Page 1345 - Politics
Modi forced EC to delay announcement of LS poll dates: Cong leader
Prime Minister Narendra Modi "forced" the EC to delay the announcement of Lok Sabha poll dates to facilitate his election campaigning, Congress leader Raghu Sharma alleged on Tuesday. In-charge of the Congress Campaign Committee in Rajasthan, Sharma claimed that the poll dates announced by the Election Commission (EC) were as per Modi's convenience. The general election will be held from April 11 to May 19. The results will be declared on May 23. "Lok Sabha poll announcement was delayed due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled public meetings and other programmes," Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of Congress Campaign Committee meeting for the polls. "The Election Commission was forced to announce the dates on the directions of the prime minister," he added. The state health minister further said that voting in Varanasi was scheduled for May 19 as per the convenience of the prime minister so that he could complete his election campaigning. The Congress leader said that ...
Babulal Marandi surrenders before court, gets bail
Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi Tuesday surrendered before a court here in connection with a case of flouting prohibitory orders in 2011. Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Deepak Kumar allowed the bail petition of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) chief on two surety bonds of Rs 10,000 each following his surrender, court sources said. The court had issued an arrest warrant against Marandi for addressing a public meet here eight years ago in violation of prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 CrPC. According to sources, tension had gripped the area over an anti-encroachment drive in April 2011, following which the administration had clamped the orders. Marandi, who was here to meet the displaced people, addressed a public meeting, prompting the administration to register a case against him, they added.
DMK petitions EC seeking bypoll in 3 other assembly segments
The DMK Tuesday urged the Election Commission to hold byelections to three vacant assembly seats along with the voting for 18 other segments scheduled on April 18, claiming there was "no legally sustainable reason to omit them". A memorandum to this effect was submitted to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora at the Election Commission office in New Delhi by a DMK delegation headed by party Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva, party sources said here. "In all the three cases, there are no orders from any court restraining the ECI from conduction by-elections to the assembly constituencies. Mere pendency of an election petition is not a bar under law for conducting by-elections," DMK president M K Stalin said in the memorandum. On March 10, the EC has announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections and bypolls to 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu, leaving out the three segments which are also vacant. State Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo had said bypolls were not ...
LS polls code: Hoardings carrying pictures of party leaders, govt schemes being removed in Delhi
Public hoardings carrying images of party leaders, government schemes or any political references are being removed or covered up in the city in accordance with the model code of conduct for the general elections, officials said Tuesday. Pictures of political leaders have been ordered to be removed even from websites, they said. "All public hoardings carrying images of party leaders, government schemes or any political references have been ordered to be removed or covered up in accordance with the model code of conduct," Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said. Another senior official said use of any imagery of armed forces or invoking references to air strike on posters, hoardings or any other publicity platform "would amount to violation of the poll code of conduct". Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's pictures on Mohalla Clinics establishments or on hoardings put up for the fourth anniversary of the AAP government are also being removed or covered in keeping with the ..
India, Pakistan should initiate talks: German Foreign Minister
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday voiced concern over escalating tension between India and Pakistan and urged New Delhi and Islamabad to initiate talks to de-escalate the situation.Addressing a press conference here, Maas said, "I am concerned about the tense relations between India and Pakistan. I urge Islamabad and New Delhi to solve disputes through dialogues."Mass reached Islamabad on Tuesday for his two-day visit.Tensions between India and Pakistan heightened following the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed claimed responsibility for the attack.Less than two weeks after the attack, India carried out air strikes at a JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan, eliminating a "large number" of terrorists, according to India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.The very next day, Pakistani jets violated Indian air space and dropped bombs in the Rajouri sector in Jammu and Kashmir. India said it ...
