News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Non-Congress govts kept UP backward, forced people to migrate: Rahul in Amethi

    By PTI

    AMETHI: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday blamed successive governments of rival parties in Uttar Pradesh for its economic backwardness, forcing people to migrate to other states as labourers.

    Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi said he has been working only for the billionaires, who do not give employment.

    Coming together for a joint rally at Kali Maidan in Amethi, which has long been the pocket borough of the party till Rahul Gandhi lost it to Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the leaders asked people to vote for their own good and children, and not on emotional issues of caste and religion.

    “Uttar Pradesh doesn’t lack anything and it can leave all other states behind. You go to Punjab, Maharashtra and other states to work as labourers in search of livelihood. Why can’t you get it here,” Rahul Gandhi asked.

    “It’s because for years you elected the Samajwadi Party, BJP and the BSP. All these made wrong promises one after the other and stole money from you,” he added, apparently responding to allegation by the rivals, who have been blaming the Congress for people’s migration.

    Accusing PM Modi of helping only big industrialists, he said the billionaires do not give employment.

    “It is small and medium traders and farmers who generate employment and this section, which is the backbone of job givers, has been broken,” he said, adding that in these circumstances there will not be any job for the youth, even for those with proper education.

    Saying that the PM Modi had promised two crore jobs to the youth, he asked, “Why is he not speaking about it in electioneering this time?” People are well aware of his “lies” now, said the former Congress president.

    Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the voters will have to make up their mind whether they want politics of development or the one that entangles them in a “fake web of religion and caste”.

    Referring to her visit to a locality in Lucknow recently, the Congress leader said she there met some children, who were qualified but unemployed.

    “Have you brought up your children so that they do not have any future and that they continue to get a sack of foodgrain and remain dependent on it. This is a conspiracy of these political parties to keep you poor, keep your stomachs empty so that your emotions could be exploited by them,” the Congress leader alleged.

    This is the government of the rich and there is no hearing of the poor, she alleged. “When there is harassment, neither Akhilesh Yadav nor Mayawati come out of their homes, leave alone Yogi and Modi.

    They make the father of an accused stand with them on the dais,” she said referring to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. “Their minister’s son killed farmers. Change these circumstances,” she said, stressing that people should tell parties either to work for development or leave.

    Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the violence last October. The farmers were mowed down by cars allegedly carrying by BJP workers. Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish was arrested in the case.

    The Congress leaders also spoke about the development and infrastructure building that took place in Amethi during the Congress-led UPA government in the past.

    Addressing another election meeting, Rahul Gandhi said his Rahul Gandhi said his relationship with Amethi is not political but a personal one. “Whatever the people of Amethi would want me to do, I am ready for it,” he said.

    The Congress leader said Prime Minister Modi says that nothing has been done in the country in the past 70 years.

    “But who had setup up the IIT, BHEL, HAL and the network of national highways,” he asked, alleging that like Air India, BHEL and HAL will be “sold”.

    “I wanted to bring a food park, Hindustan paper mill here. Now, you tell me what Amethi has got in the past five years,” he asked. “The Congress is the party of people. People should remember that UP has to be changed without which the country cannot be changed,” he added.

    The Amethi Lok Sabha constituency had been represented by Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in the past.

    Rahul Gandhi won from here in 2009 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from here in 2014. However, he lost to Union minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 general election. The joint rally by the brother-sister duo came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally here.

    Rahul Gandhi addressed the second election meeting alone as Priyanka Gandhi had gone to another election meeting in Rampur Khas. Five Assembly seats in the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency will go to vote in the fifth phase of the UP Assembly polls on February 27. The Congress was wiped out in the 2017 state polls in Amethi.

  • Bihar Congress legislators protest outside assembly against ‘communal vitiation’

    By Express News Service

    PATNA: The provocative statement of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator against the members of a minority community, led to protest by the Congress MLAs on the first day of the budget session of the Bihar legislature on Friday.

    Two MLAs of the grand old party – Shakeel Ahmad Khan and Rajesh Ram – boycotted the customary joint address of Governor Phagu Chauhan and staged a protest outside the House, citing two incidents of ‘communal vitiation’ as reasons.

    The BJP MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur Bachaul demanded the withdrawal of voting rights of the minority community. The Bisfi MLA pleaded that the Muslims were given a separate country Pakistan at the time of partisan of  India in 1947. “Those who chose to stay back in India should be stripped of their voting rights and treated as second class citizens,” the BJP legislator said.

    Bachaul’s remarks came a day after Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM legislator and state chief Akhtarul Iman said the people belonging to minority community (read Muslim) be given due representation in elected bodies on their proportionate population.

