BHOPAL: It will be the first-time sitting MP son Nakul Nath and not his nine-time former parliamentarian father Kamal Nath who’ll contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from Chhindwara seat – the opposition Congress’s lone unconquered citadel of the 2019 polls.

“Assembly polls were held in November 2023 in three states, but Chhindwara parliamentary constituency remains the only constituency, where all the assembly segments were won by the Congress. The credit for it goes to all our workers present here. Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha polls are totally different, there are many candidates which leads to groupism in assembly polls. But there is no groupism in LS polls as there is only one candidate, I am your candidate in the coming Lok Sabha polls,” Nakul Nath said.

Addressing a meeting of Congress workers in Parasia assembly segment of Chhindwara LS constituency in father Kamal Nath’s presence, the sitting Congress MP said, “Let me clear the uncertainty about whether I or Kamal Nath Ji will contest from Chhindwara, by stating that I’ll contest from Chhindwara LS seat. The election in Chhindwara will be fought by me under his (Kamal Nath) guidance and support. You’ll have supported Kamal Nath and the Nath family for 42 years, I’m confident that the Nath family will get the same support and affection in the coming election also,” Nath Jr added.

The sitting Congress MP’s announcement happened just two days after his former CM and nine-times former parliamentarian father Kamal Nath had told journalists that winnability factor will guide the Congress party in deciding candidates on all seats, including Chhindwara.

Importantly, much before the Congress officially declared candidates for the seven assembly segments of his parliamentary seat in 2023 polls, Nakul Nath had himself announced the names of the same candidates at separate public meetings in Chhindwara, while his father was the state Congress chief and party’s CM face in MP.

Importantly, Chhindwara seat was the lone parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh, which was won by the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. All other 28 seats in the state, including two other Congress citadels – Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Guna seat and Kantilal Bhuria’s Ratlam-Jhabua ST seats – were won by the BJP.

In the 2019 elections, Nakul Nath had made a winning Lok Sabha polls debut from his family’s pocket-borough by 37,536 votes, while Kamal Nath-led Congress government was in power in MP. Nakul Nath’s winning margin, however, was more than three times smaller than the 1.16 lakh-plus votes winning margin of his father in the 2014 LS polls from the same seat.

The Chhindwara seat since four decades has become synonymous with the Nath family headed by ex-union minister and former MP CM Kamal Nath, who won it nine times between 1980 and 2014, while his wife Alka Nath won it in 1996. In the last 43 years, the BJP has won the seat only once, when ex-CM Sunder Lal Patwa emerged victorious in the 1997 by-election.  

CHIKKAMAGALURU: Exuding confidence ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, BJP state president BY Vijayendra has predicted that the BJP-JDS alliance will win all the 28 seats in the election, with the Congress drawing a blank.

Speaking at a function at the party office here, where Devaraja Shetty took charge as the new Chikkamagaluru district BJP president on Wednesday, Vijayendra said the Congress is living in false hope that it will win 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“If one looks at the statement of Magadi MLA HC Balakrishna, who said that the five guarantees will be stopped if voters do not ensure the victory of Congress candidates in the LS polls, it seems that the Congress has already accepted its defeat. People are eager to see Narendra Modi as the prime minister again. Development works of the Modi government are giving sleepless nights to Congress leaders,” Vijayendra said.

Admitting that the BJP suffered a setback in the Assembly polls due to its own mistakes, the party state chief expressed confidence that the BJP will romp home to power by winning 130 to 140 seats in the next Assembly election. “The state is reeling under drought. Over 500 farmers have committed suicide. But the state government has not come out with any scheme to bail out the farmers. It is only dangling a carrot in the name of guarantees in front of the people,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka alleged that CM Siddaramaiah was playing divisive politics by causing fissures among castes. “He hates saffron colour. Siddaramaiah may have Rama in his name, but he has Tipu in his heart,” he claimed.

NEW DELHI: Even as the Uttarakhand government is preparing to bring a draft bill on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) next week, the BJP’s long-time poll promise of a nationwide UCC is unlikely to materialise before the Lok Sabha elections, according to highly placed sources in the government.

