BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday asked district observers to submit reports on the reasons behind the party’s defeat in several places in panchayat and urban local body (ULB) elections and suggest steps to be taken for further strengthening the organisation keeping the 2024 General Elections in view.

The Chief Minister started a review of the performance of BJD in panchayat and ULB elections with district observers on Saturday. The process will continue for three days.He  reviewed panchayat samiti results, had one to one meeting with the observers and asked them the reasons behind the party’s defeat in some of places in their areas.

The ruling BJD’s success in both the panchayat and ULB elections was unprecedented and the party broke all previous records by winning more than 80 percent of the seats in both the polls. However, in several areas the party faced reverses by yielding to the Opposition BJP. Each of the observers will have to specifically state why a BJD candidate lost the election and also suggest measures to strengthen organisation in their districts.

On the first day on Saturday, the party’s performance in Koraput, Malkangiri, Kendrapara, Balasore, Nayagarh, Angul, Nabarangpur, Dhenkanal and Sundargarh were reviewed.Balasore district observer and former minister Pratap Keshari Deb told mediapersons that the party chief has asked the observers to submit reports within 10 days.

Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera, the party’s observer for Nayagarh district, said that the party lost several seats in Khandapara, Ranapur and Daspalla areas in the panchayat election. BJP won the panchayat samiti chairperson post in Ranapur. A senior leader said that direct interaction of the Chief Minister with the party leaders had stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic for the last two years. He interacted with observers as the Covid cases have come down drastically.​

KYIV: The Ukrainian military said Saturday it destroyed a Russian command post in Kherson, a southern city that fell to Russian forces early in the war.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in an online interview that 50 senior Russian officers were in the command centre when it came under attack.

He said their fate was unknown. The Russian military did not comment on the claim, which could not be confirmed.

BENGALURU: With the festival of Ramzan just over a week away, Congress and JDS leaders are holding iftar parties, de rigueur for political parties in the season of fasting. While Congress leader Siddaramaiah held an iftar for his supporters, KPCC president DK Shivakumar is hosting one on Wednesday. JDS leaders HD Deve Gowda, HD Kumaraswamy and others, too, held iftar meetings a few days ago in Bengaluru, along with party MLC B M Farooq.

The importance of the iftar party has been acknowledged by most parties — it is held to reassure the electorate of one’s secular credentials, and is ideal for political messaging. Especially so now, say leaders, when the social atmosphere has been vitiated by communal issues.

As expected, the Congress iftar parties were not spared from right-wing mockery, with BJP members scoffing at Siddaramaiah and others on social media. “Topi hegide nodi,” was a comment on Siddaramaiah’s Kashmiri Karakul cap on the iftar poster. To which Siddaramaiah said, “Our nation becomes strong when all of us unite, regardless of caste and community. No one should find fault with iftar parties, every one participates in a spirit of brotherhood.”

While the right-wing fringe has raised the narrative to a shrill pitch with the row over hijab and halal meat, presence of Muslim traders in temple premises, and attack on businesses, political analyst Siddaraju recalls that the BJP itself used to once organise Iftar meetings. Insiders recall that then CM BS Yediyurappa used to participate in Iftars.

When contacted, a senior leader from the BJP’s Minority Morcha said, off the record, “We too from BJP will be holding a meeting, but after fasting is over, either on the day of Eid or the next day.” He also clarified that the BJP Karnataka unit had routinely held iftar meetings in the past few years. The RSS, too, has organized Iftars across the nation through the Muslim Rashtriya Manch, to bring Muslims close to Hindus.

NEW DELHI: The ruling alliance in Bihar appears adrift given CM Nitish Kumar’s participation in an iftar party hosted by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav on Friday. The BJP’s central leadership is learnt to have become more cautious over political maneuvering of the JD-U leader. 

JD-U sources, however, said contentious issues raised by the BJP such as the uniform civil code or CAA would not get the party support. “Our party is in alliance with the BJP but it does not mean we support it for its bulldozer politics and polarisation,” said a senior JD-U leader.

What struck the BJP on Friday was Nitish Kumar’s alleged secrecy over his presence at the RJD’s Ifftar party. Without informing the BJP ally, he walked up to Rabri Devi’s official residence where he found Tejashwi Yadav waiting to greet him, said a BJP source.“Though Nitish Kumar went to the Patna airport on Saturday to welcome Union Home Minister Amit Shah, his Friday move has made us wary of the JD-U,” said another party source.

Over the past few days, the Bihar BJP has questioned the state government over deteriorating law and order. The recent Assembly by-election defeat of the BJP candidate at Bochaha appears to have created a rift within the ruling alliance. It widened further on Friday with Nitish’s participation in RJD’s Ifftar party. “Whenever Nitish feels uncomfortable over alliance issues, he does something of this sort to put pressure on the BJP,” said a BJP leader.

LONDON:  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to the UK on Saturday after a two-day visit to India amidst reports of more fines being issued by Scotland Yard for lockdown-breaching parties at 10 Downing Street in here.

During his final press conference in Delhi on Friday, Johnson, 57, declined to be drawn on the issue of partygate and insisted he was focused on getting on with the job by strengthening ties with a friendly democracy.

