[Nasheman news]New Delhi  BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi should apologise for his chief advisor Sam Pitroda’s statement on the February 14 Pulwama attack.

“I demand from the Congress President that he must apologise to the families of the slain troopers,” Shah told the media here.

Shah’s statement came in response to Pitroda’s comments that incidents like the Pulwama suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers, “happen all the time” and that the UPA government also could have sent planes to Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack but “that is not the right approach”.

Shah questioned whether the Congress considered heinous attacks as a normal phenomenon. 

“At a time when the country is growing rapidly towards the general election and the issue of national security is important for the voters, the statement of Sam Pitroda is very unfortunate,” he said. 

He slammed the Congress saying that doubting the Indian Air Force was not right for any party’s national president. 

He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has adopted a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism.

[Nasheman news] Kolkata  West Bengal’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress has dropped the ‘Congress’ from its new logo earlier this month and added dollops of blue, white and green colour to it besides giving it a catchy slogan in a bid to make the party one with the people of the eastern state.

Observers said it could also be Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s way of distancing her party completely from the Indian National Congress.

The Trinamool was formed on January 1, 1998, by Banerjee who came out of the Congress complaining that it was “hand-in-glove with the CPI-M-led Left Front” then in power in Bengal.

Thereafter, Banerjee and her new party went hammer and tongs at the CPI-M for over a decade and finally managed to ride to power by allying with the Congress and defeating the Left Front in the 2011 Assembly polls.

All these years, Banerjee never shied away from harping on her Congress past, and instead repeatedly projected her party as the “real Congress”.

Despite tying up with the Congress twice — briefly before the 2001 Assembly polls and also between 2009 and 2011 — Banerjee aggressively expanded her party’s base across the state, mainly at the cost of her old party.

Many of the one-time heavyweights of the Congress are now with the Trinamool and occupy important positions.

Banerjee’s close associates point out that no other leaders in the past were able to decimate the Congress in their respective states the way she has done in Bengal.

“The name Trinamool is enough. It resonates in the hearts of all our workers and supporters,” said a Trinamool Lok Sabha member.

Another party leader pointed out that it was only Indira Gandhi who was successful in splitting the Congress and ensuring that her party emerges as the real Congress.

“As such, Banerjee does not need the Congress background any more. She is very much a leader in her own right and the Trinamool has its own identity,” he said.

Banerjee has time and again spoken about a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front over the past two years, stressing on a greater role for the regional parties after the Lok Sabha polls.

The logo has used a blue-white colour combination in a big way surrounding the party’s twin flower symbol. There is also a very careful use of green colour in composing the font of the word ‘Trinamool’.

“Blue-white is Banerjee’s favourite colour. All government buildings, police stations and bus stands have this colour combination. The use of the same combination in the logo makes it an extension of the theme Bengal,” said the leader.

“Trinamool is a vibrant party, a party of the future, of the youth. The colour green signifies that. Blue-white is now Bengal’s theme colour,” the MP said.

The slogan “Amar, Apnar, Banglar” (mine, yours, Bengal’s) is said to be an effort to project the party as the representative of Bengal, and the only political outfit capable of fulfilling the wishes and desires of all sections of people in the state.

Trinamool leaders said the party would continue to be registered as the All India Trinamool Congress with the Election Commission.

[Nasheman news] Chennai Maintaining silence over its candidate for Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress on Saturday declared eight names for the April 18 polls.

The names featured in the party’s list of 34 Lok Sabha seats that was released earlier in the day.

The Tamil Nadu candidates include two former state party heads, Su. Thirunavukkarasar and E.V.K.S. Elangovan.

The obvious miss in the list was it candidate from the Sivaganga constituency.

In 2014, Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, fought and lost in Sivaganga.

In the 2009 and 2004 elections. P. Chidambaram represented the constituency.

There were speculations that someone from the Chidambaram family was likely to be given a Congress ticket.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its National Secretary H. Raja for Sivaganga.

The Congress has also fielded one woman candidate, Jothimani for the Karur constituency.

The other candidates are: K. Jayakumar (Tiruvallur), A. Chellakumar (Krishnagiri), Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar), H. Vasanthakumar (Kanniyakumari).

V. Vaithilingam will represent the lone Puducherry seat.

As part of of the DMK-led alliance, Congress got a total of 10 Lok Sabha seats — nine in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry seat.