Archives for June 2024

New Delhi: Renowned journalist Ravish Kumar has strongly criticized the media, referring to it as the “killer of democracy” in his latest tweet following the counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His comments come amidst a heated political environment, with the BJP-led NDA securing a lead, yet facing uncertainty over the formation of a stable government.

Ravish Kumar, known for his outspoken views and critical stance towards mainstream media, took to social media to express his discontent. “Godi media is the killer of democracy,” he wrote, accusing certain sections of the media of bias and complicity in undermining democratic values.

This statement from Kumar comes at a time when the BJP has claimed victory in around 235-240 seats, falling short of an outright majority. The party is expected to rely on alliances with Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, leading to concerns over the stability of the NDA government. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also voiced similar concerns, highlighting the fragile nature of the potential coalition.

Kumar’s remarks echo the sentiments of many opposition leaders who have criticized the media’s role in the electoral process. Sanjay Raut recently criticized the BJP’s reliance on government agencies like the ED, CBI, and IT to secure electoral wins. He emphasized the importance of upholding democratic values and questioned the legitimacy of the BJP’s victory.

In his statement, Kumar implied that the media’s partiality has contributed to a skewed representation of political realities, thereby harming the democratic process. This criticism aligns with the broader narrative of opposition leaders who are calling for a fair and transparent political environment.

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step down after the party fell short of an outright majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In a tweet posted after the vote counting, Swamy criticized the leadership, suggesting that any self-respecting leader would resign under such circumstances.

“Modi must step aside since BJP led by him fell below the majority of 272 at or around 240. Any self-respecting leader would resign and not wait to be pushed out,” Swamy tweeted.

The BJP, which led the NDA, managed to secure approximately 240 seats, falling short of the 272 seats required for a majority. This outcome has led to political uncertainty regarding the formation of a stable government, with the BJP likely needing to rely on support from key allies such as Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar.

Swamy’s comments add to the growing internal and external pressures facing the BJP. Recently, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also criticized the BJP, questioning its ability to form a stable government and asserting that the BJP’s reliance on alliances made it vulnerable to collapse.

New Delhi: At least 15 Muslim candidates have won Lok Sabha seats across the country, including the TMC nominee and former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan who secured a comfortable victory over Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the Congress veteran’s Baharampur bastion.

A total of 78 Muslims were in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections this year, a significant drop from the last polls when 115 Muslim candidates were fielded by various parties.

Congress candidate Imran Masood from Saharanpur won by a margin of 64,542 votes while Iqra Choudhary, a 29-year-old Samajwadi Party candidate from Kairana, secured victory over BJP Pradeep Kumar by 69,116 votes.

Afzal Ansari, the incumbent MP from Ghazipur, won the seat by bagging 5.3 lakh votes while AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi retained his Hyderabad seat by a margin of 3,38,087 votes over his nearest rival BJP’s Madhavi Latha Kompella.

In Ladakh, Independent candidate Mohammad Haneefa secured a victory by a margin of 27,862 votes while another Independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh won Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla seat by bagging 4.7 lakh votes.

In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party’s Mohibbullah won the Rampur seat by securing 4,81,503 votes, while Zia Ur Rehman won in Sambhal by a margin of 1.2 lakh votes.

Mian Altaf Ahmad of the National Conference won in Jammu and Kahsmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri seat by 2,81,794 votes against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. In Srinagar NC candidate Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi secured 3,56,866 votes.

In West Bengal’s Baharampur seat, first-time contender Yusuf Pathan beat Congress’ leader in the Lok Sabha and six-time MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by 85,022 votes.

Bengaluru : JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday said the Congress bid to form government at the Centre will not happen.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday declared results for 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, with the BJP winning 240 seats and the Congress 99.

Speaking to reporters before heading for New Delhi, he said the NDA constituents meeting will be held in the national capital, and he would be participating on behalf of JD(S).

“Nothing will happen,” Kumaraswamy said, replying to a query on the Congress party’s exercise to form the government.

Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) second-in-command, won the Lok Sabha election from Mandya as an NDA candidate. Along with him, the party’s candidate Mallesh Babu won from Kolar. However, JD(S) candidate from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, lost the election.

The NDA got 19 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. The BJP won 17 and JD(S) – 2.

The BJP won 25 seats in 2019 along with a party backed independent candidate.

The ruling Congress increased its tally from one seat in 2019 to nine this time.

New Delhi: Motorists using expressways will have to shell out more from Monday as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to hike tolls across the country by an average of 5 per cent.

The annual revision of highway user fee, which is expected to be in the range of average 5 per cent, was earlier to come into effect on April 1. But the hike was deferred due to the Lok Sabha elections.

“The new user fee will come into effect from 3.6.2024,” a senior NHAI official said on Sunday.

The change in toll fee is part of an annual exercise to revise the rates that are linked to the changes in the wholesale price index (CPI)-based inflation.

