Page 393 - Politics
The 'Jacks' who slayed the giants in Maharashtra polls
The Lok Sabha election results saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) return to power at the Centre with a brutal majority, erasing the Opposition parties from many parts of the country.
Rahul Gandhi thanks Wayanad in Malayalam for choosing him
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed gratitude to the people of Wayanad for choosing him as their representative in the Lok Sabha.Gandhi, who netted 7, 05,034 votes in Wayanad, tweeted in Malayalam saying, "I honour the decision of the people of the country. I congratulate all the winners. I wish to thank all the people of Wayanad who have chosen me as your representative. I also extend my thanks to each and every Congress worker for their hard work and efforts in this election."Gandhi won by 4, 31,063 votes against his nearest rival Left Democratic Front (LDF)'s PP Suneer in the constituency.However, the Congress President lost his family stronghold Amethi parliamentary constituency by BJP leader Smriti Irani.Amethi is considered a stronghold of Congress. The party has not been defeated here in the last three decades, except in 1998.Smiriti Irani defeated Gandhi by 55,120 votes. The BJP leader managed to rake in 4, 67,598 while the Congress chief could only pick up 4, .
Macron urges 'rapid clarification' on Brexit as May steps down
President Emmanuel Macron wants to see a "rapid clarification" over Britain's departure from the European Union after Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would step down next month, the French presidency said Friday. Macron hailed May for "courageous work" in seeking to implement Brexit in the interests of her country while showing respect for Britain's European partners, the Elysee said in a statement. But it added: "The principles of the EU will continue to apply, with the priority on the smooth functioning of the EU, and this requires a rapid clarification." Macron has taken a hard line on Brexit over the last months which has sometimes put him at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has pushed for a more flexible stance. Paris fears that repeated delays to Brexit - which is now scheduled to take place by October 31 - are interfering with the smooth running of the EU and Macron's own plans for reforming the bloc. The statement said that while France was ready to work
Cong fails to get LOP position again, says Paswan
Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan Friday mocked Congress for eyeing Prime Minister post but ending up with a tally which falls short to help it get even the chair of leader of the opposition. Paswan further said he had predicted victory of his ministerial colleague Smriti Irani from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi. I have been telling it for past three years that there is no vacancy for the post of the Prime Minister in 2019 and hence they (opponents) should vie for leader of opposition (LOP) chair. But, Congress has not even got seats to be able to get the LOP post again. Congress has got 52 Lok Sabha seats, Paswan told reporters here. As per the criteria, a party must get 10 per cent of the total seats of the lower house to occupy the LOP. Elections were held for 542 Lok Sabha seats which mean 55 seats are required for a party to get the chair of LOP. Paswan said that he has already predicted that union minister Smriti Irani will emerge ...
Sudan general vows to back Saudi Arabia against Iran 'threats'
A top Sudanese general vowed to back regional ally Saudi Arabia against "all threats and attacks" from its rival Iran during talks with the kingdom's powerful crown prince, Sudan's ruling military council said Friday. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy chief of Sudan's new Transitional Military Council, met with Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, the official Saudi Press Agency reported earlier in the day. "Sudan is standing with the kingdom against all threats and attacks from Iran and Huthi militias," Dagalo, widely known as Himeidti, told the crown prince during their meeting, the council said in a statement. Himeidti also said the military council would continue deploying Sudanese troops to Yemen as part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-aligned Huthi rebels. It was Dagalo's first international trip since Sudan's army generals took power after they backed protesters in ousting longtime-leader Omar al-Bashir last month. The statement, the council's first major foreign ...
3 bypoll wins have ensured stability of Goa govt: Gawade
The three Assembly seats won by the BJP in the bypolls in Goa will ensure the stability of the Pramod Sawant government, Independent MLA and state minister Govind Gawade said Friday. The BJP won the Shiroda, Mandrem and Mapusa Assembly seats, polls to which were held on April 23, while it lost the Panaji seat, voting for which took place on May 19. The BJP now has 17 MLAs in the 40-member House while the opposition Congress has 15 legislators. The Goa Forward Party, with three MLAs, and three Independents are supporting the BJP-led government in the state. The NCP and the Maharashtrwadi Gomantak Party have one MLA each. "The BJP-led alliance has increased its position in the House after the bypoll wins. The current government will complete its tenure," Gawade, the state's Art and Culture minister, said. Gawade said the MGP, which had fielded a candidate for the Shiroda bypoll, is still hopeful of getting back into the state government but "that is not going to happen".
LS polls: Delhi will again have only one woman MP
The national capital continued with its trend of sending only one woman to Parliament as BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi retained the New Delhi seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2014 general election too, Lekhi was the lone woman MP from Delhi, while in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress' Krishna Tirath was the only woman candidate who could secure a win. Of the 164 candidates contesting the polls in Delhi, only 16 were women including Congress veteran and former chief minister Sheila Dikhsit and Aam Aadmi Party's Atishi. Contesting from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, Lekhi defeated Congress' Ajay Maken by over 2.56 lakh votes. Dikshit lost to Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari by a margin of over 3.66 lakh votes in North East Delhi, Atishi finished third in the triangular contest with cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir who bagged the pole position and Congress' Arvinder Singh Lovely coming second in East Delhi. There were thirteen other women candidates who ...