    Irked over the BJP MLA’s statement, the AIMIM legislator said that he would take up the matter with the Speaker of the assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha and demand for his disqualification from the House.

    The BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal, however, tried to downplay the controversy. In a statement on Friday, he asked his party’s legislator to respect the religious sentiments of all sections of the society. “Don’t issue statements that hurt the religious sentiments of people,” he added.

    Khan, who represents the Kadwa assembly constituency, said that a JD-U worker belonging to the minority community was kidnapped, tortured and beaten to death. The perpetrators of the crime also burnt his body and then dumped it on the bank of the river. Two days later, the police recovered the body.

    The Congress MLA suspected the role of cow vigilantes in the killing of the man, a resident of Musarigharari in Samastipur district.  The video, which went viral on social media, showed the offenders’ audacity to disturbing questions such as whether he consumed beef.

    Rajesh Ram expressed concern over rising incidents of atrocities on the members of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes in the state. “The government is keeping mum while members of SC/ST community,” he said.

    Earlier, RJD MLA from Mahua Mukesh Kumar Raushan reached the assembly premises with a toy helicopter as a mark of protest against the state government’s decision to deploy helicopters in operation against liquor smugglers in the state.

  • Ram Mandir only ‘one of the poll issues’ as UP voters seek development 

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The construction of Ram temple seems to have been relegated to “one of the poll issues” in Ayodhya this time as competing parties are raking up development topics and also relying on caste arithmetic for victory.

    The BJP, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the ongoing state polls. With 10 candidates in fray, the Ayodhya Assembly segment will go to vote in the fifth phase on February 27.

    After it became clear that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would not contest from Ayodhya, the party reposed faith in sitting MLA Ved Prakash Gupta, while the SP has fielded former minister Tej Narayan alias Pawan Pandey. The BSP, Congress and AAP, too, have fielded their candidates in Ayodhya, thereby making it a multi-cornered contest.

    “It is going to be a close contest in the Ayodhya Assembly constituency. As far as the issue of Ram temple is concerned, the BJP was not able to derive optimum mileage during this election initially. The issue started cropping up only after the third phase of the polls,” Mahant Raju Das of Hanumangarhi temple told PTI.

    He said while the distribution of ration to the poor has benefitted people in rural areas, a number of party leaders, on the other hand, were of the view that they will be able to garner enough votes only with Modi and Adityanath’s credentials. They did not want to mingle with the people and connect with them, he said.

    ALSO READ | Voters have blessed BJP in first four phases of UP polls, says PM Modi 

    On whether the scene would have been different if Adityanath were to contest from Ayodhya, the mahant said, “There is no opposition to the BJP, there was an opposition only towards the candidate.

    ” SP candidate Pawan Pandey told PTI, “Lord Ram and the Ram temple are not the fiefdom of the BJP. Prabhu Shri Ram belongs to all of us. Even when the BJP did not exist, Lord Ram did.”

    When asked whether he had heaved a sigh of relief after Adityanath decided not to contest from the Ayodhya seat, Pandey said it would have made no difference “even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was named the candidate” (from Ayodhya).

    A firebrand student leader from Lucknow University, Pandey had trounced the saffron party’s local giant and incumbent MP from Ayodhya Lallu Singh in the 2012 Assembly elections. He had,however, lost to Gupta in 2017.

    Pandey also alleged that the BJP has indulged in exploiting farmers, harassing traders and the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation has also significantly increased the tax.

    “We will roll it back,” he said. He said cows in cow shelters had allegedly died due to shortage of fodder and water. “They (BJP) claim to be ‘Ram bhakts’ (devotees of Lord Ram), but Adityanath and his government are killers of the cows,” he said.

    ALSO READ | VHP workers fan out across constituencies to distribute prasad, temple soil 

    BJP nominee Gupta, when asked about a section of the people being miffed at his candidature, said, “You cannot satisfy each and every person in politics. I have not been able to please my family. However, I can say that work for the people has been done and development has taken place. Yogi has done a lot of development in Ayodhya.”

    By fielding a Brahmin, the SP is trying to exploit the upper caste displeasure with the BJP government. Out of about 3.81 lakh electors in Ayodhya seat, Brahmins account for over 62,000 while Vaishya voters number 51,000, Muslims 55,000 and Yadavs 37,000.

    Iqbal Ansari, who was an independent litigant and son of one of the oldest litigants in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri mosque dispute case, Mohammad Hashim Ansari, said, “People now want development and jobs.”

    “People of Ayodhya are now drifting away from the ‘mandir-masjid issue’, and talking about development and only development. It has already been two years since the Supreme Court gave its judgement. However, some people try to make the temple-mosque an election issue. The temple-mosque may remain one of the issues in this election, but not the biggest among the poll issues.”