There are around 855 user fee plazas on the national highway network on which user fee is levied as per the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008.

Out of these, around 675 are public-funded fee plazas and 180 are operated by concessionaires.

The repolling started at 7 am and would continue till 6 pm, they said.

The booth in the Barasat constituency is located at the Kadambagachi Saradar Para FP School in the Deganga assembly segment, while the one in Mathurapur is located at the Aaddir Mahal Srichaitanya Bidyapith in the Kakdwip assembly seat, they added.

The decision of repolling was taken on Sunday based on reports of the returning officers, the district election officers and observers concerned, officials said.

Voting in the two constituencies was held on June 1.

Thane : Police have detained a 24-year-old man after he and his father allegedly killed his sister’s 18-year-old boyfriend in Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai township, officials said here Monday.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon after the accused’s sister called the victim, a resident of Devichapada in Panvel, to her house in the same area.

The accused later came home and knocked at the door, but his sister did not open it. He then forced open the door and found his sister and her boyfriend in the house, an official from Taloja police station said.

The accused then called his father and both of them allegedly attacked the victim with a sickle and a spade and killed him, he said.

After being alerted, police rushed to the spot and sent the body to a government hospital for postmortem.

The police have detained the girl’s brother and registered a case against him and her 45-year-father under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention), the official said.

Tokyo (AP): Earthquakes early Monday again struck Japan’s north-central region of Ishikawa, still recovering from the destruction left by a powerful quake on January 1, but the latest shaking caused no major damage.

A magnitude 5.9 temblor on the northern top of the Noto Peninsula was followed minutes later by a 4.8 and then several smaller quakes within the next two hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no tsunami.

Five houses that had been damaged in the January 1 quake collapsed in Wajiima city, but no major damage or life-threatening injuries were reported, according to Ishikawa prefecture. A quake alarm in the town of Tsubata, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the epicenter, surprised a resident in her 60s who fell from her bed but the injury was not life-threatening, prefectural officials said.

JMA seismology and tsunami official Satoshi Harada said Monday’s quakes were believed to be aftershocks of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake on January 1. Seismic activity has since slightly subsided, but Harada urged people to be cautious, especially near buildings that were damaged earlier.

Shinkansen super-express trains and other train services were temporarily suspended for safety checks but most of them resumed, according to West Japan Railway Co.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at two nearby nuclear power plants. One of them, the Shika plant on the Noto Peninsula, had minor damage, though officials said that did not affect cooling functions of the two reactors.

Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said there were no power outages.

Monday’s rattlings rekindled fear among residents who are still struggling to recover from damages from the New Year’s quake. NHK public television showed a number of people who came out of their homes and temporary shelters to see if there were additional damage.

“Many people who have been living at evacuation centers must have been been frightened,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, urging caution against potential falling rocks and landslides in areas that were shaken strongly.

Reconstruction comes slowly in mountainous areas on the peninsula, and many damaged houses remain untouched.

In Wajima, which was one of the hardest-hit areas, an inn operator told NHK that he immediately ducked under the desk at the reception when the first quake struck Monday. Nothing fell to the floor or broke, but it reminded him of the January shakings and made him worry that a big quake like that had occurred even five months later.

The Jan. 1 quake killed 260 people, including those who later died due to stress, illnesses and other causes linked to the quake, with three others still missing, according to the FDMA. Damages still remain, and more than 3,300 residents remain evacuated.

Bengaluru : Voting is underway on Monday in the biennial elections to six seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council from teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies.

Seventy-eight contestants are in the fray. Counting of votes will be held on June 6.

In the 75-member Upper House, the Congress has 29 members.

The polls are being held for the constituencies of Karnataka North East Graduates, Karnataka South West Graduates, Bangalore Graduates, Karnataka South-East Teachers, Karnataka South-West Teachers and Karnataka South Teachers.

These seats fell vacant following the retirement of six members.

The graduates’ constituencies and teachers’ constituencies have 3.63 lakh and 70,260 voters, respectively.

The Election Commission has set up 170 polling stations for the teachers’ constituencies and 461 polling stations for the graduates’ constituencies.

The Congress has fielded Marithibba Gowda (South Teachers constituency), K K Manjunath (South-West Teachers), Ayanur Manjunath (South-West Graduates), Chandrashekhar Patil (North-East Graduates), Ramoji Gowda (Bangalore Graduates) and D T Srinivas (South-East Teachers).

The BJP and its ally JD(S) are contesting the MLC elections together. The BJP is fighting in four constituencies and the JD(S) two.

The BJP has fielded Amarnath Patil from the Karnataka North-East Graduates constituency, Dr Dhananjay Sarji from the Karnataka South-West Graduates constituency, A Devegowda from the Bangalore Graduates’ constituency and Y A Narayanaswamy from the South-East Teachers constituency.

The JD(S) candidates are K Vivekananda from the South Teachers constituency and Bhoje Gowda from the South West Teachers constituency.