Vijayawada, Apr 9 : On the last day of election campaign for the general election on April 11, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party National President N Chandrababu Naidu came down heavily on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and YSRCP President Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy by alleging that they were acting like pet dogs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing an election meeting in Gurazala town in Guntur district on Tuesday, Mr Naidu said that Mr Modi dictates Mr Rao and Mr Reddy and they follow his directions.

He said that Telangana Chief Minister announced that he would merge the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) into the Congress, if separate Telangana state was carved out.

However, after creating of Telangana state, Mr Rao did not merge his party into the Congress but abused UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, he flayed.

The Telangana government approached the Supreme Court on the construction of Polavaram irrigation project, he pointed out and asked voters to reject YSRCP which is being supported by Mr Chandrashekar Rao.

?Jagan Reddy is wooing voters to give one opportunity to rule the state. If he is given one opportunity, the construction of Polavaram will come to halt. The control over the Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam projects will land into the hands of Telangana state. Water will be provided to Rayalaseema region through PR Padu and Mucchumarri head regulators? he predicted.

The Chief Minister participated in a road show and addressed gathering in Sattenapalli on the last day.

Accusing the Prime Minister of ruining the National Institutions, he said that if 100 Modis came, they could not do any harm to him.

He said that retired IAS officers expressed anguish for diluting the Election Commission of India.

Deputy Commissioner of Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana, confirmed the incident and said that army has been called out to prevent violence.

The Personal Security Officer (PSO) took the bullets on himself and died on the spot.

Curfew was clamped in the Kishtwar town on Tuesday when terrorists attacked RSS leader Chandrakant Sharma and killed a policeman on his security duty. Another policeman was critically injured.

Sharma, who received bullet injuries, was being operated at the district hospital at Kishtwar.

Security forces have launched a search operation for those involved in the terror incident.

Deputy Commissioner of Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana, confirmed the incident and said that army has been called out to prevent violence.

This is the first election-related terror attack during the ongoing elections for the Lok Sabha in Jammu and Kashmir. Polling for the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, of which Kishtwar is a segment, is scheduled to be held on 18 April during the second of the 5-phase election in J&K. Minister of state in the PMO, Dr Jitendera Singh, is seeking re-election as BJP candidate.

Reports said that armed terrorists attacked Sharma inside the hospital where he was working as a medical assistant. However, the Personal Security Officer (PSO) took the bullets on himself and died on the spot.

The incident has come a few months after two RSS and BJP leaders, Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar (both brothers), were gunned down by terrorists in Kishtwar town.

These incidents indicate that terrorists were regrouping in the Kishtwar area that was in the pre-2004 era a hotbed of militancy.

Agencies

New Delhi: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday termed Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister as ‘Bhrasht Nath’ while referring to the recent Income Tax (IT) raids, the CM’s office reacted saying that the PM was “overlooking” the scams during the Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s tenure. Further, the CMO also mounted attack on the BJP-led centre by terming the government as “corrupt in itself”.

“Modi is scared and has forgotten the Vyapam Scam, e-tendering scam and several other such scams. Nothing will be found in the raids as it is a political attack,” the CMO hit out at the Prime Minister. (

“Modi government is self-corrupt and no one can accuse Kamal Nath who is a parliamentarian for the past 10 years. Even Kailash Vijaywargiya was aware of these raids as they sponsored by the BJP,” the CMO added.

Notably, PM Modi said in an exclusive interview to News-18 that “Bhrasht Nath (referring to Kamal Nath) could say anything, but it doesn’t matter. Action needs to be taken on scams and corruption. Scams were put in cold storage and we thought they should be probed. If the scams are surfacing, the people behind them should also come forward”.

The IT department had on Sunday launched pre-dawn raids at 52 locations of people and associates linked to Nath by involving about 300 tax sleuths.

Meanwhile, Kamal Nath’s officer on special duty (OSD) Praveen Kakkar today termed the raids as “political operation” and said that the IT officials couldn’t find anything “objectionable”. “Despite the 2-day long raid they didn’t find any document that they could seize, they didn’t recover any cash or jewellery either. They didn’t find anything objectionable, it was a political operation,” Praveen Kakkar told

Hours after launching the poll manifesto, BJP president Amit Shah on Monday met veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.

The meeting comes days after Advani and Joshi were denied tickets by the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting is being viewed as a means to disperse the tension between the party and the veteran leaders.

LK Advani was replaced with Amit Shah in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, while MM Joshi was replaced by Satyadev Pachauri in Kanpur.

Both the leaders were extremely unhappy over the way in which their names were dropped from the BJP list.

Advani did not say anything about being dropped from the party’s list of Lok Sabha candidates but wrote a blog asserting his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as “anti-national”.

Joshi, after being denied party ticket, had written a letter stating that the BJP had conveyed to him that he should not contest the ensuing parliamentary election from Kanpur and elsewhere.

Advani and Joshi were the founding members of the BJP, along with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

A number of veteran leaders, including Shanta Kumar, BC Khanduri and Kariya Munda- all in their 80s- have not been fielded by the BJP in the polls, seen as part of its strategy under PM Modi and Amit Shah to ease them out and groom younger leaders in their place.

LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were moved out of the BJP’s highest decision-making body, Parliamentary Board, in 2014 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to victory and Shah was made its president.

Both veterans were made members of ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ (a group of mentors), a body which has never met.

Agencies

Lucknow, Apr 9 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati will address rallies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to seek vote for the party candidates on Wednesday.

