Page 465 - Politics
Call our leader Abe Shinzo, not Shinzo Abe: Japan to world
Ahead of a series of important international events in Japan, including the G20 summit in June and the Rugby World Cup later this year, Japan has requested the English-speaking world to call its Prime Minister as Abe Shinzo, not Shinzo Abe.
J-K Guv says his admin wants President's rule to end in state as soon as possible
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik Wednesday said his administration wants the President's Rule to end in the state at the earliest but the final call on the timing of assembly elections will be taken by the Election Commission. Asked if some officials within his administration were not keen on transfer of power to an elected government in the state, the governor said there was nothing like that in his notice. "We want this (President's Rule) to end as soon as possible. The final call on holding assembly elections in the state will be taken by the Election Commission," Malik told reporters after inaugurating the second phase of the Jehangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover. Recently, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also said a decision on holding assembly elections in the state was the prerogative of the Election Commission but indicated a decision could be announced after the completion of the Lok Sabha polls. Jammu and Kashmir was placed under Governor's Rule on June 19, 2018 after ..
LS polls: TRS upbeat on 16 seats, BJP hopes to pull off
A day ahead of counting of votes for the Parliamentary elections, the ruling TRS in Telangana is upbeat about winning 16 of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats, while opposition Congress and BJP also sounded hopeful of winnng a good number of seats. "We have full confidence that we will definitely win 16 seats. We have no doubts about it. Majority (winning margins) may vary, but we will win 16," TRS MLC Palla Rajeshwara Reddy told PTI. TRS has been focused on winning 16 out of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana (leaving Hyderabad seat to its ally AIMIM). BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao, who is the candidate from Malkajgiri in the Lok Sabha polls, said his party is going to pull off surprises by winning seats in "unexpected numbers". As per the party's internal surveys, it stands a good chance to win Adilabad and it did well in Nizamabad and Karimnagar, Rao said. It is a keen contest in Mahabubnagar, Secunderabad and Malkajgiri, he said, adding that the party is expected to win
Afghanistan, terrorism figure tops Sushma Swaraj's speech at SCO meet
Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, reiterated India's commitment in securing peace and security in war-ravaged Afghanistan as she addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting here on Wednesday."India stands committed to any process, which can help Afghanistan emerge as a united, peaceful, secure, stable, inclusive and economically vibrant nation, with guaranteed gender and human rights. I wish to once again underscore the importance India attaches to SCO Afghanistan Contact Group and welcome an early conclusion of the Draft Roadmap of further actions of the Contact Group," Swaraj said in a statement.The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance created in 2001 in Shanghai, by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the forum in 2017.The Wednesday's meeting, attended by foreign ministers of the SCO member states, including Pakistan, focused on the effective use of the ..
Rahul dubs exit polls as false, asks partymen to remain vigil
A day ahead of vote counting, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the exit polls as false and urged the party workers to keep faith in the party and asked them to remain vigil.
Farm loan waiver in MP will resume once poll code ends: Kamal Nath
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has replied to former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's accusations of the Congress not fulfilling its loan waiver promises made to the farmers of the state and said that loans of 21 lakh farmers had been waived till the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the process will resume once the MCC ends.
Siddaramaiah not doing well as coordination committee head: JD(S)'s H. Vishwanath
Adding fuel to the internecine fighting in the ruling coalition in Karnataka, state JD(S) president H. Vishwanath criticised coalition's coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah stating that he is not doing well at the post."I am not only talking about Siddaramaiah. My point is as chief, Siddaramaiah should take both parties together and it is very important to implement the common minimum programme. We have not understood till now the policies, rules and regulations of the coalition. Who will write? It should be the president," he told media here.The JD(S) leader went on to add that Congress leader Siddaramiah not performing his job well."(As) president of JD(S), within my limits I am trying to bring to the notice of the government the things that can be done. Between me and Siddaramaiah, we don't have anything personal, we have nothing. Your feeling that as the chief of the coordination committee Siddaramaiah is not doing well... I say yes," he added.However, Vishwanath has ...
Yogi prepares for major cabinet reshuffle in UP
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is preparing for a major cabinet reshuffle -- its first since its formation in March 2017.
Maharashtra: Ex-NCP minister quits party, set to join Sena
Former Maharashtra minister Jaidutta Kshirsagar Wednesday resigned as NCP MLA and is set to join the Shiv Sena later in the day. Kshirsagar, who hails from Beed district in Marathwada region, told PTI that he had also resigned from primary membership of the party. He had expressed discontent with the NCP leadership for "ignoring" him and giving importance to Dhananjay Munde, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council. "I was feeling suffocated in the party," he said. He said he would be joining the Uddhav Thackeray-led party later in the day. Munde, nephew of late Gopinath Munde, also hails from Beed district.
