Archives for April 2019

New Delhi: The Election Commission has issued a show cause notice to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, finding him prima facie guilty of allegedly passing derogatory remarks against Hindus while addressing an election rally in Karimnagar last month.

Now, he has been asked to furnish his reply by April 12 evening, failing which the Commission will take a decision “without any further reference to you”.

The Commission said VHP state president M Rama Raju had filed a compliant which claimed that the Telangana Rashtra Samathi chief “tried to secure votes by passing derogatory remarks against Hindus while addressing an election rally at Karimnagar on March 17.”

The Commission has produced his remarks in Telugu but did not give English translation of the same. “… the Commission is, prima facie, of the opinion that by making the aforesaid statement which has the potential of disturbing harmony and aggravating existing differences between social and religious communities, and appealing to communal feelings, you have violated the … the Model Code of Conduct,” the notice served Tuesday said.

The poll panel reminded Rao of the provision of the poll code which states that no party or candidate shall indulge in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic; and prohibits appeal to communal feelings for securing votes. The model code came into force on March 10 when the schedule for the seven-phased Lok Sabha elections was announced.

Agencies

Before filing the nomination papers from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a mega roadshow on April 25.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will file his nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi on April 26.

Before filing the nomination papers from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a mega roadshow on April 25. Top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to attend the roadshow in Varanasi.

On the next day (April 26), the Prime Minister will file nomination papers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had adopted the Varanasi constituency as his own with Ganga ka beta’ vow in 2014 after trouncing his opponents, including Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

This year, Lok Sabha elections in Varanasi will be held on May 19.

Narendra Modi had also won from Vadodara in 2014. This year, however, there was speculation that the prime minister may opt for another temple town of Puri, but top party sources dismissed rumours.

Agencies

Amethi, Apr 10 : After filing his nomination papers from Wayanad in Kerala on April 4, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday filed his nomination papers from Amethi, in the presence of his family members.

Rahul Gandhi, along with his family members — Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, her husband Robert Vadra and their children Raihan and Miraya — joined a 40-minute long road show atop a bus, before reaching the Amethi Collectorate in Gauriganj to file the nomination papers.

Notably, Mr Gandhi filed his nominations on the opening day of the nomination process and this was the fourth time he would be contesting from Amethi.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who did not join the road show due to health reasons, came early to the Collectorate to be along with her son in the nomination process.

In the nomination process, Mr Gandhi was accompanied by Sonia Gandhi, Ms Vadra, her husband Robert Vadra and a lawyer to file their papers before the district returning officer Ram Manohar Mishra.

Congress president, for the first time is contesting from two seats Amethi and Wayanad in Kerala.

After filing his nominations, Rahul Gandhi rushed to Fursatganj airport to board a special aircraft for campaigning in Bihar and West Bengal while rest of the family members returned back to a guest house in Rae Bareli.

On Thursday, the entire family will again join Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli during filing of her nomination papers.

In Amethi, Rahul is pitted against his arch rival and union textile minister Smriti Irani, whom he had defeated in 2014 elections by a margin of over one lakh votes.

However in Rae Bareli, BJP has fielded an old Congressman and MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh against Sonia Gandhi making the contest interesting.

In 2014 polls, Ms Gandhi had defeated BJP candidate Ajay Agarwal by over four lakh votes.

The polling in both Amethi and Rae Bareli seats would be held in the fifth phase on May 6. The nominations in this phase commences from Wednesday.

The UPA president would be filing her nominations for the fifth time from Rae Bareli seat. She had been winning from the seat since 2004 after being migrated from Amethi, which was left to her son Rahul.

A Nehru-Gandhi family borough, Rae Bareli has been represented by Sonia’s mother-in-law Indira Gandhi represented this seat in the fourth and fifth Lok Sabha.

Similarly Amethi too is the Nehru-Gandhi family constituency, and Rahul Gandhi has been representing the constituency since 2004. Rahul’s father Rajiv Gandhi was elected from the seat for a decade from 1981 to 1991. Sonia Gandhi too was elected from Amethi in 1999.

Kapil Sibal appearing for Lalu Prasad cited judgement of the Supreme Court where the court had in similar case granted bail to a petitioner.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in multi-crore fodder scam cases.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Rajan Gogoi said it is not inclined to enlarge Yadav on bail in the cases.

The bench rejected Yadav’s arguments that he has been in jail for 24 months, saying in comparison to the 14-year sentence awarded to him 24 months was nothing.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Yadav, said there were no recoveries and no demand and the only major offence under which he was convicted was conspiracy.

The bench said merits of the case will be decided by the high court.

“At present, we are only hearing the bail appeal,” it said.

The CBI had yesterday vehemently opposed in the apex court the bail plea of Yadav, saying the ailing leader suddenly claimed to be “fully fit” to undertake political activities in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Yadav, who has been in hospital instead of jail for last over eight months, had sought bail on medical grounds and for leading his party simultaneously, the CBI had said while arguing that granting of bail to him would set “very wrong precedent” in cases involving “serious corruption in high offices”.

