BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the attack on BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda’s convoy.

SEHORE (Madhya Pradesh): BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur has hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the attack on BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda’s convoy in West Bengal saying that BJP will win in the next Assembly elections and there will be “Hindu Raj” in West Bengal.

“She (Mamata Banerjee) is frustrated because she has realised that her rule is about to end. BJP will win the next Assembly election and there will be Hindu Raj in West Bengal,” said Thakur.

The minister’s comments follow a few days after Nadda’s convoy was attacked. Party leaders including Kailash Vijayvargiya were injured as protesters pelted stones at their vehicles at Diamond Harbour.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday said that governance by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is “getting increasingly distanced from rule of law and Constitution” and he has been cautioning her.

Dhankar also said that he will work for ensuring free, fair and violence-free election in the state next year. 

MNM chief Kamal Haasan will launch his campaign for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections from December 13 onwards.

CHENNAI: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan will launch his campaign for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections from December 13 onwards, the party said on Thursday.

The actor-politician will embark on his first phase of campaign between December 13-16, MNM Vice President, Dr R Mahendran said in a release here.

During this four-day schedule, Haasan will cover Madurai, Theni, Dindugul, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanniyakumari districts, he added.

Haasan had launched MNM in February 2018 and the party had faced last year’s Lok Sabha elections but could not return any MP.

Bangaon (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asserted that her government will not allow implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) or National Population Register (NPR) in the state.

Maintaining that all the residents of the state are citizens of the country and no one can change that, Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to play divisive politics using the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Addressing a public meeting here in North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh, she said, “I, as the chief minister, say that you are citizens and no one can change that. We will not allow NRC or NPR.”

Banerjee also claimed that these are the BJP’s ploy to throw people out of the state.

BJP national general secretary and in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya last week said that the CAA is likely to be implemented from January next year, as the Centre is keen to grant citizenship to the large refugee population in West Bengal.

Wooing the Matua community who hold considerable sway over a number of Assembly constituencies in North 24 Parganas and neighbouring Nadia district, Banerjee said that a slew of development programmes have been taken up for the community.

“We will not allow Bengal to be turned into Gujarat,” the TMC supremo asserted, claiming that the BJP has destroyed the country through its “divisive politics.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought three laws against the interests of farmers to enable corporates to take away their produce at will, Banerjee alleged.

She also alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre has allowed hoarding of potato, onion and other necessary food items by removing these from the list of essential commodities leading to price rise.

The chief minister accused the BJP of making false allegations over providing monetary relief to the victims of cyclone Amphan.

“Just because one or two elements did some mischief, you (BJP) are seeking the accounts of Amphan relief. How much money have you given that you are asking for it?” she said.

The Calcutta High Court has recently directed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit cyclone Amphan-related relief amid allegations of irregularities.

“The prime minister made a dramatic visit to Basirhat (after the cyclone) for publicity and announced Rs 1,000 crore (for relief). It is our money which he has simply sent in advance,” she said, claiming that the central government has only given the money from what was due to the state.

She questioned how the Centre asks for accounts when it is the state government which is making roads and providing people with electricity, drinking water and other facilities.

“The central government is denying the state of its GST compensation dues,” she said, while maintaining that the TMC dispensation is going ahead with several development schemes in the state despite its tight financial position.

“Despite such a financial situation, I am giving a lot to the people. If anyone else can do the same, I will resign the same day,” Banerjee said.

A small section of people who waved placards with their demands written on those during the meeting, she urged people not to hurt her.

“If you hurt me, I sometimes feel maybe I should not remain (in the chief ministers post) they don’t want me,” an emotional Banerjee said.

She urged them not to raise placards with demands at her meetings. “You can always write to me and I will look into your issues,” the chief minister said.

Banerjee said that out of the 10 crore population of the state, 9.5 crore are beneficiaries of the schemes of her government.

