Page 407 - Politics
Resounding Modi wave as BJP secures 303
The BJP's resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections that saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi make headlines across national and international dailies and also paint a vast swath of the mainland saffron brought in its wake some outstanding results from a number of states.
Modi wave takes wind out of 'mahagathbandhan' sail in UP, counting in one seat underway
The BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) have won 64 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats, demolishing the challenge posed by the SP-BSP alliance, which is expected to get 15 seats between them. The BJP has won 62 seats and its ally two seats in the politically crucial state, which sends the highest number of MPs to the Lower House. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has won five seats and its alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nine.The Mayawati-led BSP is leading in the Ghosi seat, as per the Election Commission (EC). Congress won the lone Raebareli seat of Sonia Gandhi. The counting of votes is still underway in Uttar Pradesh and the EC has declared results of 79 seats as of 11:00 am Friday. In 2014 polls, the BJP had won 71 seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) two, while the SP had bagged five seats and the Congress two. In three bypolls, the opposition had wrested Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana from the BJP. This time, the Modi wave not only smashed the SP-BSP alliance, but also uprooted ...
Trump sees 'great things' for US-India ties
US President Donald Trump has said that he sees "great things" for India-US relations with the electoral victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections.
Modi, Shah meet BJP veterans LK Advani, M M Joshi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah Friday called on party veterans LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, a day after the party-led NDA returned to power at the Centre with a massive mandate. "Called on respected Advani Ji. The BJP's successes today are possible because greats like him spent decades building the party and providing a fresh ideological narrative to the people," Modi tweeted. He also posted a picture of the meeting. Modi and Shah later met Joshi.
BJP improves showing in Odisha LS polls, wins 5 seats
The BJP has improved its Lok Sabha performance in Odisha by winning five seats and remaining ahead in two out of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. This is a great shift from 2014 when the saffron party had won only one Lok Sabha seat in the state. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has won seven seats and is leading in six, accoring to the results and trends made available by the Election Commission. Union Minister Jual Oram, BJP national secretary Suresh Pujari, former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi are among the prominent BJP winners. BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda and national spokesperson of the saffron party Sambit Patra are among the losers. Union Minister and BJP leader Jual Oram was Friday declared elected from Sundargarh Parliamentary constituency which he represented in the outgoing Lok Sabha. The firebrand tribal leader retained the reserved seat by defeating his nearest BJD nominee Sunita Biswal by a margin of 2,23,065 votes. Oram had been ...
UN looks forward to working with Modi: Spokesperson
The UN looks forward to working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to begin a second term after his party's election victory, according to Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
US confident of 'fairness, integrity' of Indian elections
The US is confident about the "fairness and integrity" of the Indian elections that was won by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.
Voters say 'no' to criminals in UP
For the first time in Uttar Pradesh, majority of criminal candidates have been swept off the political stage in the Modi wave.
Smriti Irani thanks voters for Amethi win
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Smriti Irani, who toppled Congress President Rahul Gandhi from his pocket borough of Amethi, thanked the voters on Friday for trusting her.
37 candidates lose deposit in Himachal LS polls
As many as 37 candidates, including all the four BSP contestants, lost their security deposit in Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha polls, a state election officer said Friday. None of the 37 out of the total 45 candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats in the state could even get the minimum required one-sixth (16.67 per cent) of the total polled valid votes to save their security deposit of Rs. 25,000. The highest number of 15 candidates, including Daleep Singh Kaith (CPM, 14838 votes) and Ses Ram (BSP, 9060 votes) lost their security deposit in Mandi, followed by nine each in Hamirpur and Kangra and four in Shimla parliamentary constituency. Interestingly, BSP candidates in Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra seats polled less than NOTA votes. BSP candidate Kehar Singh had to satisfy himself with only 8866 votes in Kangra from where 11327 voters opted for NOTA. In Shimla, BSP candidate Vikram Singh polled just 7759 votes, whereas 8357 electors opted for NOTA. Similarly Desh Raj of BSP could get only
PM Modi meets Advani
A day after sweeping the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran L.K. Adavni at the latter's residence here.
Modi's victory tribute to Vajpayee, says Puri
BJP's candidate for Punjab's Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic victory was a tribute to the late Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a lesson for the Congress.
Trump, Pelosi trade insults as their feud heats up
She's calling for an "intervention" to save the nation from him. He says she's "crazy." The enmity between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deteriorated Thursday into rude-and-then-some questioning of his fitness for office and her sanity, with personal attacks flowing from both the nation's top elected officials after a dramatic blow-up at the White House. However intended, the exchanges left uncertain ahead of the 2020 election whether Trump and the Democrats will be able to work together on serious, must-pass tasks, such as funding the government and raising the federal borrowing limit, let alone thornier issues such as immigration, national security and more. Pelosi went first, with demure shrugs and practiced sass. Then, as a tornado warning blared across Washington, Trump followed with a derisive nickname something he had declined to give her, up to now. "She's a mess," Trump told reporters at an afternoon news conference in which he lined up White House ...
