Archives for 2019

TDP president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was unanimously elected as the leader of the Telugu Desam Legislature Party (TDLP) here on Wednesday.

A meeting of the TDLP, attended by the newly-elected MLAs and MPs of the party, was held at Naidu’s residence.

The TDP, which ruled the state from June 2014, faced a rout at the hands of the YSR Congress Party in the just-concluded election to the state Assembly, winning just 23 of the 175 seats.

In the Lok Sabha polls too, the Naidu-led party suffered a drubbing, bagging only three of the state’s 28 seats.

The TDP chief held a meeting with the 23 newly-elected MLAs and the three MPs, besides senior leaders of the party.

Since the election results were declared on May 23, there was speculation in party circles that Naidu would make way for another leader to lead the TDLP.

At the TDLP meeting, however, the lawmakers elected him unanimously, 
according to party sources.

“Only Chandrababu should be the TDLP leader. It gives us a lot of confidence and strength,” senior legislator Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary said.

Another legislator, N China Rajappa, said they had unanimously elected Naidu as their leader once again.

He said they had entrusted the choice of selecting the TDLP deputy leaders and the party whip with Naidu.

Later, Naidu appointed Galla Jayadev, who was re-elected as the MP from Guntur, as the leader of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party.

Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, who was also re-elected from Srikakulam, would be the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, while former Union minister Y Satyanarayana Chowdary would be the party leader in the Rajya Sabha.

The TDP’s strength in the Lok Sabha has fallen from 15 to three, while in the Rajya Sabha, the party has six members (five from Andhra Pradesh and one from Telangana).

Naidu has said his party will play the role of a constructive opposition and extend co-operation to the new YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh. 

Weeks after a controversial cover story that labelled Prime Minister Narendra Modi “divider-in-chief”, TIME magazine, after the BJP’s massive election victory and return to power, has done a turnabout with a new headline: “Modi Has United India Like No Prime Minister in Decades”.

The latest article, published on the TIME website on Tuesday, asks how a “supposedly divisive figure not only managed to keep power, but increase his levels of support?” Its answer – “A key factor is that Modi has managed to transcend India’s greatest fault line: the class divide”.

The author, Manoj Ladwa, describes PM Modi’s second term as “a victory for meritocracy, and for opportunity, thanks to a slate of welfare policies for the country’s extreme poor”. He also highlights the Prime Minister’s rise from “one of India’s most disadvantaged social groups” as aspirational.

Mr Ladwa goes on to describe the demonetisation of 2016 as “short-term pain” that led to “long-term gain” and praises PM Modi and his government for “digitization that has empowered the poor”, increased tax revenue (as a result of demonetisation) and schemes like the Jan Dhan Yojana.

“Through socially progressive policies, he has brought many Indians, both Hindus and religious minorities, out of poverty at a faster rate than in any previous generation,” writes Mr Ladwa, the founder and CEO of Britain-based media company India Inc., which publishes India Global Business.

The previous article by British-born writer Aatish Taseer had criticised the Modi government as one in which “minorities of every stripe-from liberals and lower castes to Muslims and Christians-have come under assault” and which has lead” India down the road to a profound anti-intellectualism”.

The article was seized by opposition parties for attacks on PM Modi and the BJP during their campaign.

The BJP had termed the TIME article as an attempt to malign PM Modi’s image and had accused author Aatish Taseer, the son of journalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer, of pursuing Pakistan’s agenda.

“Time magazine is foreign, the writer has also said he comes from a Pakistani political family. That is enough for his credibility,” the Prime Minister said on May 18, the day before polling for the final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were to take place.

The Prime Minister and his council of ministers will take oath on Thursday. PM Modi, in his speech to his party and the NDA, described his new government as being “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas (With everybody, for everybody and with everybody’s trust)” and also called on NDA leaders to earn the trust of minority communities in India.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not going to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief announced her decision in a tweet on Wednesday, accusing the BJP of making false claims about political violence in Bengal.

