Archives for March 2019

Lucknow, Mar 26 : Congress general secretary (Uttar Pradesh east) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has once again re-scheduled her Ayodhya visit and cancelled her maiden train travel to Faizabad slated for March 27.

Ms Vadra, who has changed her UP visit several times in the past, will now embark on a three-day visit to Amethi, Rae Bareli and Ayodhya, starting tomorrow.

The proposed visit to Ayodhya by Kaifiat express from New Delhi now stands cancelled and now she will reach Lucknow by flight on Wednesday morning and will first visit her brother Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi constituency on March 27. The next day she will be campaigning in her mother Sonia’ Gandhi’s Rai Bareli constituency.
On March 29, Ms Vadra is slated to visit Ayodhya and after worshiping at the Hanumangarhi temple, will hold a road show.
Party sources here on Tuesday confirmed about the change in the programme of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

It has been reported that due to security reasons, her train travel has been cancelled and the security agencies have cleared her visit by aircraft and road only.

Since her official political debut in January 2019, Ms Vadra has already visited two significant temple towns in the state ? PM Modi’s constituency Varanasi and Prayagraj. She is likely to halt at 32 points between Faizabad to Amethi, including Rae Bareli and Barabanki during the campaign, sources said.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders have questioned Priyanka’s visit to Ayodhya.

UP Minority Affairs Minister Mohsin Raza said in a statement, “Those who are questioning the existence of Lord Ram, what are they going to find in Ayodhya?

He further said ,”They (Congress) did not go to Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. There was a deepotsav event in Ayodhya. That was also not attended by them. They are going (to Ayodhya) as they have remembered Babar (Mughal ruler). They want to search for his remains there,” he said.

Further alleging that Ms Vadra is a Siberian bird, who migrates from one place to another after seeing the weather conditions, Mohsin Raza said it it was her a “picnic” campaign to fool the people.

UP BJP spokesperson Chandramohan also took a dig, asking if she would “say sorry” there for her party “putting hurdles” in building the Ram temple.

“Will Priyanka Gandhi Vadra take the pious Saryu river waters in her hand there and atone the sins committed by the Congress in Ayodhya?” he asked.

The Lok Sabha elections in 80 seats in UP are scheduled to be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.

Mysuru :Congress-JD(S) coalition seems to be bickering in seat sharing and JDS, unable to find a ‘suitable’ candidate, returns the Bangalore North Lok Sabha seat to the Congress.
Speaking to newsmen at Chamundi Hills on Monday, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said that his party has returned Bangalore North Lok Sabha seat to Congress.
However, he did not give the reason or any further details.
Thanking JDS for its gesture, AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal in his tweeter said that ” thankful to H D Deve Gowda ji and the JD(S) for their kind gesture of giving back the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat to the Congress. Together, let us reclaim democracy,?
The alliance has been facing several roadblocks, with the JD(S) now realising it has no candidates to put up from its share of eight seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The JD(S) had initially demanded 12 of the 28 Lok Sabha. Finally it come down to eight and now settled for seven seats.

Today being the second last day today to file their nominations leaders of all parties filed their respective nominations from their respective constituencies.

Mysuru, Mar 25 : Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who heads the JDS-Congress Coalition government, today said that his party will follow the coalition theory but other party should also follow the same.
Speaking to newsmen at Chamundi Hill, after offering special Prayer before his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy filing his nomination for Mandya Lok Sabha seat.
Stating that there was some coalition theory problem particularly in Mandya, Hassan as well as in Tumkur Lok Sabha seats, he asked the Congress party leaders to support his party candidates in eight constituencies including Bangaluru North.
“I am ready for joint campaign in all the 28 constituencies in the state and expecting same response from the Congress leaders also”, he added.

Agencies

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[Nasheman news] New Delhi Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Indian Air Force strikes against terrorists in Pakistan’s Balakot should not be linked to the general elections and no one should either politicise or take credit for it.


In an interview to IANS, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation said that he was neither a contender for any post nor was he in any race for the prime ministership. 

He said that Narendra Modi would return as Prime Minister with a huge mandate and it would be bigger than the one he got in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. 

“Air strikes against Pakistan should not be linked to elections. It should neither be made an electoral issue nor should anyone take credit for it,” Gadkari said, and added that if opposition parties were raising doubts over it, it was their problem. 

“But I would request them that they should not do politics over it,” he said. 

