, the BJP leader said it was part of public discourse. "If anybody mentions, how
EC to hold first meeting with central observers in Delhi on Thursday
The Election Commission (EC) will hold its first meeting with central observers, including those who will keep a check on black money and illegal inducements, on Thursday as part of preparations for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. Officials said the full EC, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, apart from other senior officials of the poll body, will "brief the central observers about their roles and responsibilities while being on election duty". The meeting is the first since election dates were declared by the EC on March 10. The officials said the EC, till now, has earmarked deploying over 800 expenditure monitoring observers for the multi-phase polls that begin on April 11. The observers are drawn from various central services like the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax and Customs and Excise), the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service (IPS), apart from others, and they are considered
JDS and Cong clinch seat sharing deal, Cong gets 20 LS seats,
The Congress will contest 20 seats and JD(S) eight in the Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka under a deal finalised by the two ruling coalition partners on Wednesday after weeks of haggling. The deal was hammered out at a meeting between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and JD(S) secretary general Danish Ali at Kochi in Kerala this evening, the JDS said. The Lok Sabha constituencies that JD(S) will contest are Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Tumkur, Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru North and Vijayapura. JD(S) tweeted about the constituencies from where its candidates will be contesting from, on its official twitter handle. "@INCIndia @JanataDal_S seat sharing for Karnataka #LokSabhaPolls2019 is confirmed. 20 for Congress and 8 for JDS," Karnataka Pradesh Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao said. JD(S) had won Hassan and Mandya Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general election. The Congress had bagged nine and BJP 17. However in the bypolls, the BJP had yielded the Bellary seat
Mamata briefs party candidates about strategies of campaigning
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday met Trinamool Congress candidates and advised them about strategies of campaigning for the Lok Sabha election. The TMC supremo urged them to inform the people about the "achievements" of her government in the past seven years and to campaign about the "failures" of the Narendra Modi regime. "Didi (Banerjee) gave us details about various modes of campaigning and the issues that need to be raised," said a TMC candidate after the meeting at Banerjee's residence. All the candidates were briefed on how to take on the BJP in their respective constituencies, the candidate said. Banerjee yesterday released the list of candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, dropping 10 sitting MPs and bringing in 18 new faces. The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections. West Bengal goes to seven-phase polls beginning April 11. Of the 42 seats .
Rahul assures central role for TN in competing with China:
Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday vowed to give a push to the manufacturing sector in Tamil Nadu if voted to power in the Lok Sabha polls, saying the state could play a central role in 'competing' with China in manufacturing and generating jobs. Addressing his first public rally here to launch the UPA poll campaign, he also vowed to create a brand 'Made in Tamil Nadu' for products manufactured in the state. "Today whenever you look at a cell phone or a shirt it says Made in China. When we have governments in Delhi and Tamil Nadu, behind cellphone, shirt and a pant, we have to write 'Made in Tamil Nadu'," he said. Underscoring the need to give a tough competition to China, Gandhi said, "Tamil Nadu is a central part of the strategy for competing with China in manufacturing. We are going to put special provisions in the manifesto for young entrepreneurs who want to start a business." Referring to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, he said: "When ...
Author of new book joins calls for UK to apologise for Jallianwala Bagh massacre
A British-Indian author on Wednesday marked the launch of his new historical fiction based on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre with a call for the UK government to formally apologise for the attack in April 1919. Saurav Dutt, born in Kolkata and raised in the UK, released 'Garden of Bullets: Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh' exactly a month ahead of the centenary of the tragedy on April 13. The 37-year-old said he agreed with a growing number of British-Indian voices, including those of peers who recently held a debate on the issue in the House of Lords, that it was time the UK government formally apologised for the attack under British rule. "It is time the UK government acknowledges this crime and there cannot be a more appropriate time than the centenary to do this," Dutt said. "An apology achieves a sense of recognition, framing this dark chapter squarely within the overall context of colonial rule and imperialism. An apology codifies the horror of this event for posterity and allows ...
Rahul promises 33% reservation for women in govt jobs at national level
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday announced that if his party comes to power it will reserve 33 per cent of all government jobs at the national level for women. In the first such poll promise for women, Gandhi said there were not many women in leadership position. "I don't see them leading enough companies. I don't see them leading enough states. I don't see enough of them in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas," he said while interacting with students of Stella Maris College for Women in Chennai. "One of the things that we have decided that in 2019 we are going to pass the women's reservation bill in Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas and we are also going to reserve 33 per cent of all government jobs at the national level for women," the Congress chief said. He asserted that women cannot be empowered in India unless the attitude towards them changes. "I am a believer that women should be pushed into places of leadership. Generally women are smarter than men," he said to a huge ...
