Nasheman News :  Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will break up the country if they return to power in the 2019 general elections.

“Agar inki desh mein dobara sarkar aa gayi 2019 mein, toh yeh desh ke tukde tukde kar dengey (If they return to power in the 2019 elections, they will break up the country),” Kejriwal told the media in Sangrur town in Punjab, around 130 km from here.

Kejriwal said that people in the country wanted to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha polls.

“The country is fed up with the five year rule of Modi and Amit Shah. They have destroyed this country in five years. They have poisoned the minds of people,” the Delhi Chief Minister said.

“The whole country wants to defeat them. Leaders of all parties have got together and urged people to defeat them (BJP) in the elections,” Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal, who was accompanied by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia, reached Sangrur by train.

After meeting party leaders from Punjab, Kejriwal left for Barnala town by road to launch the party’s campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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.

Nasheman News : Congress stalwart Sonia Gandhi on Saturday described the opposition rally here as an “important attempt” to galvanise leaders across the political spectrum to fight the “arrogant and divisive” Narendra Modi government.

In her message to the rally, which she and her son Congress President Rahul Gandhi decided to give a miss, she wished the event “all success”.

“This rally marks an important attempt to galvanise leaders across the political spectrum to fight the arrogant and divisive Modi-rule. I wish them all the success,” she said.

Her message was read out by Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who represented the party, along with its spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi at the Brigade Parade ground organised by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Senior leaders of 23 political parties attended the rally.

Painting a grim picture of the country, Gandhi said: “Crisis looms across our farmers and extends to our borders; the youth are jobless; rice and jute farmers are under stress and fishermen are incurring deep losses.

“The country at large is under immense strain — economically our citizens have been screeched, politically our institutions have been undermined and socially our pluralistic fabric stands vitiated.”

The former Congress president said the upcoming Lok Sabha election would not be an “ordinary one”.

“This will be an election to restore the nation’s faith in democracy, defend our secular ethos and heritage; and defeat the forces that are trying to sabotage the Constitution of India.”

Nasheman News : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “publicity Prime Minister” and said the nation needs a new Prime Minister who can perform.

“This Prime Minister is a publicity Prime Minister, not a performing Prime Minister. He and his government have betrayed the nation. 

“The country wants a performing Prime Minister, someone who would work for the betterment of the poor,” Naidu said here at Mamata Banerjee’s united opposition rally.

Accusing the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre of trying to divide the nation, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief said the opposition forces were getting united to save the democracy and urged people to carefully choose who they like to go with in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“Today is a historic day. The BJP and NDA want to divide India and we want to unite India. That is the purpose all the leaders have come here with one voice — Save India, save democracy and also unite India — that is the campaign we are going ahead with,” Naidu said.

“Do you want Modi and Shah to come back in power (after 2019)? Do you want change or not?” he asked the massive crowd at the rally.

Hailing West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee’s efforts to bring senior opposition leaders from across the country on one stage, Naidu said he would like to hold a similar opposition rally in Andhra Pradesh’s Amaravati and invited all the leaders present on the stage at the Brigade Parade Ground.

“We want to organise another rally like this in Amaravati. I invite all the leaders there,” he said.

He criticised a number of central government policies, including the demonitisation move, GST, agricultural policies and fuel price hike, claiming current regime has only given a “high performance in corruption”.

“Modi betrayed farmers in a big way. A big fraud is going on in the name of agricultural policies. A number of states, including Andhra Pradesh and Bengal are doing far better than the Centre in terms of farmer welfare,” he said.

He further accused the Centre of interfering with the federal set-up and harassing the states run by opposition parties’ governments.

“The government is also interfering in the federal set up. They are harassing the states. They are creating problems in Kashmir and Karnataka. We want to warn the Centre from here today that if it misbehaves with Karnataka in any way, it will have to pay a big price,” Naidu said referring to the claims of horse trading allegedly underway to destabilise the JD-S-Congress government.

Echoing former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Naidu also termed the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) as a big fraud and said the country should go back to paper ballots in the next elections.

He said the entire country’s mood is to have a new Prime Minister in 2019.

“In 2019 India is going to see a new Prime Minister. That is the mood of the nation. We are considering the nation first. To protect the nation and save democracy everyone in this country must be united,” he added.

Nasheman News :  Calling upon all regional parties to come together, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday said they are the only ones who can fulfil the aspirations of the people and termed the Centre’s ruling BJP a “paper tiger”.

“The non-BJP leaders should join hands and root out the BJP. BJP is merely a paper tiger. We the regional parties are the only ones which can understand and fulfil the aspirations of the people,” Kumaraswamy said at the United India Rally at the Brigade Parade Ground here.

“I firmly believe that regional parties have the strong instinct to connect with people and understand the common man’s interest in their individual states.”

Citing examples, he said: “In Tamil Nadu we saw the late M. Karunanidhiji who won the hearts of the people and met their aspirations.

“Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the SP-BSP have been doing a great job. If you go to Andhra Pradesh, (Chief Minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu has taken the state to new heights. 

“Mamata Banerjee has transformed West Bengal in the last seven years. She has empowered women in the state.

“All regional leaders have strived to protect the interest of their states. Real India is at the grassroots. It is one of the strongest democracies in the world.”

Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party as “undemocratic and against the Constitution”, Kumaraswamy said the Union government has turned deaf and blind to the plight of the common man.

“Today, we are witnessing a system where ironically a democratic government is headed by undemocratic, anti-constitutional leaders at the Centre. They do not respect people’s aspirations.

“The Union Government has turned blind and deaf to the plight of the common man. The irony is that though the states understand their problems, their hands are tied. They were made mute spectators. This is not a healthy sign.”

Kumaraswamy was all praise for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who organised the opposition rally, and urged her to look after the well being of the people. 

“Mamata Banerjee’s simplicity and the way she responds to their (people’s) grievances, the urge she has for the well being of the people of the country have left indelible impression on me.

“Didi (elder sister, as Mamata Banerjee is affectionately called) has always been a role model for the country. She has always stood for women empowerment. I am happy to be part of this rally.

“We will march together to build a new, strong India. My father had taught me over the years the same lesson, to be simple and humble like Didi.”