If initial reports are an indication then BJP may be fielding Madhuri from Pune Lok Sabha seat. The Party is considering fielding Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit-Nene from the Pune Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 general elections, party sources said. In June this year, BJP chief Amit Shah had met the actor at her residence in Mumbai during his party’s ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ (Contact for Support) programme and briefed her on the achievements of the Narendra Modi government. A senior state BJP leader told media Thursday that her name has been shortlisted for the Pune Lok Sabha seat.”The party is seriously considering giving candidature to Madhuri Dixit in the 2019 general elections. We think the Pune Lok Sabha constituency will be better for her,” he said.

“The party is in the process of finalising the list of probables for several Lok Sabha seats and Dixit’s name has been shortlisted for the Pune Lok Sabha constituency…she is being seriously considered for it,” the leader said.In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had snatched the Pune Lok Sabha seat from the Congress, with Anil Shirole winning by a margin of over three lakh votes.On the plans to field the actor, a senior BJP functionary said, “Such tactics were implemented by Narendra Modi in Gujarat when he became the chief minister for the first time. He changed all the candidates in local bodies election and the party reaped benefits of that decision. As fresh faces were introduced, there was nothing to criticise them with. It left the opposition shocked and the BJP won maximum seats and retained power.”

PTI

 Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been advised complete rest for up to five days after he injured his vocal chords during an exhaustive 17-day election campaign for Congress candidates in poll-bound states. He addressed over 70 public rallies.

During this period, Sidhu also travelled to Pakistan for three days for the groundbreaking foundation stone laying ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor.’

“The exhaustive schedule has injured his vocal cords. The doctors have told him that he was on the brink of losing his voice and have suggested complete three to five days rest,” an official spokesperson said here on Thursday.

“The continuous helicopter and plane travel has been detrimental to his health as he is on an embolism (obstruction of an artery, typically by a clot of blood or an air bubble) treatment, he had suffered a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) due to excess air travel some years ago. He has undergone a series of haematology (blood) tests which require sincere evaluation,” said the spokesperson.

Sidhu, according to the spokesperson, “has gone to an undisclosed location” for a complete check up and recovery. “He is being administered specialized medication, along with breathing exercises and physiotherapy.”

The cricketer-turned-politician was a BJP MP from Amritsar from 2004 to 2014. He joined the Congress in January 2017, just days ahead of Assembly polls.

IANS

There has been a communication gap in conveying the government’s welfare measures in Rajasthan and this has been addressed, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has said as the state goes to the polls on Friday to choose a new Assembly amidst reports of anti-incumbency jitters for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

He also conceded that incidents of lynchings in the state were bad but the Raje government had taken swift action in those cases.

“The issue was a communication gap to an extent and we in the party forum started effective communication. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th (of November) were the three revolutionary days when millions of our workers went to more than two crore families and they saw that people were so happy with (the government’s) schemes because many benefits reached the masses. They speak for those because the people are grateful and not ungrateful,” Javadekar told IANS in an interview.

Beneficiaries of welfare schemes are the messengers of BJP in the elections and the poor have “decisively shifted” to the party as they see Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of them, said Javadekar, the BJP’s poll in-charge in Rajasthan.

He also said BJP was fighting the election on the issue of development. The Vasundhara Raje government has fulfilled 95 per cent of its promises and will break the jinx of past 20 years in which Congress and BJP have alternated in power after every five years.

Javadekar, who was the poll in-charge of Karnataka, where the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the polls held earlier this year, was asked about the shortcomings he saw when he was given charge of the state.

He denied that it was a difficult election for the BJP.

“Once Congress, once BJP has happened for the last 20 years. But this time we will break that jinx and we will repeat because voters overall in the country have changed. The poorer sections of society feel Modi as one of them. They have shifted decisively from Congress to BJP and, therefore, Congress which had 16 states in 2014, is now reduced to only four while the BJP, which had six states, has risen to 19. So this is the decisive shift in Indian politics and we are going to repeat it,” he said.

Asked if BJP was facing anti-incumbency as it denied tickets to 43 MLAs, he said the party was facing “pro-incumbency”.