Cong spreading lies from the land of Mahatma Gandhi: BJP
Rejecting allegations by Congress against the Modi government as lies, the BJP Tuesday claimed that the opposition party is engaged in spreading untruths from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and appeared "nervous" as it has sensed its "defeat" in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Reacting to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's and its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi's attack on the government and followed by its broadside at the CWC meeting in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters that the opposition party believes lies will be taken as truths if repeated often. "But it does not happen like this. These Gandhis are obviously different from the Gandhi we all know. The latter followed the path of truth. These Gandhis follow lies," he told reporters. Rahul Gandhi's allegation that the Modi government had benefited businessman Anil Ambani to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore in the Rafale deal was one such lie, he said. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) in ..
Congress and ZPM forge alliance in Mizoram
The opposition Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) in Mizoram and the Congress have forged an alliance to contest the Lok Sabha election and an Assembly by-poll, Congress sources said Tuesday. According to the understanding, which will be announced later, the Congress will field candidate in the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state and the ZPM will contest the Aizawl West-I assembly seat. Both the elections would be held together on April 11. The Congress and the ZPM have five and eight legislators respectively in the 40-member assembly. The Congress needs a new candidate for the Lok Sabha seat as its sitting MP, 84-year-old C L Ruala, would not contest because of old age. Ruala had been elected to the Lok Sabha for two consecutive terms. The by-poll to the Aizawl West-I assembly seat was necessitated after the ZPM's chief ministerial candidate Lalduhoma, who won from two constituencies vacated the seat. Lalduhoma had defeated the then chief minister Lal Thanhawla in Serchhip ...
Russia stations anti-missile system near Saint Petersburg
Russia said on Tuesday it has stationed its newest S-400 air defence missile systems in the northwestern Leningrad region which includes its second city Saint Petersburg. "The most modern air defence systems S-400 were put on standby alert in the Leningrad region to protect military, administrative and civilian sites," the defence ministry said. The S-400 surface-to-air missile is one of Russia's most advanced weapons. A Saint Petersburg-based defence ministry official told AFP the systems replaced the previous S-300s but declined to say how many were placed there. The missiles were first tested at a range in the southern region of Astrakhan before being transferred 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) to the north. The S-400 system is also expected to be deployed this month in Russia's European exclave of Kaliningrad. NATO member Turkey is planning to buy the S-400s from Russia despite warnings from the transatlantic military bloc it is incompatible with its own air defence systems.
Main Eurosceptic group urges MPs to reject Brexit deal
A group of Brexit-supporting MPs asked by their colleagues to examine changes to Britain's EU divorce deal recommended that parliament reject it in a vote on Tuesday. "In the light of our own legal analysis and others we do not recommend accepting the government's motion today," Conservative MP Bill Cash said on behalf of the group. They include one lawyer, six Conservative MPs plus Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Without the support of the DUP's 10 MPs, the Brexit deal is unlikely to pass when the House of Commons votes on it on Tuesday evening. Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU have agreed fresh guarantees on the operation of the Irish border "backstop" plan in the deal, which risks keeping Britain indefinitely in a customs union with the bloc. Attorney General Geoffrey Cox told MPs that her changes reduce the risk that Britain will be trapped in the backstop in the event that the EU refuses to exercise "good faith" in the ...
After severing ties over Citizenship Bill, AGP mulls returning to NDA
Two months after severing ties with the ruling BJP over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is weighing its options to return to the NDA fold for the Lok Sabha elections. According to sources in the AGP, the party is divided over the issue of tying up with the BJP again, fearing backlash from ground-level workers. A senior BJP leader has also admitted that the process of forging a coalition between the former allies have gained momentum in the last couple of days, but nothing has been fixed as yet. The AGP legislature party is scheduled to hold a meeting later in the evening to take a call on the matter, a legislator of the party told PTI on condition of anonymity. On Monday night, too, AGP MLAs held a discussion over realigning with the BJP, but the meeting remained inconclusive, he said. "We have been summoned for a meeting. It will start at 9 pm. The alliance issue will be discussed at the meet," the senior AGP member said. "Last night's ...