She claimed that the BJP government at the Centre is selling off and privatising banks, railways, defence, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and coal mines.

“The central government buys only 70,000 metric tonne of rice from farmers in West Bengal, while it purchases a lot more from several other states,” the chief minister said, accusing it of partisan behaviour.

She said that her government buys 45 lakh metric tonne paddy from farmers of the state to provide them adequate support.

Alleging that the BJP has brought outsiders to the state, who are going door to door to make divisive campaigns, Banerjee said that the saffron party has divided the “Matua family” through its divisive politics.

The NRC and the CAA had led to a sharp division within the Matua Mahasangha, an apex body of the Hindu refugee sect, with one group supporting the TMC and another backing the BJP.

Maintaining that she keeps her words, she said, “I am not like the BJP who makes promises before elections, but runs away later.”

She said that Rs 10 crore was sanctioned for the development of the community and assured them that a holiday would be announced on the birth anniversary of founder Harichand Thakur, the founder of the Matua sect.

Hyderabad, Dec 4: The ruling TRS in Telangana on Friday emerged as the single largest party in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election, winning 55 wards.

While the election was held for 150 wards, the results of 149 were announced as counting of votes had to be stopped in a ward as per a High Court order.

BJP bagged 48 wards and the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi secured 44.

Congress could win only two wards.

Counting had to be stopped in Neredmet ward as marks other than the standard Swastik symbol (crossed arrow mark) were in majority.

The Telangana High Court on Friday suspended a circular issued by the State Election Commission (SEC), which allows counting of votes with “distinguish marks” other than the standard Swastik symbol (crossed arrow mark) for the GHMC polls held on December 1.

Hearing a House Motion, Justice Abhishek Reddy, while suspending the SEC’s circular, said the ballots which have “distinguish marks” should be kept separately and if they are detrimental to the poll results, the outcome should not be announced.

Though the ruling TRS emerged as the single largest party, the mayoral election depends on the votes that include co-option members such as MLAs, MLCs and MPs belonging to the GHMC area, besides 150 elected members.

The coming GHMC elections will set the tone for general assembly elections in Telangana.

HYDERABAD: In an open admission that the BJP stood for saffronisation, MP and BJP Yuva Morcha president Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday announced that in South India it will begin from Hyderabad and will spread to the other States, while addressing students at the Osmania University (OU).

“We will win GHMC polls and then the Assembly polls. We will win Tamil Nadu elections and also wrest Kerala. Entire South Indian will be saffronised,” he said. 

“KCR has established a family rule in the State, and in doing so, forget about fulfilling promises made to the people that he would develop the State capital. KCR’s Bangaru Telangana was meant for enhancing the wealth of his family even as youth languished without jobs,” he added.

The Yuva Morcha leader’s visit to OU created tension with the NCC gate being closed with barricades and barbed wires. When his vehicle was stopped, he got down from it and walked through the barbed wire barricade as the crowd that followed him rent the air with slogans of Jai Sri Ram. After breaking the barricades, the Bengaluru MP marched till Arts College, where he paid homage to Telangana martyrs.

PATNA: A day after being unanimously elected leader of the Bihar NDA, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will on Monday be sworn-in as the state’s chief minister for his seventh term. The swearing-in ceremony will begin at 4.30 pm.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda will attend the oath-taking ceremony.

Earlier on Sunday, Nitish staked his claim to form the new government after handing the letter of support of 126 lawmakers to Governor Phagu Chauhan. The NDA meeting was held in the presence of BJP’s central observer and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Addressing the media later, Nitish said: “I did not want to be the CM, but only after the request and instructions of the leaders of the BJP, I accepted the post,” he said. Within the BJP, Katihar MLA Tar Kishor Prasad was elected its legislature party leader, which suggested he could be made the deputy chief minister.

Perhaps to acknowledge the role of women as silent voters in the NDA victory, the BJP elected Bettiah MLA Renu Devi as deputy leader of the legislature party. Team Nitish could have 15 representatives from the BJP, 12 JD(U) and two each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha and the Vikassheel Insaan Party.

