The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) charging that the officers in the state were targeting on the BJP leaders and workers on the guise of election code of conduct. Union pastor Prakash Javadekar, the BJP’s in-charge for Karnataka elections, met the election official and lodged the complaint.

Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, P Muralidhar Rao- BJP’s incharge for Karnataka polls, former deputy chief minister R Ashoka and MP P C Mohan were a also part of the delegation led by Prakash Javadekar.

As per the BJP, the officers in the state evacuated party flags that had Om image tied on houses of party workers harming religious sentiments

The BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday charged that the state government is dead.
During a visit to a paddy field in Vidyanagar he said “The government is dead. Shouldn’t something be said about government officers? Are they dead, as well?”

“There is no water for the paddy crop because of bungle of water by authorities at the Tungabhadra reservoir. Farmers have suffered a loss of Rs 500 crore,” he said.
Yedyurappa also had interaction with farmers at Chennabasava Kalyan Mantap. He promised to secure farmer’s interests if the BJP was voted to power.

Social media is a wonderful place. It gives you the power to say whatever you want to say without confronting the concerned person directly.

But, ever since ruling parties and Opposition parties have started indulging in trolling, it has become an entertaining place for the internet spectators. Instead of giving out memos, parties are trolling each other with memes.

Congress, especially, shows no mercy towards its opponents on social media at all. From trolling the Prime Minister by calling him a Santa Claus to showcasing the list of Opposition parties’ corrupt MLAs, INC has done it all.
This time Congress went on and shared a video mocking Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath by revealing his browser history on their official twitter handle.

By claiming that they are revealing Yogi Adityanath’s secret strategy, Congress talked about his browsing history. Some of the searches included “How to make hate speeches”, “How to bring bad governance” (citing Gorakhpur’s example), “How to ensure social disharmony” and “how to be an absentee CM”.

Quoting various video clips from news channels along with examples, the video talked about Kasganj violence, Gorakhpur deaths, and Yogi’s public speeches.

The last search showed him searching “How to make Yogi PM in 2019” as well.

The life remained by and large normal in Uttar Pradesh today despite a country-wide shut down called by some groups against the caste-based reservations in jobs and education.

The official sources said there was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state till around noon during the ongoing ‘Bharat Bandh.’

The life in state capital Lucknow remained normal with traders opening their shops and vehicles plying on the roads.

The government and private offices and schools too functioned without any hinderance. The Centre had yesterday advised all states to beef up security and prevent any violence during the Bharat Bandh.

In its advisory, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said the districts magistrates and superintendent of police would be held personally responsible for any violence in their area.

Today’s anti-quota protest came a week after a nationwide protest by Dalit groups against “dilution” of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court, entailing massive violence in different parts of the country and leading to the death of nine people.

The Union Home Ministry has asked states to intensify patrolling in all sensitive localities to ensure that no loss of life or damage to property occurs during the shut down today.

Election officials under the Kalghatgi constituency seized 7.72 kg of gold ornaments, said to be worth Rs 2.55 crore near Kadabagatti checkpost at Alnavar on Monday.

Officials said the ornaments were being transported with no documents and consequently, a case of illegal transportation of gold ornaments case had been enlisted.

The gold was being transported from Goa towards Hubballi, when the officials stopped the car and confiscated the gold at around 12.30 pm.

The main election officer of the district Deputy Commissioner S B Bommanahlli, said the seizure was a suspect of gold ornaments being transported illegally with an aim of distributing it to the voters.

Prateek Narvekar of Goa and Vikramsingh Devisingh Rathod of Rajasthan, who were transporting the gold, have been arrested. A case has been enrolled at the Alnavar police station.

In another case, election officials seized Rs 30 lakh in cash which was being transported without documents, close Gudageri Cross at Saunshi town in Dharwad.

The money was being transported from Laxmeshwar to Kundgol and the vehicle was captured close to a checkpost.

The election officials also seized 100 LED TVs which were being transported with no documents close to a checkpost in Aurad taluk of Bidar region.

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into a girl’s accusations of gang rape against a BJP legislator and the subsequent death of her father in police custody, officials said.

Confirming this, Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Anand Kumar told IANS that the SIT, which will be headed by the SP (Crime) of Lucknow, will look “into the entire gamut of allegations… from the beginning of the issue in June last year (which is when the 18-year-old first complained of rape by Unnao MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger)”.

Informed sources said that hugely embarrassed by the developments, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rolled out a damage control action plan which included ordering the SIT probe, arrest of the BJP legislator’s brother and a parallel magisterial inquiry.

The police has suspended six officers, including station house officer of Makhi and five constables, and arrested Senger’s brother Atul Singh and four of his aides — Baua, Vineet, Shailu and Sonu.

Atul Singh was arrested on Tuesday over charges of beating Pappu Singh, the girl’s father, to death in police custody, an official said.

The arrest was made in Kanpur based on the orders of the Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh, the official added.

Pappu Singh was being forced to withdraw the case against the MLA. Upon his refusal, he was picked up by the police late on Sunday and was allegedly roughed up by Atul Singh and his aides while in custody.

He was taken to the district hospital with 18 wounds and gashes, abdominal pain and vomiting. He died soon after.

The incident triggered a political storm and public outrage in the state, forcing the police to suspend the six officials. A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the district administration.

Adityanath has also asked Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow) Rajeev Krishna to investigate the matter and has promised stern action against all perpetrators. He said no one, however mighty, will be spared.

The income of the BJP increased by 81.18 per cent to Rs 1,034.27 crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14 per cent to Rs 225.36 crore between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a report released on Tuesday said.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, seven national parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress — have declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore and expenditures of Rs 1,228.26 crore.

The report, based on the submissions made to the Election Commission, compared the total income of the BJP and Congress, their expenditure and sources of income.

“Between 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BJP increased by 81.18 per cent (Rs 463.41 crore) from Rs 570.86 crore to Rs 1034.27 crore while the income of the Congress decreased by 14 per cent (Rs 36.20 crore) from Rs 261.56 crore to Rs 225.36 crore,” it said.

The BJP had declared expenditures of Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17 while Congress incurred Rs 321.66 crore — Rs 96.30 crore more than its total income.

The report said that both the parties have declared “donations/ contributions” as one of their three main sources of income.

“The grant/ donations/ contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by the BJP forms 96.41 per cent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.644 crore under revenue from issuance of coupons by the Congress forms top most income of the party, contributing 51.32 per cent of its total income during the fiscal,” it added.

The report said that the seven national parties collected a maximum of 74.98 per cent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17.

Voluntary contributions accounted for 60 per cent (Rs 616.05 crore) of their income in the previous fiscal.

These parties received Rs 128.60 crore income in bank interest in the same fiscal.

The release said that the due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017, but the BJP submitted its report on Februray 8 and Congress on March 19.

The ADR said the BJP, Congress, NCP and CPI have consistently delayed submitting their audit reports for the past five years.

It demanded the political parties to provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act as a step to strengthen elections and democracy.

“Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI,” the report said, adding that countries such as Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan have done so.

It said the Election Commission should ensure that no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank.

The ADR said that a political party which does not submit its Income Tax returns on or before the due date should be given tax exemption and should be de-recognised.

Three Goa BJP MPs will stage a protest here against incessant disruption of the budget session of Parliament by opposition parties, especially the Congress, a party parliamentarian said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, South Goa MP Narendra Savoikar said the protest will be held on Thursday evening as part of a nationwide protest programme by BJP parliamentarians against the continuous disruptions that led to a complete washout of the second leg of the session.

“The aim of the ‘dharna’ is to show how the Congress and other political parties have been acting in an undemocratic way by disrupting Parliament during the recent budget session and not allowing government business to function,” Savoikar said.

Goa is represented by three MPs in Parliament.

The two Lok Sabha seats are represented by Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik (North Goa) and Savoikar while Vinay Tendulkar is the lone Rajya Sabha MP from the state.

An Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA’s brother was arrested on Tuesday over charges of beating a gang rape victim’s father to death in police custody, an official said.

A special team of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Atul Singh, the brother of Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kuldeep Singh Senger from Unnao who has has been accused by the teenaged girl of gang rape and threats to her family.

The arrest was made in Kanpur based on the orders of the Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh, the official ADDED.

The deceased Pappu Singh was being forced to withdraw the case against the MLA. Upon refusing, he was picked up by the police late Sunday night and was allegedly roughed up by Atul Singh and his aides in custody.

Pappu Singh was rushed to the district hospital with 18 wounds and gashes, abdominal pain and vomiting. He died soon thereafter.

The incident triggered a political storm and public outrage in the state, forcing the police to suspended six officials, including a station house officer (SHO) and five constables.

A magisterial probe has also been ordered by the district administration.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also asked Additional Director General of Police (Lucknow) Rajeev Krishna to investigate the matter and has promised stern action against all perpetrators.

He also on Monday that no one, however mighty they may be, will be spared in this case.