Udit Raj targets SC over VVPATs counting, asks if it is involved in rigging
Congress leader Udit Raj on Wednesday stoked controversy and questioned the manner the Supreme Court has dealt with complaints of EVM rigging and pleas seeking review of 100 per cent voter-verified paper audit trail slips along with electronic voting machines on the counting of votes.Raj tweeted in Hindi saying, "Why doesn't Supreme Court wants VVPAT slips to be counted, is it involved in the rigging?" When 22 parties went to SC asking for an increase in the number of VVPAT slips being counted, SC rejected it saying it will cause a delay."[{eca7b1ef-16bc-44e9-a454-2024963aca20:intradmin/Udir_Raj1.JPG}]Raj's remark comes a day after 21 opposition parties leaders urged the EC to count votes through VVPATs instead of EVMs during counting for the Lok Sabha polls.A delegation led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu which also included the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had handed over a memorandum of the same .
Air raids kill 12 civilians in jihadist-held Syrian town: Monitor
Air strikes by Damascus or its ally Moscow killed 12 civilians in a market in Syria's Idlib province, a monitor said Wednesday, as fierce fighting raged for the jihadist-held northwestern region. Another 18 people were wounded when the warplanes hit the jihadist-held town of Maarat al-Numan around midnight (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The market was crowded with people out and about after breaking the daytime fast observed by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. The strikes came as heavy clashes raged in the north of neighbouring Hama province after the jihadists launched a counterattack on Tuesday against pro-government forces in the town of Kafr Nabuda. Fresh fighting on Wednesday took the death toll to 52 -- 29 troops and militia and 23 jihadists, the Observatory said. It said that the jihadists had retaken most of the town from government forces who recaptured it on May 8. The jihadist-dominated Idlib region is nominally ..
Security tightened at Naidu, Jagan homes ahead of counting
A day ahead of counting of votes for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, police on Wednesday stepped up security at the residences of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the state capital region Amaravati.
12 heavyweight battles in Uttar Pradesh
With a few hours left for counting of votes to begin, the spotlight is on the heavyweight battles in Uttar Pradesh that will decide the future of the country in the next five years.
Uttarakhand CM's wife at centre of controversy again
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat's wife Sunita is again at the centre of a raging controversy in Uttarakhand -- this time for purchasing a piece of land at a prime tourist location here.
Eight injured in blast along LoC
Eight Army personnel were injured in a blast during a training exercise along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district Wednesday, officials said. Officials had earlier stated that an Army personnel was killed in the blast that took place during handling of explosives but later said he was in a critical condition. The injured have been hospitalised. Further details are awaited.
Court reserves order on plea against Rahul Gandhi
A court here on Wednesday reserved order on a plea seeking lodging of an FIR against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making an objectionable speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pragya Thakur, Azam Khan, Moonmoon Sen... those that made headlines with their views
Call them motor-mouths or simply contentious, they are the not-to-be-quietened candidates who kept up the controversial chatter through the Lok Sabha elections, sometimes at rallies and other times through social media posts or responses to questions from the media. From east to west and north to south, a battery of candidates across the political spectrum demonstrated a penchant for getting into trouble with their views on a range of issues. Some like Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan and Bharatiya Janata Party's Giriraj Singh are old time 'foot-in-the-mouth' politicians, frequently in the headlines for their outspoken and sometimes outrageous views, others like BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur and Communist Party of India's Kanhaiya Kumar are new to the election game. They stoked controversy during the high-voltage campaign, at times forcing the Election Commission to bar some of them from campaigning or inviting scrutiny from their own party's leadership. Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon
N. Korea calls Biden 'a fool of low IQ'
North Korean state media on Wednesday slammed former US Vice President Joe Biden and called him a "fool of low IQ" for his alleged slander of Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong-un.
Exit polls were to boost stock market, disrupt opposition
Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily Wednesday alleged exit polls that predicted return of the NDA government at the Centre were aimed at boosting investor sentiment on the stock market and "disrupting" opposition unity. The former Union Minister said he strongly felt that those exit polls do not reflect the reality on the ground, and claimed that some agencies who have conducted them have now "backed out" saying "there are full of errors". "It (exit polls predicting second term for the Modi government) must have been done with some ulterior motive. Number one is to project the stock market...people have gained between Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs five lakh crore"", he said. He was referring to investor wealth soaring by more than Rs 5.33 lakh crore as the benchmark BSE Sensex sprinted more than 1,422 points Monday after exit polls predicted a return of the NDA government led by the BJP. "And another (reason for such exit polls) is to disrupt the opposition unity. That ...
NCP's Jaydutt Kshirsagar resigns from MLA post, set to join Shiv Sena
NCP leader and former cabinet minister Jaydutt Kshirsagar, who has been at loggerheads with senior party leaders, has resigned from MLA post and will join Shiv Sena at 5 pm on Wednesday.He will be inducted into Shiv Sena in presence of its chief Uddhav Thackrey at Shivsena Bhavan.There were whispers in political circles that Kshirsagar may soon join Shiv Sena after he expressed discontent with the NCP leadership for ignoring him and giving importance to his local rival Dhananjay Munday in Beed. Later, he decided to extend his support to BJP-Shiv Sena's Beed candidate Dr Pritam Munde and urged people to cast vote in his favour.In April, a miffed Kshirsagar held a secret meeting with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshree. However, he denied any talks regarding him joining the party and claimed that it was a "courtesy visit" to wish Thackeray a happy new year.Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray, President of Beed Zila Parishad Bharatbhushan Kshirsagar, party secretary ...