According to the source, the 22nd Law Commission of India, which is tasked with drafting of the bill, is yet to complete consultations with stakeholders to formulate a comprehensive draft bill on UCC. “The consultations are still on and it is unlikely that the commission will submit its report before LS polls,” said the official.

The UCC, which comes under Article 44 of the Constitution of India, calls for a common set of laws for all religious communities on matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, and succession.

While the Uttarakhand UCC is expected to be a model for the Central UCC, the official said, “We cannot replicate a state model for the Central law. Indian personal law is pretty complex with each religion having its own specific laws. In each state, the situation is different. We may adopt some elements from it,” he said.

The commission, headed by justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, is in the process of holding consultations with experts and stakeholders, including religious scholars and representatives from various religious and women’s organisations, said the source. While various tribal groups across the country, including northeastern states, have strongly opposed the proposed UCC, the official said that the government is likely to exclude tribals from the ambit of the UCC.

In June last year, the Law Commission issued a notification calling for the opinion of various stakeholders on the proposed legislation. A political row broke out after Prime Minister Modi made a strong pitch for the implementation of nationwide UCC. Many political parties have questioned the Law Commission’s decision to revisit UCC despite the previous commission’s detailed consultation paper on the subject in August 2018.

Speaking to this paper, a member of the 21 st Law Commission said that Muslim personal laws will have to be codified before drafting laws for UCC as Hindu and Christian personal laws have already been codified.

Different UCCs defeat the purpose: Oppn

Though two other BJP ruled states – Gujarat and Assam — are expected to follow Uttarakhand in implementing the Uniform Civil Code, opposition parties argue that if different states have different UCCs, the purpose of having a ‘common law for all’ will be defeated.

RANCHI: All the legislators of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led ruling alliance in Jharkhand have been asked not to leave the state capital Ranchi and to attend a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the current political situation in the state, a JMM official said.

The meeting, proposed at the CM House, has been called to discuss strategy over the current political situation and the Enforcement Directorate’s proposed questioning of Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday, he said.

In an email sent to ED, Soren agreed to record his statement on January 31 at 1 pm at his residence.

JMM general secretary and spokesperson Vinod Kumar Singh told PTI that all the MLAs of the ruling alliance have been asked to stay in Ranchi in view of the current political situation.

The JMM, Congress and RJD are members of the ruling alliance.

“They will meet on Tuesday to discuss future course of action”, Singh said.

Asked if the CM has returned to Ranchi, Singh expressed ignorance.

The ruling party legislators had remained at the residence of the chief minister till late night on Monday in the wake of the ED team visiting Soren’s residence in Delhi.

BENGALURU: JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy held a crucial meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday on preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Shah suggested that the process of JDS officially joining the National Democratic Alliance and discussions on the sharing of seats between BJP and JDS for the Lok Sabha elections should be finalised after the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22, and after deliberations with BJP national president JP Nadda, Kumaraswamy said.  

They discussed the anti-incumbency wave in the state even before Congress completed one year in office and people suffering under the dispensation.

“I spoke to him about the severe drought in the state. They know that the state government has not given any money to drought-affected people till now,” he said.

Discussions were held on effectively bringing failures of the state government to the attention of the people, he added.

The meeting was held at Amit Shah’s residence, where JDS youth wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy and former MP Kupendra Reddy too were present.

Mumbai: In a setback for Congress in Mumbai ahead of Lok Sabha polls, former Union minister Milind Deora on Sunday quit the party “to walk the path of development” and joined the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, ending a “55 years old association” of the Deora family with the Grand Old Party.

With Deora resigning just before the start of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Congress alleged that the timing of the announcement of his departure from the party was determined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for headline management to counter the yatra, and asserted that it would have no impact.

The former Mumbai South MP announced his decision to resign from the primary membership of the party on social media platform X in the morning hours on Sunday.

“Today marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in my political journey. I have tendered my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress, ending my family’s 55-year relationship with the party. I am grateful to all leaders, colleagues and karyakartas for their unwavering support over the years,” Deora stated.

He later went to Siddhivinayak Temple in Prabhadevi to offer prayers.

