Archives for 2019

Nasheman News : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday attacked the opposition, saying they were coming together fearing defeat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

“Fearing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, they all are coming together after looking at the massive support towards Modi,” Chouhan said while addressing party workers at the Vijay Sankalp rally at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Hitting out at the opposition parties for not being able to decide on a prime ministerial candidate, Chouhan said: “The opposition is unable to decide their candidate, as everyone has a different opinion on it. In the south, people want Rahul Gandhi’s government while Bengal wants Mamata Banerjee as Prime Minister whereas in Uttar Pradesh, people want Mayawati. There is no decision.”

Terming the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh as being handicapped, he questioned how long it will function.

“In the recently held Assembly elections, a very surprising thing happened in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP got more votes but the Congress got more seats,” he said, adding that in terms of Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies, the Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in 17 out of 29 seats.

“Yet they are short of a majority government. This government is a handicapped government. I don’t know for how long it will function,” he said.

Vowing that the BJP will again win more than 27 seats in Madhya Pradesh, the three-time Chief Minister said: “In 2014 elections, the BJP won 27 out of 29 seats. Right now looking at the vote percentage we are leading on 17. 

“But I can assure you that we are going to win 27 seats again and will try to win all the 29 seats,” the BJP leader added.

After the BJP’s Gurgaon retreat, it is the turn of Karnataka’s Congress lawmakers for a staycation, at a Bengaluru resort. The same where they were sequestered just seven months ago, when the elections threw up a hung verdict and lawmakers were flying between rival parties.

Four Congress lawmakers were AWOL on Friday as the party rallied its flock for a headcount amid what it suspects is a BJP strategy to topple the Janata Dal Secular-Congress government headed by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Two more rebels had “returned” to the party fold on Wednesday.

The absentees ignored calls, which caused some disquiet among the leadership of lingering attempts to break them.

The 76 Congress lawmakers who did show up for the legislature party meeting were rewarded with an instant holiday package. They were all bundled into buses and driven to the Eagleton Golf Resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

“They are being taken to a resort to keep them safe from the BJP,” former chief minister Siddaramaiah, the leader of the Congress legislature party, told media.

Siddaramaiah and another leader, DK Shivakumar, have been accusing the BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa, a former chief minister, of offering inducements to Congress lawmakers in a renewed plan to take power in Karnataka before the national election, due by May. They allege that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah are completely behind the plan.

“All MLAs wanted to show unity, they wanted to send a message. We are sure of our numbers. Everybody is there except three,” said Mr Shivakumar, the Congress’s troubleshooter in Karnataka and the man credited with guarding the flock against “poaching” attempts way back in May, after the state elections.

“We are against resort politics,” he sought to clarify.

Action will be taken against the “missing” lawmakers; Umesh Jadhav, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli are believed to be at a Mumbai hotel and B Nagendra, the fourth absentee, told reporters he had a court hearing. Ramesh Jarkiholi has been seething since he was dropped as a minister. Well after the meeting began, Umesh Jadhav sent a note saying he was unwell and couldn’t travel.

“I will send notice to the absentees and seek an explanation. Then I will speak to the high command,” said Mr Siddaramaiah.

Eagleton, with a pool, spacious rooms and various sports activities, is tried and tested in “resort politics”. Last year, the same Congress bunch had stayed there during government formation moves. In 2017, the resort hosted Gujarat Congress lawmakers who were in demand ahead of a Rajya Sabha election that became a thriller.

Earlier this week, 104 BJP lawmakers checked into a resort in Gurgaon near Delhi as speculation peaked that the ruling coalition in Karnataka was on the verge of collapse. The buzz intensified after two independent lawmakers withdrew support from the Kumaraswamy-led government.

The Congress repeatedly called it a redux of “Operation Lotus (the BJP’s election symbol)” – the name given for a past BJP attempt to lure away rival lawmakers. The term was coined in 2008 when the BJP allegedly engineered defections of opposition legislators to ensure that its government headed by Mr Yeddyurappa remains stable.

After the return of two lawmakers, the ruling coalition leaders said the BJP had aborted its coup attempt. Mr Yeddyurappa also confirmed that over 100 BJP leaders would finally return to Bengaluru.5

The JDS-Congress alliance has 118 lawmakers in the 224-member Karnataka assembly where the majority mark is 113.

Nasheman News : Accusing the BJP of having aligned with central agencies like the CBI and the ED, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday appealed to the opposition to come together and defeat the conspiracies being hatched to divide alliance partners in states.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said the issue of Prime Ministerial candidate will be decided by the people.

He said with the beginning of the new year, the country now was pining for a new Prime Minister.

“How happy will the country be if it gets a new Prime Minister,” the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader said.

“They (BJP) say look how many prime ministerial aspirants the opposition has. At times, they say we have lot of grooms. My response to them is — We will see to it. Whoever people decide, will become prime minister,” Yadav said at the mega rally of the opposition parties here.

Dubbing the BJP government at the Centre as a ‘failure’, which has “disappointed and defrauded the nation and its people”, the SP leader accused the Modi regime of “spreading hatred” in society,

Referring to the alliance stitched by his party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav said “Now only a few parties have aligned. Wait for all parties to come together. We have seen how you (Modi) have forged alliances to come to power.

“Now, we have brought all the best in the country on the same platform, and we will prepare a beautiful bouquet,” he said.

The SP chief said, unlike the BJP, the opposition has allied with the people of the country. 

“You are making alliances with the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and ED (Enforcement Directorate). But we have alliances with the people. And in democracy, whatever people decide, that happens,” he said.

Yadav appealed to the leaders opposed to the BJP to remain vigilant about conspiracies that would be hatched to wean away their alliance partners.

“Since my party formed the alliance with the BSP, the BJP is holding daily meetings to find ways and means of winning at least one seat in Uttar Pradesh.

“The BJP knows it cannot win votes on the basis of performance. So it will hatch conspiracies to wean away your partners.

“I appeal to you to see through their conspiracies, and work to save the country, by strengthening your parties, and ensuring the victory of your candidates in the parliamentary polls,” he added.

Nasheman News : Over a hundred Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators, who were housed in two hotels here in Haryana for the last five days, on Saturday left for their homes.

The MLAs who were put up in the ITC Grand Bharat resort and Lemon Tree hotel since January 14, on Saturday afternoon left for their ‘respective destinations’, a BJP source told media.

“We were here to discuss about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. There was no link of our staying here regarding political changes being noticed in Karnataka,” an MLA told the media as they were leaving.

When asked why the legislators from the other states were not here to discuss the poll strategy, one MLA said: “Please ask the central leadership, we have done our job.”

The MLAs said they were happy during their stay in Haryana and the total number of MLAs were 104, three of them had left the hotel in the last three days. They would be happy to come back again.

Around 25 MLAs of the 104 Karnataka BJP legislators put up at the ITC Grand Bharat resort for the last few days were shifted to the nearby Lemon Tree hotel on Friday as booking period of rooms was over.