EC seeks 'ground level' report from West Bengal poll authorities after BJP plea
On a day the BJP urged the Election Commission to declare West Bengal a "super sensitive state" to ensure fair Lok Sabha polls, the poll panel Wednesday sought a "ground level" report from the state chief electoral officer. Sources in the poll panel said that the CEO has to file the report on the actual ground situation. The BJP had also demanded that central forces be deployed at all polling stations in the state. "This happens in every state," a functionary explained. Briefing the media after meeting EC officials, Law Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "We have requested the Election Commission that the state of West Bengal should be declared as super-sensitive. And have also demanded that central forces should be deployed at all polling booths in the state." He said the party also requested the poll panel to transfer those police officers whose electoral impartiality is questionable as well as the withdrawal of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar from ...
Case of British Sikh in Indian jail being actively dealt with: Theresa May
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday said the case of a British Sikh murder suspect lodged in an Indian jail for over a year was being "actively" dealt with by ministers. Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton in Scotland, was arrested by Indian authorities in November 2017 on charges of fanning communal disturbance in Punjab. His constituency's MP, Scottish National Party's (SNP) Martin Docherty-Hughes, has been lobbying for his release along with his family members and raised the issue in the House of Commons during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions. "On Monday (March 18), my constituent Jagtar Singh Johal would have been incarcerated for 500 days without trial. He would have suffered trial by media, sanctioned, some would say, by the Indian state," Docherty-Hughes said, calling on May to direct her foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt to take up the case with the Indian government. "Ministers are dealing with this. They have been actively involved in this case," May said. "One .
Dialogue with all stakeholders only way to ensure permanent peace in J&K: Mehbooba
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti Wednesday said a result-oriented dialogue with all stakeholders is the only way to make peace in Jammu and Kashmir permanent. "The PDP has always been a staunch advocate of political process for the resolution of Kashmir (issue) and has been asking the government of India to hold meaningful dialogue with the Hurriyat, Pakistan and with other stakeholders," Mehbooba said at a party workers' convention in central Kashmir's Bandipora. "A result-oriented dialogue with all stakeholders is the only way to make peace in Jammu and Kashmir permanent," she said. The former chief minister said past decades showed that a muscular approach would not work in the state. "This muscular approach and political patch work will not take us anywhere as this has been tried for many decades and hasn't yielded any positive outcome," Mehbooba said. "It is unfortunate that some people still believe in the efficacy of these methods and are trying to repeat
Erdogan and Netanyahu trade 'tyrant', 'dictator' insults
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday blasted Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as a "tyrant" who "massacred" Palestinian children as the two leaders exchanged insults in their latest spat. Erdogan was responding to earlier comments from Netanyahu who slammed the Turkish leader as a "dictator" and "a joke", after a day of tit-for-tat exchanges between government officials in both countries. Turkey and Israel have tense relations and Erdogan, who regards himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause, is a vocal critic of Israeli policies. The two leaders have exchanged barbs in the past over Gaza. "Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself. You are a tyrant, you are a tyrant who massacred seven-year-old Palestinian children," Erdogan told a rally of supporters in the Turkish capital Ankara. Erdogan also referred to clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem, denouncing Israeli security forces for entering a "holy place". "Do not provoke. Look, we have not ...
No dialogue with Pakistan before action on terror outfits: Swaraj
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said India cannot have dialogue with Pakistan unless the neighbouring country acted against terror outfits on its soil, asserting that "talks and terror cannot go together". Talking on 'India's World: Modi Government's Foreign Policy', she stated that Pakistan needs to control the ISI and its army who are bent on destroying the bilateral relations time and again. "We do not want talk on terror, we want action on it. Terror and talks cannot go together," she said. Swaraj also questioned Pakistan's retaliation to the Indian air strikes in Balakot when, she said, India had specifically targeted the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). "Why did the Pakistani military attack us on behalf of JeM? You not only keep JeM on your soil, but fund them and when the victim country retaliates, you attack it on the terror outfit's behalf. "If Imran Khan (Pakistan prime minister) is so generous and a statesman, he should give us Masood Azhar," she .
Keeping the alliance option open in Delhi, Cong seeks workers views on tie-up with AAP
Apparently keeping open the option of an alliance with the AAP in Delhi, the Congress on Wednesday sought opinion of party workers on whether the two parties should have a pre-poll tie-up to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. In a message sent to the party workers through its 'Shakti' mobile application, Delhi Congress in-charge P C Chacko has sought views of the party workers on the alliance. The development comes amid Congress' reluctance to ally with the Aam Aadmi Party with whom it shares a similar vote base. A senior Delhi Congress leader said the tie-up could take place by the end of this month and the ruling AAP would contest four seats while his party would be in fray in three seats .
