New Delhi: Making yet another U-turn, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday apologized to BJP leader Nitin Gadkari for making unverified allegations of corruption against him after which the Union Minister withdrew his defamation case.

The development came days after the AAP leader regretted having accused Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia of drug trade without evidence.

In a letter to Gadkari, Kejriwal said he was feeling sorry for making “certain statements, without regard to its verifiability, which seem to have hurt you…

“I have nothing personal against you. I regret the same. Let us put the incident behind us and bring the court proceedings to a closure.”

He also suggested to the Union Shipping and Transport Minister that “we should put our energy to serve the people of this country in the spirit of mutual respect”.

Consequent to the regret, Gadkari and Kejriwal later filed a joint application in the Patiala House Court, seeking withdrawal of the defamation case.

“Kejriwal has acknowledged that (the) complainant (Gadkari) was hurt on account of unverified allegations and expressed regret, in the larger public interest” and that “the complainant does not wish to pursue the defamation case”, read the application.

In 2014, Gadkari had filed the defamation suit against Kejriwal after he named him in a list of “corrupt politicians”.

Kejriwal has been dragged to courts in several defamation cases by various political leaders, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Last week, the AAP leader wrote to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia for accusing his of involvement in drug trade without any proof to back the allegations..

The apology triggered a virtual rebellion in the AAP Punjab unit, leaing to the resignation of Bhagwant Mann as its Punjab Unit chief.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Dr. Nowhera Shaik, President, All India Mahila Empowerment Party said that she won’t be announcing the names of candidates any sooner because she intends to protect them from danger.

Dr. Nowhera Shaik says, “We are contesting for the first time and we need to be extra careful to protect our people who are supporting us in this mission. Our intentions and way for politics is completely different from other parties. For us, safety and empowerment of women in the country is the core agenda. I have been receiving outrageous messages for my decision to step in politics. But, this will not deter us. We will continue to speak out and stand for clean politics and administration.”

Founded by Dr Nowhera Shaik, the party will contest all 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly polls. With a focus on ensuring women are able to exercise their rights and get a voice in the political space, the party is contesting the Karnataka Assembly seats as a precursor to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. It plans to contest all the Lok Sabha seats, all 525 of them.

Dr Shaik mentioned, “Though Karnataka Assembly Elections is the first kick-off for us, we intend to contest all Lok Sabha seats and make a mark.”

The party aims to be different from the other parties and hence is still scrutinising the applications received for candidature. The aim is to select people with a clean record and with a goal to serve the nation.

Ahead of the upcoming assembly polls, the Karnataka cabinet on Monday agreed to consider the Hindu sect of Lingayats as a separate religion, state Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said.

“Based on the recommendations of Karnataka State Minorities Commission, the state cabinet has unanimously decided to grant status of religious minority to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats (believers of 12th century social reformer Basava’s ideologies),” Jayachandra told media after the cabinet meeting.

The state cabinet has also decided to forward the commission’s recommendations to the Central government for approval and notification under the National Commission for Minorities Act, he said.

“The minority status has been granted on the Commission’s view that a proper recognition is to be given to the Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, on condition that the recognition would not affect the rights of other minorities in the state,” Jayachandra said.

The Lingayat sect, which believes in worshipping Shiva as the universal god, say they were founded by Basava.

(Agencies)

Chandigarh: Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann today resigned as the AAP’s Punjab chief, a day after party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s apology to SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia drew flak from state unit leaders.

Mann announced his decision to resign on Twitter which read:

“I m resigning as a president of AAP Punjab … But my fight against drug mafia and all kind of corruption in Punjab will continue as an ‘Aam Aadmi’of Punjab,” he tweeted.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had yesterday tendered an apology for levelling charges of involvement in drugs trade against former Punjab minister Majithia.

In his apology, Kejriwal said he had learnt that his allegations were unfounded.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Friday pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and was set to move a no-confidence motion against the government over its refusal to grant special category status to the state, party leaders said.

TDP Rajya Sabha MP Y.S. Chowdary told IANS: “Yes our party (TDP) has pulled out of the alliance with the NDA.”

Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu took these decisions during a teleconference with politburo members, senior party leaders and MPs on Friday.

Immediately after the decision, TDP, which has 16 members in the Lok Sabha, submitted a notice to the Speaker to move the no-confidence motion.

Party MP Thota Narasimham told reporters that they were collecting signatures of 54 MPs, which is required to move the no-trust motion.

On March 8, the TDP had pulled its two Ministers — Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y.S. Chowdary — out of the Narendra Modi government but had stopped short of walking out of the alliance.

Raju held the Civil Aviation Ministry while Chowdary was the Minister of State for Science and Technology.

The TDP is the first party to leave the coalition since it came to power at the Centre in 2014.

Naidu decided to write a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party national President Amit Shah, informing him of the circumstances which forced TDP to exit the NDA.

The TDP President told the politburo members that he would also write to other constituents of the NDA to explain why he joined the front four years ago and what made the party to pull out.

Naidu had said on Thursday that the TDP was ready to support a no-confidence motion moved by any party.

However, during the teleconference on Friday Naidu said that the party should move a motion on its own instead of supporting the one being moved by their rival YSR Congress Party.

The TDP chief said if the TDP backs the no-confidence motion moved by a party whose leader is facing serious charges this would send a wrong signal to the people.

Naidu told politburo members that the TDP would seek support of other parties for the no-confidence motion.

The TDP leaders alleged that YSR Congress was not sincere in the no-confidence motion as its notice had signatures of only five MPs.

During the teleconference, Naidu lashed out at the BJP and accused it of using YSR Congress leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena party President Pawan Kalyan to weaken the TDP.

He said both Jagan and Pawan had secret understanding with the BJP. He said while Jagan entered into the secret deal to save himself in several corruption cases, Pawan was targeting TDP instead of pulling up BJP and Narendra Modi for not fulfilling the commitments made to Andhra Pradesh.

TDP had been expressing its unhappiness with the BJP over the last few weeks for not fulfilling the commitments made by the Centre to Andhra Pradesh after Telangana was carved out of it in 2014.

Its main demand was special status which would have ensured a large infusion of central funds to help the state tide over the revenue deficit and facilitate development of new state capital Amaravati.

(IANS)