Election 2019 was a fight between two ideologies: RSS' Vaidya
The just concluded Lok Sabha election was a fight between two different ideologies - "the Hindu way of life and politicsof exclusion and division" - a senior RSS leader said Friday, a day after the BJP swept to power for a second term with an overwhelming majority. With the poll results,this ideological fight underway since independence has now reached a "decisive stage", RSS sah sarkaryavah (joint general secretary) Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement here. Expressing happiness over the electoral outcome, he said this is the day of joy for a bright future of 'Bharat'. Vaidya said the 2019 general election was a contest between two different ideologies in India. "One ideology is based on the ancient integral values of holistic and all-inclusive thought process which is known worldwide as the Hindu way of life," the RSS leader said. "While there was this another ideology which had non- Indian perspective and looked Bharat from divisive identities. It divided the society on
Party is over for Samajwadi family, gain for BJP
The defeat of three members of the Samajwadi Party -- Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and Akshay Yadav -- is perhaps the biggest jolt that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has received in recent times.
Congress wrests lone Lok Sabha seat in Pondy from AINRC
Senior Congress leader and former Assembly Speaker V Vaithilingam emerged victorious in the election to lone Lok Sabha seat in Puducherry. Vaithilingam polled 4,44,981 votes while his nearest rival K Narayanasamy of AINRC, a doctor-turned-politician garnered 2,47,956 votes. Vaithilingam, a former chief minister of the union territory, won by a margin of 1,97,025 votes to wrest the seat from the opposition AINRC. Counting of votes which began at 8 a.m on Thursday ended past midnight. Vaithilingam was declared elected at 2 a.m Friday, official sources told PTI. He had won the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly segment in the 2016 elections and resigned as Speaker in March to contest the Lok Sabha polls. AINRC had earlier in the day conceded the Thattanchavady Assembly seat to the DMK (an ally of the ruling Congress) in the bypoll held simultaneously with the Parliamentary elections on April 18.
People have silenced Opposition with their votes: Ravi Shankar Prasad
Hours after the BJP pulled off a stunning victory in the Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday took a dig at the rival political quarters for criticising PM Modi during electioneering saying, "people have silenced the Opposition with their votes."Speaking to ANI in Patna, the IT and Law minister said, "This is a historic win. In Bihar 39 out of 40 seats. BJP crossed 300 seats share mark. People with their votes have silenced those leaders who used to abuse Modi ji."Prasad has defeated two-time MP Shatrughan Sinha in Patna Sahib constituency. According to Election Commission's (EC) website, Prasad defeated Sinha by a margin of 2,78,198 ballots. Prasad won 5,95,490 votes, while Sinha won 3,17,292 votes.The Lok Sabha polls that commenced on April 11 and wrapped up on May 19, saw approximately 900 million voters exercising their franchise and deciding the fate of over 8,000 candidates across 542 seats in the country.
Trump moves to escalate investigation of intel agencies
President Donald Trump has directed the U.S. intelligence community to "quickly and fully cooperate" with Attorney General William Barr's investigation of the origins of the multi-year probe of whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. The move Thursday marked an escalation in Trump's efforts to "investigate the investigators," as he continues to try to undermine the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe amid mounting Democratic calls to bring impeachment proceedings against Trump. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump is delegating to Barr the "full and complete authority" to declassify documents relating to the probe, which would ease his efforts to review the sensitive intelligence underpinnings of the investigation. Such a move could create fresh tensions within the FBI and other intelligence agencies, which have historically resisted such demands. Barr has already asked John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to examine the origins
Over 33,000 voters opted for NOTA in Himachal Pradesh
Over 33,000 none of the above (NOTA) votes were polled in Himachal Pradesh, where the ruling BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections winning all four seats in the state. The saffron party won Mandi, Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra with record margins of about four lakh votes in each of the constituencies. As many as 33,008 voters chose the NOTA option.In this way, 0.87 per cent voters opted for NOTA out of the total 38,01, 793 votes polled in the state on May 19, an election official said. Besides, 8,208 (0.22 per cent) votes were rejected for the four Lok Sabha seats of the hill-state, he added. The highest 11,327 voters chose NOTA in Kangra, followed by 8,357 in Shimla, 8,026 in Hamirpur and 5,298 in Mandi, the official said. He said a total of 29,032 voters (0.9 per cent) had opted for NOTA in the 2014 parliamentary elections. The highest 3,322 votes were rejected in Hamirpur, followed by 2,567 in Kangra, 1,777 in Mandi and 1,542 in Shimla, the official said. He said as electronic voting ...
Congress wins 52 seats in LS polls
Congress on Friday finished a dismal second, winning 52 out of 542 constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections, according to the Election Commission.The party won eight seats more than it won in 2014 general elections.The biggest setback for Congress was party president Rahul Gandhi's defeat from Amethi, a traditional family bastion. BJP's Smriti Irani won the seat with a margin of 55,120 votes. Irani polled a total of 4,67,598 votes.Amethi is considered a stronghold of the Congress party since years. Gandhi has been winning on the seat since 2004.Despite the poor performance of the party in 2014 general elections at the Centre, Gandhi had defeated Irani on the seat with a margin of 1,07,903 votes.However, the Gandhi scion won from Wayanad seat in Kerala from where he contested for the first time.Several Congress heavyweights including Mallikarjun Kharge (Gulbarga), Sheila Dikshit (North East Delhi), Ajay Maken (New Delhi), Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Sonipat), Harish Rawat ...