Modi is chaos: Sibal hits back at Jaitley
A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the choice before voters in the general elections would be either "Modi or chaos", senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday hit back saying "Modi is chaos". Jaitley, in a blog, had said Monday the 'Mahagathbandhan' is a self-destructive 'coalition of rivals' and the choice before voters in the general elections would be either "Modi or chaos". Hitting back at Jaitley, Sibal tweeted: "A Minister on possible outcome of 2019: It's Modi or chaos. Forgetting that Modi is chaos." "Most Obsessive Divisive Individual," Sibal wrote in his tweet in an apparent reference to Modi. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government will be seeking a second term as 900 million people are expected to vote in the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 23. Several non-BJP parties have joined hands to form a grand coalition 'Mahagathbandhan' to take on Narendra Modi-led NDA in the forthcoming elections.
Merkel says latest Brexit offer 'clear and far-reaching'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that the latest EU offer on Brexit was "clear and far-reaching", hours before the British parliament was set to vote on it. "Today is an important day," Merkel said at a Berlin joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. "I think that the 27 member states, represented by (European Commission chief) Jean-Claude Juncker and (EU chief negotiator) Michel Barnier, have again made clear and far-reaching proposals that take into account the concerns of Great Britain and to find answers for them. "We want to get along well and we want an orderly exit by Britain, and now it's the task of the British parliament to reach decisions, and we'll be following closely what happens today, tomorrow and the day after in Britain." Merkel added that "it's now up to the British parliament, so let's wait and see". Michel called the latest EU offer "an outstretched hand" and voiced hope that British lawmakers would reach a "sensible"
Theresa May claims Brexit breakthrough ahead of crunch vote, MPs remain defiant
Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed to have secured the breakthrough required to get her Brexit withdrawal agreement through a crunch vote in Parliament on Tuesday, two weeks ahead of the country's divorce from the EU. However, with UK Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox confirming that the legal risk from the controversial Irish backstop "remains unchanged", her Conservative Party's hard-Brexiteers refused to back the so-called "improved" divorce arrangement, leaving Britain's exit from the European Union (EU) still precariously poised ahead of the March 29 Brexit deadline. In a last-minute dash to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Monday night, May emerged alongside European Commission President Jean Claude-Juncker to declare that the UK and EU have agreed legally binding changes to the controversial Irish backstop clause to ensure any such arrangement would not be permanent. The move was aimed at addressing the concerns of hard-Brexiteers in her own ...
KCR tried to lure and buy our MLAs: Congress
The Congress party in Telangana has alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao tried to 'lure' and 'buy' Congress MLAs even as it decided to boycott the MLC election scheduled for Tuesday. Gudur Narayan Reddy, TPCC spokesperson while speaking with ANI said: "Telangana Chief Minister KCR cannot murder democracy by buying out some MLAs, MLCs or other leaders. KCR doesn't believe in any ethics and he is trying to turn all others unethical.""In a democracy, victory and defeat are common. It is also common for a party or candidate to win or lose elections," he added. The Congress alleged that the KCR won the last Assembly elections by indulging in various "irregularities" and "EVM manipulation"."For the sake of a healthy democracy, Congress party accepted defeat and started working for the welfare of Telangana, but KCR remained focused on his way of politics and continued with his unethical practices," said Reddy. "K Chandrashekar Rao does not want anyone to question his ...
Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil welcome to join Shiv Sena: Sanjay Raut
After Sujay Vikhe Patil joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut invited Sujay's father and the leader of opposition in Maharashtra Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil to join Shiv Sena."Like his son Sujay who joined BJP today, I welcome Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil to join Shiv Sena. Our party now wants that he should join Shiv Sena as well," Raut said. "If opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil wants to join Shiv Sena, we welcome him. And the doors of Shiv Sena are open for him," he added.On Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's decision of not contesting Lok Sabha elections, Raut said, "I am not surprised with Pawar not fighting elections. I do not think he had ever decided to contest the elections.""This is all done to give some publicity to Parth," he added.The 78-year-old Rajya Sabha member and NCP chief said on Monday that he will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He, instead, decided to launch his grand nephew Parth from Maval ...