    “Earlier, the Hindus and Muslims used to fight over it, but now there is nothing as such. The main issues in this election is price rise, which has affected almost each and every household,” he said.

    BSP candidate Ravi Prakash said the main issues are jobs and development. Shubham Srivastava of the Aam Aadmi Party echoed similar views.

    Ayodhya mayor Rishikesh Upadhyay said, “Ram temple was never an election issue (for us). It was a matter of faith. It was an issue mentioned in the BJP’s ‘Sankalp Patra (election manifesto), and we have fulfilled the promise, which we had made to the people.

    “A local homoeopathy doctor Prajwal Singh said, “The electoral prospects of the BJP were not very good until a few days ago in the district. However, Thursday’s roadshow by Adityanath has done a lot to contain the damage. The party’s condition was not looking good in Ayodhya, Gosainganj and Milkipur Assembly seats. The success of the roadshow is likely to help the saffron party.”

  • Nawab Malik has no right to continue in Maha cabinet, says BJP

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Thursday said state minister Nawab Malik has no right to remain a part of the state cabinet following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

    He said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also has no moral right to remain in power as the situation in the state is “extremely chaotic”.

    Patil made the statements here while participating in an agitation against Malik.

    Malik (62) was arrested on Wednesday after being questioned for about five hours at the ED office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Estate area and later produced before special judge R N Rokade, who remanded him in the ED custody till March 3.

    “Malik has no right to be part of the Maharashtra government’s cabinet. Also CM Uddhav Thackeray cannot remain at the helm of affairs,” Patil said.

    “The situation in Maharastra is such that it requires imposition of President’s rule. The situation in the state is extremely chaotic,” the former minister added.

    After Malik’s arrest, the opposition BJP is vociferously demanding his resignation, but the ruling NCP and its allies – Shiv Sena and Congress – have come out in support of the minister.

    The parties have ruled out the possibility of his resignation.

  • FIR against BJP youth wing president after video shows him raising sword during protest in Mumbai 

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against former Mumbai BJP youth wing president Mohit Kamboj for allegedly wielding a sword during a protest and violation of COVID-19 norms, an official said on Thursday.

    A video surfaced on Wednesday purportedly showing Kamboj wielding a sword presented to him during a protest organised to hail the arrest of NCP leader and Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik by the ED in a money laundering case.

    Following Malik’s arrest, some BJP workers burst crackers outside the residence of Kamboj at Santa Cruz in western suburbs.

    After the video surfaced, a police team reached the spot to look into the matter.

    The police on Wednesday night registered an FIR against Kamboj under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 188 (disobeying the order of public servant), and provisions of the Arms Act and the Maharashtra Police Act, the official said.

  • UP: In ‘Madad Palace’ of BJP leader, temple, mosque exist in harmony

    By PTI

    BAHRAICH: In ‘Madad Palace’ of a BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh, almost all religions have found a place.

    Every morning, Arunveer Singh offers prayers at a temple, mosque, gurdwara and church at his home in Hariharpur Raikwari village in Bahraich district.

    The practice has been going on in his house, popularly called Madad Palace, for the past about five decades.

    Arunveer Singh (59), who is fighting the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections from the Muslim-dominant Matera seat, believes that the age-old communal harmony being practiced at the palace will help him in the polls.

    His father Yashveer Singh had built the places of worship in Madad Palace in 1967.

    The purpose was that the palace could represent the mixed culture of the village and surrounding areas, and where people of all faiths could worship.

    “Respect for mixed culture is in our blood. Our grandfather Late Yashveer Singh had built a temple, mosque, gurdwara, church as well as Lord Buddha’s temple in this palace so that people of all religions could worship here,” Arunveer’s son Karanvir told PTI.

    “The doors of the palace were always open for the needy. Maybe that’s why the palace was named Madad,” he said.

    “Our village has a mixed population. When we have a havan in the palace, people from the Muslim community also sit together. We also attend their events in the same way,” Karanvir said.

    Arunveer Singh said that he is proud that he truly represents Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of equal development of all.

    “I claim with pride in all election speeches that I have fully imbibed PM Modi’s slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’. We rise above caste and religion and work for all including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists,” he said.

    Arunveer Singh had joined the BJP in 2016 from the Samajwadi Party (SP).

    He has been a member of the Legislative Council once from local bodies’ constituency and twice the member of the Legislative Assembly from the Fakharpur seat during the old delimitation when he was in the SP.

    Arunveer’s younger brother Atulveer’s wife Manju Singh is the chairman of zila panchayat.