Of 223 candidates in Haryana, 203 lose their security deposits
The ruling BJP not only swept all the 10 seats in Haryana, but it inflicted heavy defeat on the opposition candidates as 203 aspirants lost their security deposits. While Congress candidates finished at second spot on nine seats, Bhavya Bishnoi from Hisar ended up at third spot with a total of 1,84,369 votes. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate and sitting MP Dushyant Chautala finished at second spot with a total of 2,89,221 votes, while BJP's winning candidate Brijendra Singh got 6,03,289 votes. "Except for the winning candidates and the candidates who were on second position, the remaining 203 candidates have lost their security deposits. In Haryana, a total of 223 candidates were in fray to contest for 10 Lok Sabha seats," Haryana's Joint Chief Electoral Officer Inder Jeet said in an official release here Friday. Inder Jeet said under provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, it is mandatory for the candidates to get one-sixth of the total valid votes to remain ...
NDA MPs to meet Saturday to formally elect Modi as leader
Newly elected MPs of the BJP-led NDA will meet on Saturday to formally elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi as their leader, setting in motion the process of government formation. The BJP said the meeting will take place in Parliament's Central Hall at 5 pm. Prior to this, BJP MPs will meet separately at Parliament House. Modi is expected to address the MPs following his election as their leader. With Modi already being announced as the prime ministerial candidate of the alliance, the meeting is being considered a mere formality. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has got more than 350 members in Lok Sabha, including 303 of the BJP. According to sources, Modi is likely to visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on May 28, before oath-taking by new members on May 30.
Milind Deora says he accepts Mumbaikars' verdict with great humility
Mumbai's Congress chief Milind Deora on Friday said he has accepted the verdict of the denizens with great humility after the party suffered a defeat in the Lok Sabha polls."We accept the verdict of the people of Mumbai with great humility. I am happy that tickets were given to deserving and experienced candidates who gave a good fight to the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party," he told ANI."I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah and the whole National Democratic Alliance (NDA)," Deora added.The Congress leader also said, "I hope that the elected representatives work in the next 5 years to raise the voice of the Mumbaikars in the Lok Sabha and bring justice to needy people of Mumbai."Out of the total 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra, the NDA secured a mandate on 41 seats of which 23 were won by BJP and 18 went to Shiv Sena. Congress and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) bagged one seat each while NCP won 4 seats.
President of District Congress Committee in Amethi resigns
Yogendra Mishra, president of District Congress Committee in Amethi, has resigned from the post, taking responsibility for the defeat of Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls from here.In a letter addressed to the party president, Mishra took responsibility for the loss the grand old party suffered in Amethi in the general elections.BJP leader Smriti Irani won Uttar Pradesh's Amethi constituency with a margin of 55,120 votes against Congress president Rahul Gandhi.Amethi has remained a bastion of the Congress party for decades. Irani got 4,67,598 votes. Gandhi had been winning on the seat since 2004.
Did not expect this result: Karnataka Cong leader on party's huge LS poll loss
Reflecting on the disappointing loss of his party in the Lok Sabha election, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday said that the results were not expected and cast an element of doubt on the functioning of EVMs.Talking to ANI, Kharge said, "Lok Sabha results were not as per our expectations. There remains an element of doubt on EMMs. Not only Congress party but other opposition parties are also raising doubts on EVM.""However, we accept our defeat and the discussion on the issue of EVM will be held later in a meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Delhi on Saturday from 11 am onwards when Congress leaders from different states across the country will be present," Kharge added.On being asked about the situation in Karnataka, Kharge said results in parliamentary elections and assembly polls show different trends.Kharge said, "We have won recently in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh assembly polls, but in the parliamentary elections the results were ...
PM meets President, tenders resignation of Council of Ministers
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday and tendered resignation of the entire Council of Ministers, a mere formality before he is sworn-in for the next term.
In 2019, Congress failed in regions where it succeeded in state polls of last two years
The Congress and its allies gave a strong performance in assembly polls in major states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh during the past two years, but they were unable to sustain the momentum and capitalise on people's disaffection towards the BJP for a good showing in the general election. On Thursday, the BJP and its allies won comprehensively in each of the aforementioned states. In fact, it was a clean sweep in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Moreover, in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won 28 out of 29 seats; in Karnataka, it won 25 out of 28 seats, and in Chhattisgarh, the party won 9 out of 11 seats. During 2018 assembly elections of Karnataka, the Congress and the JD(S) combine were able to win 78 and 37 seats, respectively, while the BJP got 104 seats. The Congress and JD(S) entered into a coalition and were able to form government in the state with the latter's leader H D Kumaraswamy as the chief minister. The relations between both the alliance ...