“This is not anti-incumbency, this is pro-incumbency where you always change 25 per cent change of your MLAs and that is based on assessment of constituencies.”

The BJP leader rejected poll surveys that have shown that Congress is ahead in the electoral battle.

“In Uttar Pradesh also, surveys were showing that BJP will win 150 seats then they said 180 seats but nobody predicted a complete victory. We got 325. Same thing will happen here and the surveys will fail,” he said.

On the Congress saying that Modi’s rallies made little impact as there is deep resentment against the Raje government, he said “it is sour grapes story” for the opposition party.

“Modi is the most effective communicator and people are allied with him,” he said.

Javadekar also rejected Congress charge of the Raje government not fulfilling most of its promises.

“Out of 611 promises under 20 broad topics, we have delivered on 95 per cent. We challenge Congress or anybody to prove that we have not completed this because we have all the records to show and the beneficiaries are our ambassadors. They are our messengers, they are spreading the message so that the BJP repeats.”

With Congress raising issues of agrarian distress, unemployment, rapes, lynchings and “poor” law and order, Javadekar said Rajasthan has effectively used fast track courts for rape cases and nine death penalties have been awarded.

“So there is deterrence. Women are completely safe in Rajasthan,” he said.

Referring to the incidents of lynching, he said the culprits were nabbed quickly and the proceedings were on fast track to give punishment.

“The way it is presented as if it is lynching of a particular community. It is not the case. The overall lynchings show that people from all religions were targeted for different reasons at different places,” he said.

Javadekar said the BJP was fighting the election on the issue of development and the Raje government has “delivered on everything.”

The BJP leader said that 50 lakh women have got mobiles at Rs 100, 40 lakh women have got Ujjwala (cooking) gas, 50 lakh people have got Mudra loan, 11 lakh girl children born in the last two years got Rs 2,500 immediately after birth and Rs 2,500 in the first year, high schools were upgraded in 5,000 villages, 7000 villages got cemented roads and business and tourism were growing.

He said irrigation was a major issue concerning farmers and the state government brought two major irrigation schemes.

“Tourism, on an average, is growing at 10 per cent but in Rajasthan it is growing at 15 per cent. The government’s development programmes, infrastructure and law and order, everything is good,” he said.

IANS

 The Panaji Bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday adjourned for the third time the hearing of a petition seeking clarity on the health status of ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The state government has sought more time to respond to a notice issued by the court last month to the state Chief Secretary to file an affidavit specifying Parrikar’s health status.

Speaking to reporters in Panaji on Thursday, Rohit Bras de sa, advocate for the petitioner Trajano D’Mello, said that the High Court had directed the state advocate general to file a reply by December 7, while adjourning the matter for hearing on December 11.

“Today, is the third time they are asking for adjournment. Now the Court has directed them to file their reply by tomorrow, that is December 7. The matter is coming up on December 11,” de sa told reporters.

D’Mello, in his petition filed earlier this month, had sought directions to state Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma to evaluate the former Defence Minister’s health by a panel of expert doctors and release the report in the public domain.

Parrikar is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and Delhi for nearly nine months.

He returned from New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 14 and has not has not attended any official meeting or function outside his private residence.

The Opposition, as well the ruling coalition’s allies, have been demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation, claiming that the administration has come to a standstill due to his absence.

Ever since Parrikar’s health started deteriorating there has been no health bulletin, as demanded by the Opposition, forthcoming from the Chief Minister’s Office, barring several informal intimations to the media, which suggested that he was suffering from “indigestion” and “mild pancreatitis”.

IANS

 Calling the Ram temple a vote bank politics of the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said all political parties should respect the judiciary and let it do its job over the Ayodhya dispute.

Speaking to IANS, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said all political parties should welcome whatever verdict the Supreme Court gives on the dragging row.

“Whatever be the verdict, it should be welcomed by the Congress, BJP, AAP, Sunni Waqf Board and also the Ram Lalla party. The AAP will respect the verdict and so should others,” he said.