Accusing Yadav of undertaking political activities from a hospital in Ranchi, the probe agency had said: “Simultaneous raising of pleas for bail on medical grounds and bail to guide the party and to carry out all essential responsibilities as a party president in ensuing Lok Sabha election are mutually contradictory and manifests that in the garb of bail on medical ground the petitioner, in essence, wants to pursue his political activities which is impermissible in law.”

The agency, in its response filed to Yadav’s bail plea, had referred to the high-profile political leaders who have visited him in hospital in last few months including Ahmed Patel, D Raja, Derek O’ Brien, Sharad Yadav and Hemant Soren.

The convicted person occupied the constitutional office of the Chief Minister of one of the largest states in the country and has been held guilty of “misappropriation of Rs 75.48 crores in four fodder scam cases” and is still undergoing trial in two cases for misappropriation of Rs 139.45 crore, it had said, adding Yadav may influence the trial in the two pending cases.

The RJD chief, lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, had challenged the January 10 verdict of the Jharkhand High Court dismissing his bail plea.

The three cases in which Prasad has been convicted are related to the over-Rs 900-crore fodder scam, which pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasuries in the Animal Husbandry department in the early 1990s, when Jharkhand was part of Bihar.

The RJD was in power in Bihar with Prasad as the chief minister when the scam had allegedly taken place.

In the high court, the RJD supremo cited old age and poor health for grant of bail.

Yadav (71) said he was suffering from diabetes, blood pressure and other ailments and that he had already obtained bail in one of the fodder scam cases.

He has been convicted for fraudulent withdrawal of money from the Deoghar, Dumka and two Chaibasa treasuries situated in Jharkhand.

He is currently facing trial in another fodder scam case pertaining to the Doranda treasury and has been undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) at Ranchi for the last few months.

Agencies

Chikkaballapura, Karnataka, Apr 10 : Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is aiming to score a hatrick of wins from Chikkaballapura Lok Sabha seat is facing an uphill task against the BJP candidate and former Minister B N Bachegowda.
The Polling in this segment is scheduled on April 18 in the first phase election in the state, while the second and final phase is scheduled for April 23.
Besides being a former Union Minister, Moily, has contributed to the field of Kannada Literature and has penned several books. He is representing this seat since 2009.
Originally, Moily hails from Coastal Karnataka but successfully shifted this to water starved district in 2009. Despite the Modi wave, he retained the seat in 2014 with a slim margin of about 9500 votes.
A Vokkaliga dominated constituency, Chikkaballapura, has significant population of Dalits, Muslims and other Backward Class voters and he is banking on their support in his attempt to register win for the third successive term in the Parliament.
However Bachegowda, being a local man, trying to capture Moily’s citedel this time and the battle is getting tough by the day even as the first phase of Karnataka to be held on April 18.
?While the caste combination as well as the pre-poll alliance with the JD(S) should work out in favour of Moily, the internal squabble within the Congress party leaders is a major headache for Moily,? a Congress worker Muniswamy told UNI.
A Sonia Gandhi loyalist, Moily was one of the most influencial Minister in UPA Government headed by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh he was instrumental in getting the clearence for controversial Yettinahole Lift Drinking water project to solve the acute drinking water problem faced in the District.
However, Krishnamurthy, a BJP sympathiser, disputed that inordinate delay in the implementation of the Yettinahole project, is also posing problem for Moily, as he had vowed to bring the water within five years of his election in 2009.
The Yettinahole project, originally estimated at Rs 3500 crore, now the cost has escalated to Rs 19,000 crore, still there is no hope that it will be completed in the near future, he said.
The Constituency, once an agriculture dominated region, is being converted into a commercial hug due to its close proximity to tech hub of Bengaluru. Ever since greenfield Kempegowda International Airport was opened in 2008, it had opened up huge opportunities for people of this district.
But also concerns in the minds of the people of the district as they saiy with the state government is rolling out red carpet to overseas investors, there is a fear of losing large area of agriculture land for Industries. However, the value of land in the district has grown four-fold ever since the airport was opened.
Bachegowda, a local man hailing from Hoskote, exude confidence to make a maiden entry to the Lok Sabha. Charging that the people of the Chikkaballapura, who had elected Moily twice, though he is an outsider, have now realised that the Congress candidate had failed to address the problems of the new district carved out of Kolar.
?In the last ten years, the district is facing one of the worst agrarian crisis, as the state government has not done anything to reverse the situation in the semi-urban constituency?, he said.
The BJP candidate, going with the tag of ‘local candidate’and a old timer in the BJP and became a minister under B S Yeddyurappa, is backed by a strong battery of Sangh Pariwar network, working tirelessly to encash the ‘Strong Modi Wave’ blowing across the state.
If one turns the pages of the history, the Chikkaballapura Constituency is a Congress bastion, and had sent as many as 10 times the Congress candidates to the Parliament, with an exception of 1996 general elections, in which the Janata Dal candidate, R L Jalappa got elected, and also become the Union minister in the H D Deve Gowda-led United Front government at the Center.
Among the 8 assembly segments, in the constituency, the Congress had bagged 5 Assembly seats, followed by Janata dal (S) two, and the BJP one.
Along with Moily and Bachche Gowda, who are involved in a direct fight. there are as 15 candidates in the fray, including that of the BSP and the CPI(M). The main battle is between BJP and Congress.