BSP surprises many in Punjab; its 3 candidates finish third
The Bahujan Samaj Party may not have won any seat in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab but it has surprised many by finishing third on the three seats it contested, doing better than the AAP. Facing the erosion of its vote bank over the past several years in Punjab, the BSP garnered vote share of 3.49 per cent as against 1.9 per cent in 2014. The party polled 4.79 lakh votes in the state this general election. The BSP stitched an alliance and became a part of Punjab Democratic Alliance, a conglomeration of several political outfits for contesting the elections. As part of the seat-sharing pact, the BSP fielded three candidates from Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur (reserve) and Jalandhar (reserve) seats in Punjab. In 2014, the BSP had contested all 13 seats and still got only 2.63 lakh votes. The party was on fourth spot on seven seats, sixth on two seats and ranked fifth on two seats. On all the seats it contested this Lok Sabha polls, the BSP contestants finished third, as per the ...
Congress can never die, country needs it: Ashok Gehlot
The Congress can never die and the country needs it, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asserted on Friday and said the party will again reach out to people to ascertain the reasons for its drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. The senior Congress leader said the BJP played on emotions and sentiments of the people and never fought on real issues. During the election campaign, the people never got to know the BJP's vision for the country and stand on issues such as unemployment, farm distress and economy, he said. The Rajasthan chief minister said the people's mandate in a democracy is important and his party accepts it with humility, but expressed his anguish at the manner in which the BJP rode to victory banking on religion, caste and nationalism instead of relying on issues of the people. "People's mandate in a democracy is topmost and the Congress has protected it all these 70 years since Independence and accepted it with humility. I am pained that in this election the campaign was ..
BJP bags thrice the number of election duty votes that TMC got in Bengal
The BJP bagged almost three times the election duty votes that the TMC got in West Bengal, Election Commission data has shown, indicating the state government employees chose the saffron party over the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit, who not long ago compared them to barking dogs. The Bharatiya Janata Party received 73,541 votes through postal ballots as compared to the Trinamool Congress which got only 25,791 votes. The Left Front got around 7,377 votes, the Congress about 5,770 votes and there were 5,143 NOTA votes. The state government employees and security personnel deployed in election duty cast their votes through postal ballots. "This is on expected lines. The security personnel in the state have all voted for the BJP and the state government employees have been upset with Mamata Banerjee over the dearness allowance issue for a long time. We were counting on their votes," said Kalicharan Shaw, a state BJP leader. In September 2017, while addressing a meeting of state government ...
Cong vote share jumps to 40 pc in Punjab
The vote share of the ruling Congress in Punjab jumped to 40 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which it won eight out of total 13 parliamentary seats in the state. The vote share of the Aam Aadmi Party which could manage to win just one seat, nosedived from 24 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 7.38 per cent in the present elections. The Shiromani Akali Dal's vote share also rose to 27.45 per cent despite the party winning only two seats, Ferozepur and Bathinda, out of 10 it contested. The BJP, which won Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur seats, also witnessed an increase in its vote share to 9.63 per cent, as per the Election Commission data. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party's vote share was 33.10 per cent and the SAD's 26.30 per cent. The vote share of AAP and the BJP stood at 24.40 and 8.70 per cent respectively. Another surprise in the elections was the Bahujan Samaj Party getting 3.49 per cent of the polled votes. BSP candidates who contested from Anandpur Sahib, ...
Indian elections an inspiration to democracies around the world: USA
Congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his electoral victory once again, the United States on Friday highlighted that the Indian elections "serve as an inspiration to democracies and individuals around the world," in an official press release."India's elections are the largest exercise in democracy in human history and serve as an inspiration to democracies and individuals around the world. We applaud the Indian people for turning out to vote in historic numbers and the Government of India for their exceptional execution of this massive undertaking," a statement issued by US State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said.The United States and India enjoy a strong strategic partnership that stands on a foundation of shared values, extensive people-to-people ties, and a commitment to a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, the statement added."We look forward to working with the newly elected government on a range of important issues, including expanding economic and ...
PM Modi meets President Kovind, tenders resignation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met the President Ram Nath Kovind and tendered the resignation of his government, paving the way for the formation of a new dispensation under his leadership following victory in the Lok Sabha elections.The President accepted the resignation and requested Modi and his council of ministers to continue in office till the new government takes charge."Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on President Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Prime Minister tendered his resignation along with the Union Council of Ministers", tweeted the official handle of President of India.Modi's meeting with President Kovind comes after the Union Cabinet met on Friday and adopted a resolution for the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha, setting in motion the process of constituting the new House.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has some health problems, did not attend the Cabinet meeting as he was stated to be unwell.The Election Commission will then issue a formal ...