LS Polls: Amarinder denies talks of alliance with AAP in Punjab
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ruled out an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, asserting that the Congress will go solo in the polls."Nothing at all (on alliance with AAP in Punjab). We have no alliance with Arvind Kejriwal (AAP convener) or with anybody. We will contest on our own and win," he told media here.Responding to Kejriwal's statement that talks for an alliance in Punjab were in progress, the Chief Minister said though he was not aware of such a statement, the Congress did not need any allies in Punjab.Exuding confidence about the Congress' prospects in the parliamentary elections, Singh said the party was gung-ho about these polls, as was evident from the fact that it had chosen Ahmedabad - the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi - for the CWC meeting."This clearly showed the level of enthusiasm in the party, which was literally ready to take the BJP by its horns," he added.In response ..
TMC to field 40.5% female candidates in upcoming LS polls
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) will field 40.5 per cent female candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections."Trinamool Congress will field 40.5 per cent female candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This is a proud moment for us," Banerjee said while briefing the media.Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said, "This is a challenging election for Prime Minister Modi and we are seeing a number of strikes - and I mean political strikes, don't misquote me - like demonetisation. I had opposed demonetisation from the beginning; people have suffered a lot because of it."Announcing the first list of candidates for upcoming general elections, Banerjee said, "Moon Moon Sen will be our candidate from Asansol, Satabdi Roy from Birbhum."Banerjee also announced that the TMC will be contesting from Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, and Andaman and Bihar seats.Polling for the Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven
Rahul exudes confidence over winning in Modi's home state Gujarat
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday exuded confidence over winning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat as well as at the national level in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.Speaking to media after attending a public rally here, Rahul alleged that the Prime Minister has failed to provide employment to the youth of the country."The result (of Lok Sabha elections 2019) will be very good in Gujarat as well as at the national level. There is anger among people. The government has failed completely in providing employment to the youth. The country's unemployment rate was at a 45-year high. The Prime Minister has been trying to distract the country all along," Rahul said.Rahul asserted that Patidar leader Hardik Patel will win the polls in the forthcoming elections in the state. Hardik officially joined the Congress on Tuesday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the schedule for 17th Lok Sabha election, which will
'Your vote is weapon', Priyanka Gandhi tells electorates in her first public rally
In her first political rally, the newly appointed Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday told electorates that their votes are a "weapon" which should be used wisely, disregarding useless issues and tall claims made by others. "Your awareness is a weapon, your vote is a weapon. It is a weapon where no one will get hurt or sad, it is that weapon which will make you strong," said Priyanka amid loud cheers from the crowd at the rally in Gandhinagar.Targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka said that those who do "badi badi baatein (tall claims)", the people should ask where is two crore jobs and the Rs 15 lakh to every account as promised during the last Lok Sabha poll campaigning.The country is made on the foundations of love, harmony and brotherhood, she said adding that whatever is happening today, however, is "very sad".Addressing the crowd at the rally, the general secretary told the electorates, "This fight is not less than the fight we fought during .
Leaders of Mahagathbandhan to discuss seat-sharing for Bihar tomorrow
Leaders of the Mahagathbandhan will meet on Wednesday in the national capital to finalise the seat-sharing for 40 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Bihar. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party's (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) supremo Jitan Ram Majhi, Vikasheel Insaan Party's (VIP) president Mukesh Sahni, Bihar Congress chief Shakti Singh Gohil, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Singh, and Loktantrik Janata Dal's (LJD) president Sharad Yadav are likely to meet at the residence of Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ahmad Patel.According to initial indications, RJD will be fighting on 20 seats, Congress on 11 seats, and RLSP on 3 Lok Sabha seats. HAM and LEFT parties have been given two seats each while Vikasshil Insan Party and Loktantrik Janata Dal will fight on one seat each in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.However, the final seat sharing agreement will be announced after the meeting of senior Mahagathbandhan leaders including Tejaswi, Upendra ...