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 dared to?

Why is he taking on the prime minister? Will playing David against a Goliath with such cheekiness jog along his politics? Is he seeking attention or is he being led to his hara-kirialtar? Whatever the reasons behind his adrenalin, Baghel has shown unusual spunk for a Congress chief minister. Despite his initial stumbling against a bureaucratic environment, he has managed to cage the main BJP leaders which no one else in the neighbouring states has done or is even attempting to do.

Immediately on his ascension to the post of chief minister, he ordered Special Investigative Teams to probe cases against people close to ex-chief minister Raman Singh, including his son-in-law Dr Puneet Gupta, his principal secretary Aman Singh and ADG Mukesh Gupta.These probes are now coming in handy to put pressure on opponents, similar to the way that the Modi government had done through the ED and CBI. All those named above are either absconding or in court busy defending themselves rather than attacking Baghel or the Congress.

Of the lot, only Aman Singh appears to be in the clear as far as court cases or allegations being probed are concerned. A careful bureaucrat, Aman had been the backbone of the Raman Singh government but was never directly embroiled in any controversy or scam. But the cases and probes always put a brake on life as Kamal Nath and his team are experiencing in Madhya Pradesh.

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 have been reports of malfunctioning of EVMs from almost all the districts in Andhra Pradesh due to technical snags. Polling did not commence till 9 am at several places in Anantapur, Guntur, Kadapa and Kurnool due to EVM troubles.

Naidu said he is planning to file a review petition in the top court, which recently directed the poll body to tally five VVPATs with the votes cast in the EVMs in each constituency. The Election Commission had originally announced to tally one VVPAT record with the EVM in each constituency.

Chief Electoral Officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi himself could not cast his vote at Christianpeta Municipal High School in Tadepalli town in Guntur district due to malfunctioning of EVM. He pulled up the election officials in the polling station for not taking enough precautions.

According to Dwivedi, reports of only 362 of the 45,000-odd EVMs malfunctioning have come to its noitce.

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 report on the PM’s speech,” said an official.

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 assets of his wife K Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals stood at Rs. 613 crore. The movable assets of their dependent son were nearly Rs. 20 crore. He also has immovable assets of Rs. 36 crore while the same of his wife are valued at Rs. 1.81 crore.

In 2014 general election, he had declared family assets of over Rs. 528 crore.

The second richest candidate in Phase 1 of Lok Sabha election 2019 is Prasad V Potluri or PVP from YSR Congress Party. Mr Potluri is contesting from Vijayawada.

An industrialist, he owns several business firms in the Telugu states.

23 leaders have declared zero asset, says the report.

The poorest candidate in Phase 1 of Lok Sabha election 2019 are Nalla Prem Kumar contesting on JDU ticket from Telangana’s Chevella Lok Sabha constituency has declared asset of Rs. 500.

Interestingly, the richest and the poorest candidates in the first phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections are contesting against each other from the same seat in the first phase of general election 2019.

Rajendra Kendruka contesting from Koraput Odisha has declared assets worth Rs. 565. He was a Once a Maoist sympathiser who laid down his arms in 2013 to join the mainstream. The 27-year-old candidate is contesting the election on a CPI- ML ticket.

The ADR report shows that of the 1,266 candidates analysed for the first phase of national election, 401 are crorepatis, which means they have declared assets worth Rs. 1 crore or more.

The Congress has fielded the most crorepati candidates. BJP is a close second for the croreparti candidates. The report shows that 70 crorepati candidates have not declared their income tax returns.

The average asset per candidate contesting in the Lok Sabha Phase 1 election is Rs. 6.63 crore.

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, it might be “too scared” to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash. “Perhaps if the BJP – a right-wing party – wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” Imran Khan was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

“Pakistan has officially allied with Modi! A vote for Modi is a vote for Pakistan,” tweeted Congress spokesperson Randeep Sing Surjewala. “Modi-ji, first Nawaz Sharif, now Imran Khan is your friend. The secret is out,” he added.

“Why does Pakistan want Modi-ji to win? PM Modi, please tell the nation how deep your relationship is with Pakitan? All Indians should know that if PM Modi wins then crackers will be burst in Pakistan,” tweeted AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

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 tasks ahead. This ties in with the larger pitch that PM Narendra Modi has been making in his campaign rallies: of having fulfilled basic needs; and seeking an opportunity to fulfil aspirations.

There are three significant strands in the manifesto. The first is what the BJP clearly considers its strength in this election: nationalism or national security. It speaks of decisive action against terrorism, and taking steps to end infiltration. It promises to speed up defence purchases — though this will raise questions about how defence spending is not commensurate with its needs. The manifesto reinforces the party’s commitment to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, and while the BJP has sought to reassure the Northeast that its concerns about an assault on its distinct identity will be taken care of, this is bound to generate a backlash in the region once again. The BJP has also reiterated its traditional position on Jammu and Kashmir: of abrogating Articles 370 and 35A. This stand of the BJP manifesto is primarily aimed at appealing to its core base, projecting Modi as the only leader capable of making India secure, and the party as the only force committed to nationalism.

The second major strand of the manifesto is its focus on rural India. A consistent critique against this government over the past few years has been the fact that there is agrarian distress, and farmer incomes have actually dipped. The BJP once again reiterated its promise of doubling farmer income by 2022, a claim most experts are sceptical of. But more specifically, it said that it would invest Rs 25 lakh crore over the next five years in rural India; it would expand the PM Kisan scheme — of providing Rs 6000 annually to small and marginal farmers with land holdings of up to 2 hectares — to each and every farmer, and it would provide interest free loans for up to Rs 1 lakh. With these promises, the BJP is clearly trying to address what could be a vulnerability vis a vis its electoral prospects in rural areas. But whether it indeed leads to a much needed structural transformation in agriculture and whether fiscal implications of expanding the Kisan scheme have been thought through is not clear.

The third strand is the manifesto’s promises on the economy and employment. This once again has been an area of perceived weakness for the government, even though the accuracy of data has been contested. The BJP has spoken of further improving India’s rank in the ease of doing business; improving the share of manufacturing in GDP; increasing exports; supporting entrepreneurs; identifying champion sectors in which younger people can be productively engaged. India indeed needs all this. But the BJP will have to do a lot more in credibly communicating how India will address its unemployment crisis.

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 are at the scene of crime, they said.

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 said that Shah has “undervalued the property which as per the government guidelines is valued at (at least) Rs 66.5 lakh but Mr. Amit Shah has declared its value at Rs 25 lakh”.

The Congress said that before filing his nomination for the Lok Sabha polls, Shah had already mortgaged two of his properties (in 2016) to Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank (one of Gujarat’s largest cooperative banks) for his son Jay Shah’s business venture Kusum Finserve.

“The properties were mortgaged in lieu of a large and substantial loan of Rs 25 crore extended by the bank to his son’s company. It is therefore a fact that the properties are mortgaged to Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank and hence constitute a liability that should have been declared,” the complaint said.

The party alleged that the omission of liabilities was “deliberate and not inadvertent.”

“The Election Commission of India must take immediate note of this and initiate appropriate proceedings to disqualify Amit Shah from contesting the upcoming elections. Further, the ECI must initiate proceedings against Amit Shah for the filing of a false affidavit,” the Congress said in its complaint.

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“.