In the afternoon, Deora joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Eknath Shinde in a function at Varsha, the official residence of the chief minister.

Earlier in the day, when Deora stepped out of his residence ‘Ramalayam’ in south Mumbai, he told reporters that he was “going to walk on the path of development”.

Deora, who was recently appointed the joint treasurer of the All India Congress Committee, had expressed disapproval at the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) staking a claim to the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency which he had represented in the past.

The undivided Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant, now with the Thackeray faction, had defeated Deora in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.
Deora was also the head of the Mumbai Congress at one time. He is the son of party stalwart late Murli Deora.

After Deora announced his resignation on X, Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad said it was unfortunate that he had quit the party on the day when the Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ commences from Manipur.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole called it a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divert the attention from the Yatra and mocked Deora as a “twice defeated candidate”.

Former chief minister Ashok Chavan said Deora wanted to contest from the Mumbai South constituency but the (Maha Vikas Aghadi) alliance’s understanding is that the sitting MP must not be disturbed.

“The BJP was spreading rumours that the Congress will split. Now the BJP and its allies are taking along with them a twice-defeated candidate to divert attention from the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. This attempt will not be successful,” Patole said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, however, said there would be no compromise on the Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat.

“Arvind Sawant is a two-time MP (of Shiv Sena-UBT). What is wrong with him contesting again? There will be no compromise on this,” Raut asserted.

In a swipe at BJP, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) MP Supriya Sule asked if the saffron party had no talent of its own.

Asked about Deora’s resignation, Sule said the BJP and its allies were becoming the Congress, an apparent reference to leaders from the grand old party switching allegiance to the ruling side.

NEW DELHI: The committee on ‘One Nation, One Election’ led by former president Ram Nath Kovind has received over 5,000 suggestions from the public on conducting simultaneous polls. The Centre has set up the panel on September 2 to examine and make recommendations to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies.

On January 5, the high-level committee issued a notice in mainstream newspapers, inviting suggestions from the public on conducting simultaneous elections by January 15 — via email, on its website, or through post. It said that suggestions are sought for “making appropriate changes in the existing legal administrative framework to enable simultaneous elections in the country.”

Last week, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury wrote to the panel, saying that the proposal of ‘One Nation One Poll’ itself runs against the letter and spirit of the Constitution, which defines the “centrality of the will of the people”.

Terming the plan as “inherently anti-democratic,”  Yechury said that the proposal “negated” the fundamental principles of federalism. The agenda and purpose of the committee was “pre-decided and predestined,” he said. The panel had recently written to political parties seeking their views and an interaction on a “mutually agreed date.” 

HYDERABAD:  The BJP is on the edge with reports pouring in that desertions might soon take place, given the fast-approaching Lok Sabha elections.

A sitting MP and a former MP are likely to shift loyalty to the grand old party. Both of them want to contest from their home constituencies as Congress nominees. The former MP had met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy a few days ago.

Both leaders are expecting the Congress to win a majority of Lok Sabha seats under the leadership of Revanth. They want to develop their constituencies with state funds.

If the speculation proves right, it would be a major setback for the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections as it is keen on winning as many seats as possible from Telangana after it improved its performance in the recent Assembly elections.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led opposition UDF on Wednesday won 17 out of the 33 seats in the local body by-elections held in several districts of Kerala a day ago.

According to the state Election Commission’s website, of the 33, UDF won 17 seats, LDF won 10, BJP-led NDA 4 and others two in the by-polls held on December 12.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan welcomed the development saying that the by-polls showed a UDF wave.

Satheesan, in a statement, said the UDF increased its seats from 11 to 17 in the by-polls and in the process captured 5 from the ruling LDF in the state.

He said that since the present LDF government came to power, the UDF has dominated all the local body by-elections.

Satheesan further said that the UDF has had better results in the by-elections since the 2020 local body polls and thanked all the voters for their support.

Nasheman news

Congress legislature party leader A Revanth Reddy was on Thursday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Telangana.

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Revanth Reddy.

AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah attended the ceremony held at the L B Stadium here.