    Arunveer said that though Matera is a Muslim majority area, given the image of his family and also his own, he expects to get the votes of Muslims as well in the election.

    Former cabinet minister and SP leader Yasar Shah is the current MLA from the seat.

    In the 2017 elections, Yasar Shah had defeated Arunveer by about 1,500 votes.

    This time the SP has fielded Yasar Shah’s wife Maria Shah from Matera.

    The Congress has given the ticket to Ali Akbar, who had finished second in the 2012 state elections.

    The AIMIM and the BSP have also fielded candidates from the Muslim communities.

    Voting for the Matera seat will be held on February 27 in the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

  • BJP seeks Malik’s resignation after arrest by ED; Sena says he was held in ‘cunning manner’

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The BJP on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik following his arrest by the ED, but Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut countered it saying that the NCP leader should not be asked to step down as he was held in a “cunning manner”.

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Malik in a money laundering case linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, his aides and the Mumbai underworld.

    The 62-year-old NCP leader was taken to the ED’s office in south Mumbai for questioning in the morning and was later arrested. Malik is the first serving cabinet minister to be arrested on money laundering charges.

    Following his arrest, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil demanded that the minister should be removed from the state cabinet.

    ALSO READ | Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik produced before special court after arrest by ED in money laundering case

    Speaking to reporters, he said, “There is a law, which states that a minister should be removed from his post if he is facing criminal charges. Malik should be removed or asked to step down from his post.”

    Apart from being the chief spokesperson of NCP, Malik is the Minority Affairs and Skill Development Minister in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

    “Two chief ministers of Maharashtra had resigned from their post in the past after facing such serious allegations. It is a tradition in the state to step away from a constitutional post till the charges are cleared,” he said.

    ALSO READ | ED arrests Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik in money laundering case

    BJP leader Kirit Somaiya said, “After former home minister Anil Deshmukh, now Malik has been arrested under the ongoing probe by the ED. Those ministers who are indulging in corrupt practices in the Uddhav Thackeray-led government will face the consequences. We will make Maharashtra corruption-free.”

    Countering the BJP’s attack, Sanjay Raut said in a tweet, “Attempts of backstabbing are on since it is not possible to fight the MVA face-to-face. Let it be. Let there be euphoria that a minister has been arrested in a cunning manner. Nawab Malik shouldn’t be asked to resign. We will fight and win. Even Kansa and Ravana were killed. This is Hindutva. Jai maharashtra!”

  • Dynasts ignored problems of Muslim women, seasonal politicians will go back after March 10: PM in UP

    Addressing rallies in Barabanki and Kaushambi, he trained his guns at the Samajwadi Party, accusing it of doing everything to protect those accused of terror activities.

  • Assembly Polls 2022 updates: All eyes on Lakhimpur as phase four of UP election gets underway

    By Online Desk

    Voting for 59 Assembly constituencies spread over nine districts in Uttar Pradesh began on Wednesday morning.

    The polling started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

    This is the fourth phase of the Assembly polls in the state, where elections are to be held in seven rounds.

    As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in the fourth phase.

    According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people, including 1.14 crore men and 99.3 lakh women, are eligible to vote, for which 24,643 polling booths and 13,817 poling centres have been set up in this phase.

    The districts where the poling is being held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur.

  • Yogi seeks vote for those who ‘save’ cows; promises monthly stipend of Rs 900 per cow

    By PTI

    AYODHYA: Launching a campaign for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday asked people to vote for those who “protect cows and not those who kill them”.

    He also said that the state was ruled by goons before 2017, but they were put behind the bars after the BJP government assumed power.

    Adityanath was campaigning in support of the BJP candidates of the Milkipur reserved Assembly constituency and Bikapur seat in Ayodhya district on Tuesday.

    The chief minister promised to enhance the security of cows and other cattle if voted to power again.

    The farmers who rear cows will get a stipend of Rs 900 per month per cow, he announced, adding that his government will not compromise with the security of cows under any circumstances.

    Beginning his speech at RD Inter College, Bikapur, Adityanath took a veiled dig at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and said “Babua” had not been visiting the temple at Ayodhya. “We will win all the five seats in Ayodhya, 325 seats in the state and thereby form a strong government,” he said.

    Later, addressing the gathering at Inayatnagar in Milkipur, he said the whole world was looking towards Ayodhya and Ayodhya meant Ram temple.

    “By next year, this grand temple will be ready. If Ayodhya is to be established as a grand city, there should be a double engine government of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

    Accusing the earlier SP government of favouring a community, the chief minister said electricity in the state used to be supplied on Eid and Muharram, but cut off on Holi and Diwali.