New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition by a Congress leader seeking postponement of assembly elections in five states on the grounds that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was spreading fast.

The high court, while terming the plea by Congress leader Jagdish Sharma as frivolous, asked whether the petitioner was living on Mars as cases of COVID-19 are declining.

Expressing displeasure, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said, It is a frivolous petition. Are you living on Mars. Delhi is now dealing with a declining number of cases. You withdraw it or we will dismiss it with cost.

The counsel for the petitioner then withdrew the plea.

Sharma had sought directions to postpone the elections citing the third wave of COVID-19 as the Omicron variant is spreading fast.

He also sought directions to the central and state governments to submit a plan for distribution of essential supplies and services during the third wave of the pandemic.

He urged the court to direct the governments to submit the plan for availability and distribution of oxygen and to give directions to the Election Commission to postpone the polls for a few weeks or months in all the five states.

The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur are starting from February 10 and will end on March 7. The results will be announced on March 10.

“The court should also order a writ in the nature of mandamus, thereby directing the Delhi government to issue a direction for 14 days or less quarantine for people returning”, from these states where the election process has commenced, the plea said.

The petitioner cited the devastation caused during the second wave last year when a large number of people lost their lives due to shortage of beds and oxygen as the virus spread rapidly in the country.

He also pointed out inadequacies in the arrangements to prevent the spread of the virus and for treating the COVID patients.

Noida: Jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan’s son and wife have filed their nominations from the same assembly constituency as the party’s candidates for the Uttar Pradesh polls.

Both Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, who was released from jail recently, and his mother Tazeen Fatma have filed their affidavits from the Suar assembly seat in Rampur district, according to the Election Commission (EC) website.

Azam Khan, who was a cabinet minister in the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led government, had on Thursday filed his nomination papers, while being in jail, for the assembly polls from the Rampur seat.

“We have seen the BJP government framing a former minister, who had developed Rampur, in frivolous cases of goat and cycle theft. They can manipulate even nomination of our candidates and not let them contest the polls and because of political vendetta,” Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Abbas Haider told PTI on the dual nomination from Suar seat.

The SP, he said, is resolved to “rooting out” the BJP and its “jungle raj” from Uttar Pradesh in the elections.

According to the SP’s list of candidates, Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan is its nominee from Suar.

Suar goes to polls on February 14 during the second of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections.

While Saturday is the date for scrutiny of nominations for the seat, candidates can withdraw their nomination till January 31, according to the official schedule.

Azam Khan, his son and his wife had surrendered in a Rampur court in 2020 after they were booked under multiple charges, including cases of forgery and land grab.

While Fatma got bail in 2020, Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan was released in January this year after almost a two-year jail term, even as Azam Khan, an eight-time MLA and Lok Sabha MP, continues to be imprisoned.

The family has often claimed that they are being framed because of political vendetta.

Azam Khan had won from the Rampur assembly seat in the 2017 elections, bagging over 47 per cent of polled votes. He was later elected to Lok Sabha in 2019 and Fatma replaced him as Rampur MLA in the state assembly in the bye-election.

Their son Abudullah had won the Suar assembly seat in 2017 in his first election, bagging over 51 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency.

BJP’s candidates were second in both the seats during the last elections.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi and PPCC President Navjot Singh Sidhu at Golden Temple in Amritsar

Jalandhar: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the party will go to the Punjab Assembly polls with a CM face and the decision on it will be taken soon after consulting party workers.

Addressing a virtual rally here, Gandhi said Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu has assured him that whoever is chosen as the CM face, the other will support him.

“Normally, we don’t do this but if the Congress party, our workers and Punjab want this, we will take a decision on the CM face,” he said.

“We will take this decision after consulting our workers. Others will work as a team,” he said.

The demand for declaring chief ministerial face will be met as soon as possible, Gandhi added.

Rahul said both Channi and Sidhu told him that the biggest question in Punjab is who will lead the Congress in the state.

“Media people call it the chief ministerial candidate. Both Sidhu and Channi gave me an assurance that two people cannot lead and only one can lead. Both told me whoever leads, the other will put all his energy behind him,” said Gandhi.

Earlier in his address, Sidhu said people want clarity who will implement the agenda and roadmap, to which Channi later said he was never after any post and anyone whose name is announced, he will wholeheartedly back the decision.

Gandhi arrived here in the evening from Amritsar. His arrival here got delayed as he had reached Amritsar three hours behind schedule owing to bad weather.

Dr Kafeel Khan

Lucknow: Paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan, whose name surfaced in the 2017 BRD Medical college tragedy in which several children died allegedly for lack of oxygen, said on Tuesday that he may contest against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath from Gorakhpur if any party supports him.

Dr Khan was terminated from the service on November 9 last year and he has challenged it in the High Court.

“I can contest the assembly election against Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur. If any party gives me a ticket I am ready,” Khan said while talking to PTI.

When asked if he is in touch with any party or approached by anyone, “He said yes, talks are on. If all goes well I will be contesting the polls.”

Gorakhpur is going to poll in the sixth phase on March 3.

Khan said that he was made a scapegoat in the August 2017 tragedy in BRD Medical college in which children of 80 families died.