This is the seventh time when Nitish Kumar will take an oath to become the Chief Minister of Bihar. He had served as the Chief Minister of the state for little over seven days in March 2000, after which he was elected in 2005 when he served a full term.He was re-elected to power in November 2010, after which he served for four years before resigning, and had again taken oath as Chief Minister in February 2015.

He was voted to power in 2015 Assembly election as part of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’. However, after corruption allegations were levelled against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav in 2015, Nitish resigned only to be sworn in as Chief Minister merely 12 hours later joining hands with the BJP to form a government in the state.

Vijayvargiya asserted that BJP’s victory in West Bengal will be “much bigger” as it will “storm to power with a two-thirds majority”.

KOLKATA: After clinching the Bihar assembly polls, West Bengal will be the “prime focus” for BJP where it has set a target of winning more than 200 out of the total 294 seats in the state elections due in April-May 2021, party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said on Wednesday.

The NDA has won 125 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, results of which were declared on Tuesday.

The BJP with its score of 74 seats has emerged as the party to have won the second highest number of seats after Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

The saffron party’s tally is much higher than that of its ally – the JD(U) which won 43 seats.

It will now shift its focus to politically crucial West Bengal, which sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha – two more than Bihar, Vijayvargiya, who is also BJP’s in-charge of Bengal, said.

The BJP, which has made deep inroads in West Bengal by winning 18 of its 42 Lok Sabha seat – four less than ruling TMC in the 2019 general election, was waiting for the Bihar election results before mounting its “final assault” on the Mamata Banerjee government, party sources said.

Vijayvargiya is of the opinion that not just Bihar assembly poll results, the saffron party’s victory in several by-polls across the country show that not only has the faith of the people in it increased but also in the policies of the BJP government at the Centre.

“A victory always increases the morale of the party workers. BJP’s win in Bihar and the by-polls will act as a morale booster for its workers in the state. West Bengal will now be our prime focus state.”

“The ground in Bengal is well prepared for a change and we have to ensure that the anger against the TMC government is channelised. We will use all our energy to free the people of the state from the misrule of TMC,” he said.

Vijayvargiya asserted that BJP’s victory in West Bengal will be “much bigger” as it will “storm to power with a two-thirds majority”.

“If you analyse the Bihar and by-poll results you will see that BJP’s strike rate is very good. In Bengal we are fighting alone, so we are confident of crossing the target of 200 plus seats in the state,” he said.

Union Home Minister and top BJP leader Amit Shah during his visit to the state last week had said that West Bengal is the “prime focus state” for the party and it will “fight and win it with a massive mandate”. BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh had echoed him and said “After Bihar it will be West Bengal for the BJP.”

“The saffron wave witnessed in neighbouring Bihar will sweep away the TMC in West Bengal too. The difference between the elections in the two states is that we were in power in Bihar for nearly 15 years, but in West Bengal we are a challenger,” Ghosh said.

A section of the state BJP leaders, however, underlined that the Bihar election results will have little impact on polls in West Bengal, other than seats along the border.

But it will act as a “morale booster” for party workers in Bengal.

Several state BJP leaders said the party will take a cue from the Bihar poll results and “re-strategise” its campaign issues for the West Bengal elections.

To corner TMC, the BJP has been so far stressing on its alleged misrule, law and order issues, violence, corruption and the state administration’s handling of the COVID-19 situation in West Bengal.

“The Bihar election results have shown that issues like unemployment and migrant labour crisis are crucial in several seats. So we need to stress upon these problems as well.”

“As Bihar was the first state to hold assembly poll after the COVID-19 outbreak, there are a few things all of us need to learn from it,” a senior West Bengal BJP leader said.

Although BJP has the advantage of being an “untested challenger” in West Bengal where it has never been in power, the party is well aware that it will be up against Mamata Banerjee, who has the reputation of being a tough fighter, party sources said.