“What we’re talking about today, is the ways in which the situation, not just in Ukraine, the situation around the world is obliging the UK and India to do more together,” Johnson told UK reporters in response to their flurry of partygate questions.

“I think that what people want in our country is for the government to get on and focus on the issues on which we were elected, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

The British Prime Minister has been issued with one fixed penalty notice of a fine over his birthday party in the Cabinet Room of Downing Street in June 2020, which he paid up immediately.

Now, ITV News has quoted sources as saying that UK government officials have started receiving fines for another “bring your own booze” event in the garden of Number 10 Downing Street, which Johnson is known to have attended during a lockdown.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said he has not received a second fine as of now and the public is unlikely to find out whether he does until after local elections coming up on May 5.

“While the investigation will continue during the pre-election period due to the restrictions around communicating before the May local elections, we will not provide further updates until after May 5,” the Met Police said in a statement.

If Johnson does receive another fine, it will be double his first one which was worth 100 pounds (USD 128) but reduced to 50 pounds (USD 64) because he paid it within 14 days.

The coronavirus lockdown rules meant people who repeatedly breached the rules against gatherings would have their fines doubled with each subsequent offence, up to a maximum of 6,400 pounds (USD 8,217).

ITV News claimed its sources had confirmed that some officials who attended the May 2020 “bring your own booze” Downing Street garden party have received police fines.

An email invite seen by the UK television news channel confirmed the garden party took place, with the invite reportedly sent by the Prime Minister’s former Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds to over a hundred employees at Downing Street.

In January this year when the reports first emerged, Johnson confirmed he had joined the event for about 25 minutes, saying that the No.

10 Downing Street garden was being used as “an extension of the office. “With hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside,” he said, while arguing that the event “could be said, technically, to fall within the guidelines.”

While the Opposition Labour Party prepares for the Commons Privileges Committee probe into whether Johnson misled Parliament, there is growing disquiet on the backbenches of the Prime Minister’s own Conservative Party over the scandal.

Many Tory MPs have started speaking out over the issue but with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, there isn’t a strong appetite for a full-blown rebellion. However, the local council and mayoral election results on May 5 could embolden them to act if the Tories fare badly at the ballot box.

MUMBAI:  Amid power outages in parts of Maharashtra mainly due to coal supply disruption, a blame game has started with the Opposition BJP locking horns with the state government over “mismanagement” of energy generation and supply. 

“The Centre wants us to clear the Rs 2,200-crore dues before resuming the coal supply. We have limited coal stocks and have requested the Centre to provide us with enough numbers of train wagons to transport coal, but they are not doing that,” Raut said. 

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said Maharashtra would soon buy coal from Chhattisgarh and abroad.
Senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar alleged that the ruling MVA had created an artificial shortage so that “power tenders are inflated to earn big money in coal import”.

The death toll has climbed to 5,22,149 with 33 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.75 per cent, the health ministry said.

An increase of 838 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 0.56 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.50 per cent, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,25,17,724, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.21 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 187.46 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23 last year.

The 33 new fatalities include 31 from Kerala and two from Delhi.

The health ministry said that 5,22,149 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,47,831 from Maharashtra, 68,781 from Kerala, 40,057 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,164 from Delhi, 23,502 from Uttar Pradesh and 21,200 from West Bengal.

It said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

BENGALURU: With the R value crossing 1 in India, Karnataka is among the top five states that is inching towards the national average. Renowned epidemiologist Dr Giridhara Babu on Friday took to Twitter and warned states to be prepared to handle the rise in Covid cases.

Dr Babu, who is part of the state Covid Technical Advisory Committee, tweeted, “R is 1.29 for India. Not to panic, but to prepare depending on the proportion of severe illness requiring hospitalisation,” He said R is nearing 1 in Manipur (0.99), Himachal Pradesh (0.96), Karnataka (0.95), Maharashtra (0.94), Bihar (0.94), Rajasthan (0.93), Goa (0.93), Tamil Nadu (0.92) and Mizoram (0.92).

He said that states should track infections and severity by monitoring clinical symptoms, looking for clusters or atypical symptoms and increasing testing levels in the states. States and union territories that need immediate attention as their R value is above national average (1.09) are Uttar Pradesh (1.38), Delhi (1.39), Haryana (1.28), Punjab (1.13), Uttarakhand (1.04) and Chandigarh (1.05). Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said in Mysuru, “People should not now think that Covid is far away and we don’t have to worry. It is important to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour especially masking up and vaccinations.”

Vaccines for age group 5-12 soon

He said the state has information that the Union government is making arrangements to vaccinate even children from 5-12 years of age.

What is R value?
The R value is a way of rating coronavirus or any diseases ability to spread. R is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to, on average. SARS-CoV02 would have a reproduction number of about three.

How is R value calculated?
Scientists work backwards to calculate R. Certain data such as the number of people dying, admitted to hospital or testing positive for the virus over time is used to estimate how easily the virus is spreading.

R value above 1 dangerous?
If the R value is higher than one, then the number of cases keeps increasing. But if the value is lower, the disease will eventually stop spreading, because not people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.