Deve Gowda, son, grandson turn emotional, BJP dubs it 'drama'
JD(S) patriarch H D DeveGowda Wednesday turned emotional and said he was pained by allegations of dynasty politics against him. The former prime minister's emotional response was to growing criticism of his family's alleged dynastypolitics with JD(S) fielding both his grandsons NikilKumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna from party bastions of Mandyaand Hassan respectively for the Lok Sabha polls. "...so many allegations, from morning in the media (they talk about) Deve Gowda, Revanna, Kumaraswamy and their sons," Gowda said as he broke down at an event in Hassan to launch the poll campaign of PrajwalRevanna. Prajwal, son of Gowda's elder son and PWD Minister H D Revanna, is Congress-JDS coalition's candidate from Hassan. Seeing Gowda wiping tears and speaking in a heavy voice, JD(S) supporters gathered atthe event requested him to calm down. BJP has hit out at Deve Gowda, by calling the emotional episode as "drama". The event also witnessed both Prajwal and his father Revanna .
Meeting Bhim army chief has nothing to do with politics: Priyanka Gandhi
Congress general secretary and in-charge for the party's east UP affairs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday said that her decision to meet Bhim army chief Chandrashekhar Azad had nothing to do with politics."It is to be seen from the perspective that he is a youth and is struggling. He is raising his voice and saying to society to hear his pain. But this government is so arrogant that it wants to suppress the youth. The government doesn't want to hear the voice of the youth," said Gandhi."I am here because I like his energy and the way he raises his voice for the youths," said Priyanka, who met Chandrashekhar here at a hospital where he is undergoing treatment.On Monday, Azad was taken into the police custody along with his supporters for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), which is in force in view of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.After some time of his arrest, Azad complained of high blood pressure and fell unconscious. He was admitted to a hospital here, where he
Lok Sabha polls: Nana Patole to take on Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur
Former BJP MP Nana Patole will be Congress candidate from Nagpur against Union minister Nitin Gadkari in the Lok Sabha polls. Patole's name is among the five candidates from Maharashtra announced Wednesday. Former ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and Milind Deora also figure in the Congress' first list of Lok Sabha candidates from the state released in Delhi. Shinde will contest from Solapur and Deora from South Mumbai seat. Former MP Priya Dutt will contest from Mumbai North Central, while Namdev Usendi from Gadchiroli Chimur Lok Sabha seat. Patole, who was the sitting MP from Bhandara-Gondia constituency when he quit the BJP to join the Congress, has been fielded against Gadkari in Nagpur. The screening committee of the Congress, headed by party's in-charge of Maharashtra Mallikarjun Kharge, finalised the candidates in Delhi, said party sources.
Modi a 'pseudo chowkidar', says Naidu; BJP accuses him of
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling him a "pseudo chowkidar" who protected only criminals. Naidu's remarks triggered a strong reaction from the BJP which accused the Telugu Desam party president of resorting to "murky politics" as his party was frightened of losing in the April 11 Lok Sabha and State assembly polls. "What right you have to call yourself a chowkidar? You are chowkidar for criminals," the Telugu Desam Party president said at a press conference here this evening. Referring to the Enforcement Directorates (ED) 2017 letter to the CBI asking it to file a fresh memo under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 'Jagan Mohan Reddy illegal assets case', Naidu alleged that the central agency did not act on the ED letter. "Its only because the Prime Minister chose to protect (YSR Congress president) Jagan Mohan Reddy... the Telangana government also did not take steps to cancel the land ...
Akhilesh meets Mayawati after Priyanka meets Bhim Army chief
The chiefs of Uttar Pradesh alliance partners SP and BSP met here Wednesday hours after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi paid a surprise visit to Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad at a Meerut hospital. SP president Akhilesh Yadav met BSP chief Mayawati after newly appointed Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia met Azad. When contacted, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the two leaders met to discuss joint public meetings and rallies, being planned for the Lok Sabha polls. Meetings are being held constantly as the election is round the corner and the poll campaign has to be launched full scale after Holi next week, he said. The alliance has left two seats for the Congress in the state and will honestly support it on them, said Chaudhary. Meanwhile, a senior SP leader, who did not wish to be named, claimed Priyanka Gandhi's visit to the Bhim Army chief was in reaction to the BSP president ruling out any alliance with the ...