Asked why the ruling dispensation was raising the issue in its election campaign, he said: “Security is supreme for us. This issue should not be politicised. If anyone in India raises doubts on the martydom of our soldiers, if someone speaks in the language Pakistan speaks, all these go against the country’s interest. These are issues of national security and everyone should speak in one voice. There should not be politics over such issues.” 

On speculation that he could be projected as the next Prime Minister if his party needed the support of other political parties to form a government after the elections, Gadkari said he was not in the race to be Prime Minister in case of a fractured mandate. 

“Neither do I have any aspirations nor does the RSS have any such plans. There is nothing like this. My statement was twisted by the media. You can go to YouTube and listen to it. I never said so. Neither am I a contender for any post nor am I in any race. In fact, I am sure that the we will get a bigger majority than we got in 2014 and Modiji will again become Prime Minister,” he said. 

Asked about the reasons behind this confidence, he cited the steps taken by the government like the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, full tax rebate on earning up to Rs 5 lakh, assured monthly pension for the unorganized labour force and 10 per cent reservation for the poor among the general categories. 

Gadkari said the fact that opposition parties were trying to unite against Modi was not a new political phenomenon. A similar attempt had been made in the 1971 elections against Indira Gandhi and had failed. 

“My experience in politics says two plus two is not always four. So speculating on the basis of arithmetic will not be proper. I don’t think that the BJP will lose much seats as being predicted. We will increase our tally. Like Indira Gandhi, Modi will defeat the opposition,” he said. 

The senior BJP leader and former party President rejected the charges as opposition’s conspiracy that his party was trying to create an atmosphere in the country that “Modi is India and India is Modi” on the very lines of the Congress slogan “India is Indira and Indira is India”. 

“We are patriots and dedicated to our motherland. We never said this. This is a conspiracy of the opposition parties,” he said. 

On the BJP’s 2014 election promise of “achhe din” and bringing back black money stashed abroad, he said the government had provided electricity in all villages, houses for all, gas cylinders and health security. 

“Those who have benefitted from these schemes are saying that achhe din has come for them. 

“India’s image has also gone up across the world and the return of Wing Commander (Abhinandan) in 48 hours following his capture by Pakistani forces is the best example of this,” he said. 

Asked about the impact of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Uttar Pradesh politics, he said: “I don’t think that she would make any impact.” 

On her boat ride from Prayag Raj to Varanasi, he said: “If I had not constructed the waterways, how she could have travelled. I got to know that she drank Ganga water. These two things prove that she has accepted our good work.” 

“I am confident that the Ganga will be 100 per cent clean by March 2020. We will show the world that our heritage river and symbol of our rich history and culture is restored. We will overcome. We are also working to clean the Yamuna river. Thirteen projects are already going on for cleaning and with these the sewage water going into the Yamuna will be stopped. A change can be seen in the next one year,” he said. 

The minister said the BJP was a cadre-based party which opposed dynasty and caste politics. 

“I can say with full confidence that our ideology, our cadres and our organisation is our strength. The party never belonged to any leader. Be it Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Gadkari, Amit Shah or Modi. This party runs on its principles. 

“Good governance and development is our mission. We work for socio-economic transformation. Work that could not be done in the last 50 years has been completed by us in five years,” he said. 

Bengaluru, March 24 (Nasheman News) :  Senior Congress leader B.K. Hariprasad has been named the party candidate from the high-profile Bangalore South constituency.

The name of Hariprasad, currently a Rajya Sabha member, was among the 10 candidates in various states released on Sunday after a meeting of the Central Election Committee.

The party on late Sunday night named candidates for 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies it is contesting in the state under a seat-sharing agreement with its ruling ally Janatal Dal-Secular (JD-S), which will contest the remaining eight seats. The candidates for Bangalore North and South were not named.

Late Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar was the sitting MP from the prestigious Bangalore South constituency for a record six terms since 1996.

In the 2014 general elections, he had defeated Congress star candidate and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, who entered the political arena after resigning as Chairman of the state-run Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues the Aadhaar card to citizens across the country.

Though the BJP is yet to name its candidate from the seat, Kumar’s widow Tejaswini has been tipped to enter the fray in a bid to retain the seat, riding on the sympathy wave for her husband and the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Tejaswini has agreed to contest from Bangalore South to carry on the legacy of her husband who was a popular leader in the constituency,” a BJP official told media.

Though there were rumours that Modi may contest from the same constituency, there was no confirmation from the party’s high command.

Modi has already been named to re-contest from the Varanasi parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh.