Author: News Analysis India
It’s perhaps time to reassess Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. A one-term minister in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and a successful Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president, Baghel was obdurately anti-upper caste, impatient with bureaucracy and slow to warm up to fresh ideas and new people. Rooted in rustic manners and deriving energy from his native intelligence, Baghel is a steadfast Congressman. He is junior to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, his own guru Digvijay Singh and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot by several years. So what’s driving him to challenge the prime minister in ways that no Congress leader has…
N Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president, is mulling to move the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Election Commission to tally slips from at least 25 per cent Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines with record of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly constituency in the state. “I have been advocating the usage of ballot papers instead of EVMs, which can be tampered. But the Election Commission was not bothered. At least now, it should have a rethinking on conducting the polls with ballot papers,” the chief minister said. There…
A day after the EC sought a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Latur, officials from the state Chief Electoral Office said that a report has been sent to the poll panel.Advertising Addressing a rally at Ausa in Latur, Modi on Tuesday had appealed to first-time voters to “dedicate” their votes to the “brave soldiers” who carried out the Balakot air strike and to the “braves martyred” in the Pulwama attack. Following this, EC had asked a report from the state chief electoral officer. “The references are there in the videos and everyone has seen it. We have sent a factual…
Phase 1 of Lok Sabha Election 2019 will be held on April 11, Thursday, on 91 seats and voters will be choosing their representatives from nearly 1,300 candidates. Before the first phase of the national election, the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), a non-governmental organisation that works towards electoral and political reforms, has released a report identifying the richest and poorest candidates. According to the report, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy or KV Reddy, the Congress party candidate from Telangana’s Chevella Lok Sabha constituency, is the richest candidate in phase 1 elections with family assets of Rs. 895 crore. Mr Reddy owns movable assets of Rs. 223 crore, while the movable…
The Indian government may have to make a series of major changes at the top of the nation’s civil service if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is re-elected to a second term in May, according to multiple sources in the administration. At least eight senior bureaucrats in the prime minister’s office have either sought a transfer to other departments or plan to take premature retirement, three government officials said. The officials, from the prime minister’s office, the home (interior) minis ..
Hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was quoted as saying he sees a better chance of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP wins the national election, reactions poured in from the opposition, which is often accused by the Prime Minister and the ruling BJP of “speaking Pakistan’s language”. Leaders from the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Jammu and Kashmir politicians Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti seized the chance to get back at the PM and the ruling party. Imran Khan has said if the next government in India were led by the Congress party,…
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections on Monday, three days before the first phase of polling. Drafting a vision for the future, or making a set of commitments, for a party which has been in power for five years is a challenge because it gives rise to an obvious question: why have these promises not been fulfilled in the preceding five years? The BJP has addressed this question by focusing on both what it considers to be its achievements since 2014, especially in the realm of rural welfare and infrastructure, and the unfinished…
Suspected terrorists fired at a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader and killed his personal security officer at a hospital in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar, the police said. The local RSS leader, identified as Chandrakanta, was injured in the attack that targeted him, officials said. Mr Chandrakanta had gone to a local hospital for a check-up, they added. Officials said the suspected terrorists barged into the hospital and snatched the personal security officer’s weapon. They attempted to fire at the RSS leader. However, in a scuffle, the security official was shot dead while the RSS leader was injured Senior police officials…
The Congress on Friday moved the Election Commission (EC) alleging wilful non-disclosure of liabilities by BJP President Amit Shah and sought his disqualification from contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Gandhinagar. The party also demanded action against Shah for filing a “false affidavit.” In its complaint, the Congress said that Shah has “once again filed a false affidavit with two glaring omissions.” “First, with regard to a plot in Gandhinagar and second, with regard to loans taken from a commercial bank by his son for which he is the guarantor,” the Congress said in its complaint. Citing reports, the party…
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha joined the Congress on Saturday at the party headquarters in New Delhi. He was with the BJP till recently. Hours later, the Congress announced his candidature for the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha cinstituency in Bihar to take on Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and in charge of party’s Bihar unit Shaktisinh Gohil welcomed Mr. Sinha into the party fold. Mr. Venugopal termed him the “best politician who was earlier with the wrong party“.