In 1992 on this day, a large crowd demolished a 16th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya and quickly set up a makeshift temple at the spot. Hindu groups want to build a grand temple at the site.

The matter is now in the Supreme Court, which in October deferred the Ayodhya hearing to January 2019 citing that the issue was not a priority for it.

Sanjay Singh attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party for using the temple issue as a vote bank.

“Ram Temple is vote bank politics for BJP. They don’t care about Lord Rama. For past 25 years, they are shouting about building a temple, but are not announcing the dates as to when they will build a temple.”

The BJP, Sanjay Singh said, follows the Supreme court in selectively.

“They claim to care about women’s right by following the court’s orders on Triple Talaq, but not on Sabarimala… You have to follow the court’s order in full and with all respect,” he added.

IANS

Over 2.8 crore people are eligible to vote in Telangana which will elect a new Assembly on Friday.

Political fortunes of 1,821 candidates will be decided in 119 constituencies in the first full-fledged election in India’s youngest state.

Election authorities have made elaborate arrangements for a smooth conduct of the polling process in 32,815 polling stations.

A total of 280,747,22 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. They include 1,41,56,182 men and 1,39,05,811 women. The electorate also include 10,038 service voters and 249 overseas Indian electors.

Serilingampalli constituency in Greater Hyderabad has over 5.75 lakh voters, the highest in the state, while Bhadrachalam in Khammam district has least voters – 1.37 lakh.

According to Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar, polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 106 constituencies while in 13 Left Wing Extremism affected constituencies polling will conclude at 4 p.m.

Over 50,000 security personnel including 18,860 drafted from neighbouring states and central forces were deployed as part of the massive security arrangements.

As the Communist Party of India-Maoist has given a call for boycott of elections, the police heightened the vigil in areas bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

Over 1.50 lakh polling personnel were on duty to conduct the polling process. As many as 55,329 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and 39,763 control units will be used.

For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were being installed across the state. After a voter casts his vote on EVM, VVPAT attached to the machine will display for seven seconds the choice made by the voter.

The elections are expected to be a close contest between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which is contesting all seats on its own, and the Congress-led People’s Front.

The opposition alliance also includes Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist Party of India and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is contesting all seats on its own, is the third force in some constituencies.

The Bahujan Left Front (BLD) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are also contesting a majority of the seats.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is contesting eight seats in Hyderabad.

TRS had opted for dissolution of Assembly in September, eight months before its term was to end.

Due to the presence of independents and TRS and Congress rebels in some segments, the contest has become multi-cornered.

Officials said they were keeping a close watch to stop distribution of cash, liquor or gifts among people by political parties or candidates.

Over Rs.110 crore cash and over 5 lakh litres of liquor seized across the state over last one month.

Liquor shops across the state were shut down on Wednesday evening when campaigning ended. They will reopen only after completion of polling. Orders prohibiting bulk SMSs of political nature will also remain in force during the period.

IANS

 Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has launched yet another verbal attack against Catholic bishops, calling them useless and saying they should be killed, according to the transcription of one of his speeches released by the presidential office on Thursday.

More than 85 per cent of the country’s population is Catholic.

“These bishops of yours, kill them. These b*****ds are useless. All they do is criticize,” Duterte said in a part tagalog, part English speech in Manila on Wednesday night.

At a later event, he called the Catholic church “the most hypocritical institution in the entire Philippines” and claimed that “90 per cent” of priests were gay, Efe news reported.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) refused to comment.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo later defended Duterte’s remarks, saying they should not be taken literally as they had only been used for dramatic effect.

Two weeks ago, the President insulted Catholic bishops and priests, saying Filipinos should not go to church to pay for “idiots”.

Days earlier, Duterte accused Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David — one of his most vocal critics — of stealing church donations. The bishop responded by calling the leader a “very sick man”.

The conflict between Duterte and the Catholic Church goes back to February 2017, when the CBCP criticized the President’s violent anti-drugs campaign, calling it a “reign of terror”.

Duterte retaliated by calling them “s**s of b*****s”.

IANS