“It was my plan to accept the constitutional invitation and attend the oath-taking ceremony. However, in the last one hour, I am seeing media reports that the BJP are claiming 54 people have been murdered in political violence in Bengal. This is completely untrue,” Banerjee said in her statement posted on Twitter. The tweet accompanying the statement reads, “The oath-taking ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not one that should be devalued by any political party.”

These deaths may have occurred due to personal enmity, family quarrels and other disputes; nothing related to politics. There is no such record with us. So, I am sorry Narendra Modi ji, this has compelled me not to attend the ceremony, Banerjee further said in her statement.

The BJP lost many workers in panchayat, local body and parliamentary elections in West Bengal during election-related violence. Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah repeatedly highlighted the issue at the rallies they addressed.

Fifty four special guests, besides leaders from BIMSTEC countries and a host of celebrities and politicians, would be attending the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers on Thursday. The Prime Minister has specially invited family members of BJP workers who were killed in incidents of political violence in West Bengal over the past few years, a senior BJP leader said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Banerjee had said that she has accepted the invite to attend the ceremony. “I have spoken to other Chief Ministers also. Since it is a ceremonial program, we thought of attending it. Yes, I will go,” she told media in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Banerjee had indulged in a war of words with Modi during the campaign period in the run-up to the elections, in which the BJP has made deep inroads into the Trinamool territory in West Bengal by winning 18 Lok Sabha seats out of 42. The TMC’s victory was reduced from 34 in 2014 to 22 in 2019.

Modi will be sworn in for a second term as the prime minister on Thursday at 7pm in Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, along with members of the Union Council of Ministers.

Agencies

Bengaluru, May 29 : Karnataka Public Education Department has decided to postpone reopening of Schools for the Academic year 2019-2020 to June 14 due to severe drought condition prevailing in Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
The Schools should have started functioning from today but in the interests of School going children and to protect their health, it was decided to postpone the reopening to June 14 as recommended by various District authorities.
In other parts of the State the Schools started functioning from today.
The region is reeling under severe heat condition as mercury is hovering at more than 40 Degree Celsius. Yesterday, Kalaburagi registered 43.5 Degree Celsius, the State’s highest temperature.
The Department in its Notification issued here on Wednesday, however, stated that full time class may be held on Saturday instead of holding only morning class and during holidays also full time class may be held to cover the portions remaining.

Bengaluru, May 29 : Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Narendra Modi as the Prime minister of the country tomorrow at New Delhi.
According to official sources, Kumaraswamy will visit New Delhi tomorrow and attend the ceremony.
Modi is scheduled to take the oath of the office, for the second successive term following a spectacular victory in the just concluded Lok Sabha election in which the BJP led NDA had trounced the opposition parties including Congress by winning more than 350 seats in the 543 member Lok Sabha.
Party sources told UNI that State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa is also scheduled to attend the oath taking ceremony.

Bengaluru, May 29 : All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and incharge of party affairs in Karnataka K C Venugopal had several rounds of talks with the State party leaders and discussed about working out strategies to save the one-year-old Coalition government.
He held meeting with former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, D K Shivakumar, M B Patil and others and took stock of the political situation after receiving a severe jolt in the just concluded Lok Sabha election.
The leaders, reportedly discussed about some of the party MLAs threatening to quit the party and pull down the coalition government and steps to be taken to prevent them.
The Sources said that the leaders, among other options have decided to convince the fence sitting MLAs, to remain in the party fold and offer them with Cabinet berths and other lucrative posts in the state government.
Speaking to newsmen, Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara said that “We have discussed about the poor performance of the Congress and the JD(S) in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections and its impact on the state government”.
“We have also discussed about measures to be taken to strengthen the party,” he added.
The meeting of the senior leaders assume importance, in the backdrop of the Congress legislature Party (CLP) meeting convened by the CLP leader Siddaramaiah in the night, today.