Khan alleged that despite the fact he was not in Gorakhpur, his 70-year-old mother was being harassed by the police, which reached at his home to enquire about him.

“I am active on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., and tell about my whereabouts there. Presently, I am in Mumbai. From here I will be going to Hyderabad and Bangalore for the promotion of my book- ‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy- A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’, which has become a bestseller with over 5000 copies sold,” he said.

“After the launch of my book on December 17, 2021 police reached my home on Dec 20 and then on Dec 28 and again in January. Police say I am history-sheeter at Rajghat police station of Gorakhpur and due to the election, verification of such people are on,” he said.

“If they had to do the verification, one policeman can go to my place. I have photographs that show a number of policemen reaching my place and clicking outside my house as if they had to show ‘someone’ that they are doing their job,” Kafeel said.

Kafeel’s mother lives in the Basantpur locality of Gorakhpur with his brother Adeel Khan’s family.

Regarding his book, Kafeel said it is about the incident on the evening of August 10, 2017, when liquid oxygen ran out at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College’s Nehru Hospital in the Gorakhpur and reportedly over the next two days, more than eighty patients 63 children and 18 adults lost their lives.

He said as the news of the tragedy grabbed national attention, he was called “a hero” for working ceaselessly to control the crisis and drawing attention to a healthcare system in dire need of repair.

But a few days later, an FIR was filed against nine individuals, including him, for corruption and medical negligence among other grave charges and was jailed, he said.

Kafeel was arrested in January 2020 and charged under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) for his allegedly inflammatory speech at the Aligarh Muslim University and spent five months in prison before the NSA charge was dropped against him by the Allahabd High Court.

LUCKNOW: Calling Congress party as mere ‘votekatuwa’ (vote cutting party) , Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has urged the people of poll bound Uttar Pradesh not to waste their vote on the grand old party.

“In such a situation, it would be better for the voters not to waste their vote on Congress instead they should vote for the BSP unilaterally,” said the BSP chief in a twitter post. Continuing her onslaught on the political rivals, Mayawati said it was necessary to vote out the BJP in the interest of the people of UP.

“While the parties like Congress are mere vote cutting organisations and the BJP should be voted out in the interest of Sarvsamaj, BSP is the only tried and tested party number one to be voted for,” tweeted Mayawati.

It may be recalled that after claiming that she was Congress’s face in UP during a press conference on Friday, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra negated it saying it was merely a tongue-in-cheek statement in response to repeated queries from media person on the same issue. Priyanka had even expressed surprise over the absence of the BSP chief from the poll arena calling it a low profile campaign by Mayawati even in the middle of polls.

In the previous 2017 assembly elections, BSP had secured 19 seats and Congress just seven. Till the current elections, while Mayawati faced a series of desertions by her MLAs and left with only three in the assembly, Congress also faced the same challenge and two of its MLAs switched sides to the BJP in the

Chandra Shekhar Aazad

Noida: Prominent Dalit face Chandra Shekhar Aazad will fight the Uttar Pradesh assembly election from Gorakhpur Sadar seat, his Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) announced on Thursday.

Gorakhpur Sadar is the seat from where the BJP has fielded UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Taking forward the ideology of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshiram sahib for ‘Bahujan Hitaay – Bahujan Sukhaay’, the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) announced Chandra Shekhar Aazad as candidate from Gorakhpur Sadar (322) seat, the party said in a statement on social media.

ASP (K)’s national core committee member Mohammad Aqib confirmed the development to PTI. He said the registered name of the party is Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram).

The 35-year-old lawyer-turned-activist had co-founded the Dalit rights outfit Bhim Army and he is its national president. He launched the ASP (K) in March 2020 and is the party president.

Gorakhpur Sadar goes to polls on March 3 during the sixth phase of elections in UP. The results will be declared on March 10.

Aazad was until recently in talks with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for a tie-up to contest the polls but was offered only two seats by it.

Feeling thus shortchanged, Aazad had on Tuesday said his party would no longer approach the SP for alliance as it was a matter of self respect , but added he was open to finding new allies for the polls.

The flamboyant leader has often said his fight is against the ideology of the BJP and the RSS.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll and her party – the Trinamool Congress will not contest the election in that state, SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said on Tuesday.

Nanda, who returned from poll bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, held an hour-long meeting with Banerjee at her residence on the issue.

“The Trinamool Congress will not contest in Uttar Pradesh and will support Samajwadi Party in the fight against the BJP. Mamata Banerjee will hold virtual campaigns along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and Varanasi. She will be in Lucknow on February 8 and attend a virtual campaign. She will then will hold a joint press conference with Akhileshji,” Nanda told reporters after the meeting.

Banerjee will also visit Varanasi later in February but the date is yet to be fixed, he said.

“She will visit Varanasi for a virtual meeting,” Nanda said and noted that most of the campaigns are being held virtually due to COVID restrictions.

The election to all 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

Mamata Banerjee is a strong leader and the way she fought against the BJP and defeated it in the West Bengal Assembly Election in 2021 is a lesson for the entire opposition. Her fight was unprecedented. The entire nation saw the fight she had put up against BJP’s juggernaut,” he said.