Party sources here said while the first rally will be held at Maharaj college ground in Mysore, the second one will be held at Wing Convention centre in Chennai.

She had launched campaigning for the party from Odisha on April 2 and after covering Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra, she held series of meeting in UP. She also joined the first alliance rally at Deoband in Saharanpur on April 7.

Bagalkote, Karnataka, Apr 9 : Senior Bharaitya Janata Party leader and former Karnataka Deputy Chief minister K S Eshwarappa said that there was no space for social justice in the Congress party.
Addressing newsmen here on Tuesday, he said, “the prominent minority community leaders quitting this party including H T Sangliana and J Alexander, and this proved that Congress is shedding only crocodile tears for minority community to garner votes”.
Referring to the criticism by Congress leaders on BJP’s election manifesto for Lok Sabha election, which was released by the prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday, he said “These people enjoyed power taking name of Congress in the country”.
Terming the BJP manifesto as the game-changer in the coming years, the BJP leader said “People of the country got elated to know that BJP is pitching for a Unified Civil Code. The manifesto was also welcomed by all sections in the society, including youth and farmers of the nation” he added.

Bengaluru, Apr 9 : As many as 237 candidates were in the fray for the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies which goes to poll for the second phase in Karnataka on April 23 after withdrawal of 45 candidates from contest.

According to official sources, among the 14 Lok Sabha seats, a highest number of 57 candidates were in the fray for the Belagvi Lok Sabha seat, while Raichur accounted for lowest number of candidates in the fray with five candidates.
The constituencies, which goes to poll on April 23 were Belagavi, Koppal, Chikkodi, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Bagalakote, Vijayapura, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere and Shivamogga.
All the sitting MP’s, including Mallikarjuna Kharge (Kalaburagi), Ramesh Jigajinagi (Vijayapura), Ananthakumara Hegde (Uttarakannaa), Prahlad Joshi (Dharwad) Suresh Angagi (Belagavi) were seeking a re-election.

It may be recalled that for the first phase poll in Karnataka, which goes to poll on 14 Lok Sabha seats on April-18, as many as 241 candidates, including 133 independents were in the fray.

With the three major parties not favouring many candidates from the community and polarisation of voters, Karnataka hasn’t elected a Muslim MP since 2004.

Experts say delimitation of constituencies also had an impact on winnability, although Muslim leaders say that should not be a factor while giving representation.

Of the 84 MPs Karnataka sent to Parliament since 2004, Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi, from Kalaburgi in 2004, was the only Muslim. The Congress and JD(S) together had only 11 Muslim candidate from 2004 to 2019, while the BJP had none. These 11 make up for less than 10% of the seats (112) that were at play, while Karnataka has more than 12% Muslims.

“There are no clear Muslim constituencies where the community votes decide the winner,” said political scientist Muzaffar Assadi. “Parties also don’t encourage leaders to grow beyond community identity markers. Another factor is that there has been a polarisation of voters, especially when the BJP is contesting.”

He explains that polarisation doesn’t have an impact where Congress and JD(S) fight each other — voters see candidates as party members — but the Hindu-Muslim divide is apparent when the BJP is in play “Hindu votes get consolidated,” he said.

This year, too, there is just one Muslim in the fray Congress’ Rizwan Arshad from Bengaluru Central and only time can tell if the state will break the trend. Karnataka has not elected too many Muslims over the years: There were two in 1989, BM Mujahid from Dharwad South and CK Jaffer Sharief from Bengaluru North, and one  in each of the election from 1991 to 2004.

Between 1991 and 2004, Sharief won thrice (1991, 1998 and 1999), Qamar ul Islam won in 1996 and Saradgi in 2004. Even in these elections, the Congress and JD(S) together fielded Muslims in not more than five seats. 

Former deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa last week told former MLA Iqbal Ansari to “sweep the BJP offices for 10 years” if he wanted a ticket, reflecting BJP’s stand. Muslim leaders within the Congress were hoping to get at least three seats this time, including one in Bidar, where the party eventually opted for Eshwar Khandre.

Congress’ Roshan Baig rubbished theories on winnability. “There’s a lot of talk about social justice, but where is it? Do all the candidates win? The idea is to encourage people, give them representation and back them to win,” he said.

Courtesy : TOI

Mandya, Apr 9: JD(S) workers clashed with Ambareesh fans at Gurudevarahalli near Bharatinagar in Maddur taluk of the district on the night of Sunday April 7. In this incident six persons were injured.

At around 8 pm on Sunday, hundreds of Ambareesh fans were waiting for the arrival of Sumalatha at Kere Circle in Gurudevarahalli. A JD(S) worker, who was passing that way, blew his vehicle’s horn seeking space to ride his vehicle away. On this occasion, a fight occurred between Ambareesh fans and a gang led by a person named Karthik. Again at 11.30 the same night, the two groups fought it out near Lord Eshwara temple in the village.

JD(S) Lok Sabha candidate from here, Nikhil Kumaraswamy visited the village and met the injured JD(S) workers. He also consoled them.

Agencies

New Delhi, Apr 9 : Describing the BJP manifesto as ‘The voice of an isolated man’, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday called it ‘short sighted’ and ‘arrogant’.

In a post on social media, Mr Gandhi said, ”The Congress manifesto was created through discussion. The voice of over a million Indian people, it is wise and powerful. The BJP manifesto was created in a closed room. The voice of an isolated man, it is short sighted and arrogant.”

The BJP proclamation was released on Monday. While stressing on national security, the BJP manifesto reiterates the party’s policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism.

It also promises pension to farmers and small traders after the age of 60.