“If RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav can put up such a fight (in Bihar), it is anyone’s guess the kind of contest we will face in West Bengal,” another state BJP leader said.

As per the parliamentary poll results, the saffron camp had bagged 40.5 per cent votes and was ahead in more than 125 assembly seats in the state.

The central BJP leadership has asked the state leaders to fan out to the districts and organise agitations and mass mobilisations on issues the people are concerned about, before the Congress and Left Front capitalises on those problems, sources in the saffron party said.

“People will see several agitations in different assembly segments over local issues from November-December onwards,” a BJP leader said adding the party is also working to plug the gaps in its organisational strength in some districts.

The Trinamool Congress mocked the saffron party’s target of winning more than 200 seats in the state.

“As far as coming to power in West Bengal is concerned, the BJP is still living in a fool’s paradise. Its candidates will lose deposits in most of the seats,” TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy said.

Washington: US President-elect Joe Biden has named more than 20 Indian-Americans as members, including three as team leads, to his agency review teams (ARTs) that are responsible for evaluating the operations of the key federal agencies in the current administration to ensure a smooth transfer of power.

Biden’s transition team said this is one of the most diverse agency review teams in presidential transition history.

Of the hundreds of ART members, more than half are women, and approximately 40 percent represent communities historically underrepresented in the federal government, including people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.

Agency review teams are responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and their Cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One.

At least three Indian Americans have been named as team leads to various ARTs.

Arun Majumdar from the prestigious Stanford University is the team lead for the Department of Energy ART. Rahul Gupta is the team lead for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Kiran Ahuja has been named Team Lead for the Office of Personnel Management. Puneet Talwar has been named to the Department of State ART. Pav Singh has been named two ARTs for the National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology.

Similarly, Arun Venkatraman has been named to two ARTs Department of Commerce and USTR.

Other prominent Indian Americans named to ARTs are Pravina Raghavan, Atman Trivedi for Department of Commerce and Shital Shah for Department of Education; R Ramesh and Rama Zakaria for the Department of Energy; Subhasri Ramanathan for the Department of Homeland Security; Raj De for Department of Justice; and Seema Nanda and Raj Nayak for Department of Labour.

Reena Aggarwal and Satyam Khanna have been named to the Federal Reserve, Banking and Securities Regulators ARTs; Bhavya Lal for NASA; Dilpreet Sidhu for National Security Council, Divya Kumaraiah for Office of Management and Budget; Kumar Chandran for Department of Agriculture; and Aneesh Chopra to US Postal Service. Almost all of them are volunteers.

These teams are composed of highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government.

Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change. We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad. The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One, said Senator Ted Kaufman, Co-Chair, Biden-Harris Transition.

The work of the agency review teams is critical for protecting national security, addressing the ongoing public health crisis, and demonstrating that America remains the beacon of democracy for the world, he said.

The transition team announced the agency review teams even as outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration has yet to formally recognize Biden as the president-elect.

Formal recognition from the General Services Administration is needed to allow transition staff access to federal workers and much of the information they will need.

Trump, a Republican, has declined to concede the closely-fought November 3 presidential race to Democrat Biden and is mounting legal fights in several key battleground states alleging voter irregularities or widespread fraud in the election — billed as one of the most divisive and bitter in recent American history.

President Trump has made repeated and baseless claims that the Democratic Party has tried to steal the election.

Once the GSA Administrator ascertains the results of the election, the ART members will work directly with staff in federal agencies to ensure that the incoming Biden-Harris administration is able to effectively achieve the policy goals of the President and Vice President-elect.

The ARTs will proceed by meeting with former agency officials and experts who closely follow federal agencies, and with officials from think tanks, labor groups, trade associations, and other NGOs.

Many of the ART members have had long careers in the federal agencies they will now help prepare for the incoming Biden-Harris administration, the transition said.