During the high octane West Bengal assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party had decided against contesting in the state and extended its support to the ruling TMC.

Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee and had even attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019.

One of the longest-serving fisheries ministers of West Bengal during the erstwhile Left Front regime, Nanda had merged his party, the West Bengal Socialist Party with Samajwadi Party in 2010.

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Monday decided to hold the single-phase assembly polls in Punjab on February 20 instead of February 14 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.

Several political parties had approached the EC to postpone the polls in the state in view of Ravidas Jayanti on February 16.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, BJP and its allies, and the BSP had urged the poll panel to postpone the date of voting as lakhs of followers of Guru Ravidas travel to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the day.

In a statement, the Commission said polls would now be held on February 20. It coincides with the third phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.

The parties had said that several followers of Guru Ravidas would not be able to exercise their franchise on February 14 as they would be travelling.

Panaji: Weeks after he walked out of the Congress fold, joined the Trinamool Congress and quit it a day before without assigning any reason, former Goa Congress working president Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Monday hinted at rejoining his parent party.

He has apologised to his supporters and well-wishers for committing the “mistake” of joining the Mamata Banerjee-led party ahead of the next month’s Assembly polls.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji on Monday, Lourenco said he had to face severe backlash after deciding to join the TMC, which he said had promised a “new dawn”.

He said his supporters were apprehensive that joining TMC would invite the outside party” to Goa which will split votes.

Lourenco had resigned as the MLA from Curtorim and also as a member of Congress last December to join the TMC. He was then working president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee.

On Sunday, he resigned from TMC without assigning any reason in the letter that he sent to Banerjee informing her about his decision to leave TMC.

On Monday, he said that his decision to join the Mamata Banerjee-led party was a mistake and that he now wanted to be the same person whom people trust.

I have hurt many friends and also my near and dear supporters (by crossing over to TMC). I also hurt my family members and those who stood with me in thick and thin, he told reporters.

Lourenco said that he had decided to join the TMC in the interest of people because he was promised a new dawn.

I have fought for the people. I had raised their issues in the Legislative Assembly. I have worked for the people with my heart and mind, he said.

Speaking about his future political course, Lourenco said that his supporters have asked him to rejoin the Congress party.

Congress leader Michael Lobo has asked me to rejoin the Congress party. I will listen to what my people say, he said.

Goa is going to polls on February 14.

Chandigarh: The BJP on Saturday swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayoral polls and its municipal councillor Sarabjit Kaur became the new mayor.

The saffron party also bagged the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh MC. The mayor’s post was reserved for a woman candidate this year.

However, the AAP called the poll results a “murder of democracy”.

BJP’s Sarabjit Kaur defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Anju Katyal by one vote in a direct contest.

Out of the total 36 votes, 28 were polled, while seven Congress councillors and the lone Shiromani Akali Dal councillor abstained.

Kaur bagged 14 votes and Katyal got 13, officials said, adding that one was declared invalid.

The Aam Aadmi Party was contesting the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls for the first time.

After the result was declared, AAP councillors created a ruckus in the House, with some of them reaching near the mayor’s chair and holding a protest.

Crying foul play, they tried to stop the new mayor from addressing the House. First, marshals were called in and later police were called to remove the protesting councillors who were standing near the mayor’s chair.

BJP’s Dalip Sharma became the senior deputy mayor after he trounced AAP’s Prem Lata by a margin of two votes. Sharma polled 15 and Lata got 13 votes, indicating that one AAP councillor cross voted.

BJP’s Arun Gupta won the post of deputy mayor as he defeated AAP’s Ram Chander Yadav. There was a tie as both the candidates got 14 votes each. Then after a draw of lots, BJP’s Gupta was declared deputy mayor.

BJP councillor Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu was the presiding officer and Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh chaired the election process.

The results of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls which were declared on December 27, threw up a hung House, with the AAP winning 14 of the 35 wards and the BJP 12.

The Congress had bagged eight seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal got one.

Days after the polls results were declared, municipal councillor from the Congress Harpreet Kaur Babla joined the BJP.

Besides 35 councillors, the Chandigarh MP, who is an ex-officio member in the municipal corporation, also has a voting right.

Later, Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab and Chandigarh affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh accused the BJP of “murdering democracy” in the mayoral election of Chandigarh.

He said that in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections, the residents of the city had voted the Aam Aadmi Party to the most number of seats at 14.

AAP’s victory in the mayor’s election was certain, but the BJP deliberately got an AAP vote “cancelled” by insulting the ‘fatwa’ of the public and declared its mayor forcibly, he alleged.

Singh said the elections for the mayor of Chandigarh clearly showed that there was “a clandestine understanding between the BJP and the Congress” to defeat the AAP in the mayoral elections.

Somehow BJP’s vote figure reached 14, equalling AAP, by including the vote of a member of Parliament, but the party flouted all rules and regulations, and got its candidate appointed as the mayor, he alleged.

Singh also accused officials of Chandigarh of helping the BJP and said that in order to maintain fairness of the election, votes should be re-counted and the mayor should be re-elected, failing which the AAP will resort to a legal action.