News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Punjab polls: BJP questions Rahul Gandhi’s locus standi to name Congress CM face

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: The BJP on Sunday questioned the locus standi of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to announce his party’s chief ministerial face for the Punjab Assembly polls, saying he doesn’t hold any position in the party right now.

    Rahul Gandhi on Sunday arrived in Ludhiana for a virtual rally and he will announce the chief ministerial face of the party.

    “Rahul Gandhi does not hold any position in the party so in what capacity and authority will he be announcing the party’s CM candidate today,” Union Minister for Jal Shakti and BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat asked in a statement.

    While choosing the CM candidate is indeed the party’s prerogative but people of Punjab would like to know what authority Gandhi has in the party right now, other than being one of the 50-odd MPs belonging to the Congress, he said.

    Shekhawat said Gandhi had resigned as the Congress president in 2019 in the aftermath of the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

    His only qualification now is that he possesses the surname “Gandhi” surname, he said.

    The union minister also criticised the Congress for excluding from the CM race Sunil Jakhar “just because he belonged to a particular religion”.

    “The Congress party owes an explanation not only to the people of Punjab but the country as a whole, as to why Mr Jakhar was not considered for the CM’s position,” said Shekhawat.

    Sunil Jakhar had claimed recently that 42 MLAs wanted him to be the chief minister of the state after the unceremonious exit of Amarinder Singh last year.

    Jakhar could be heard saying this in a video, which had surfaced online, while addressing a gathering in Abohar on Tuesday.

  • Previous UP governments were not concerned with people’s needs: PM Modi

    Modi said the people of Uttar Pradesh have decided that development will be the biggest issue in the upcoming assembly elections.

  • Snowfall throws life out of gear in higher reaches of HP; oppn Cong targets govt

    By PTI

    SHIMLA: Normal life remained out of gear in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh, including in capital Shimla, on Saturday as most roads were blocked following the recent snowfall, and contractors tasked with clearing the snow staged a protest.

    Talking to the media here, Shimla Rural MLA Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress said the contractors brought forward their protest originally proposed for Monday, adversely affecting the snow clearance work from most of the roads in Shimla, Kullu, and Chamba districts.

    Blaming the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government in the state for the crisis, the Congress MLA said representatives of the contractors had met the chief minister several times in support of their demands for the release of their arrears and GST refunds but the issue was not resolved.

    The state government should immediately resolve their grievances to provide relief to the general public as the contractors with their men and machinery play an important role in clearing snow from the roads, he said.

    State Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore alleged that the state government has failed to restore normal life despite clear weather on Saturday. “People are suffering as the power supply in several parts has also been affected, and the state government has failed to restore it,” Rathore said.

    Meanwhile, Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj urged the contractors not to stop the work of clearing the roads. Contractors play a vital role in restoring normal life after a snowfall, and they should do so this time too, and the government will resolve their grievances at the earliest, he assured in a statement.

    The minister said the issue would be taken up with the chief minister after his arrival in Shimla, and it would be resolved accordingly. The chief minister was in his home district Mandi on Saturday and is likely to return to Shimla soon.

  • No post-poll alliance with SAD: Union minister Hardeep Puri

    By PTI

    LUDHIANA: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab.

    The senior BJP leader categorically said the alliance of the two parties was a “bad marriage”. The SAD did not allow the saffron party to expand its base in Punjab, he alleged.

    Puri further said the Akalis did not even allow a Sikh leader to emerge from the BJP. The Union minister for housing and urban affairs was talking to reporters here.

    BJP general secretary Dushyant Gautam and chief spokesperson of the party’s state unit Anil Sareen were also present.

    The SAD parted ways with its old ally BJP in 2020 over three contentious farm laws of the Centre.

    To a question on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arresting Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey in a money-laundering case linked to alleged illegal sand mining, Puri said the BJP does not believe in vendetta politics.

    On the promises made by the BJP and its allies Punjab Lok Congress and SAD (Sanyukt) ahead of the February 20 Punjab Assembly polls, he said those are related to the revival of the state’s economy.

    The Union minister added that the BJP delivers what it promises.

    “If the BJP-led alliance is voted to power in Punjab, it would issue a white paper on the state’s economy,” he said. Earlier, Puri addressed a meeting of the local industrialists here.

  • Maharashtra: Attacked by ‘Shiv Sena gundas’ in Pune, claims BJP leader Somaiya

    By PTI

    PUNE: Maharashtra BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on Saturday claimed he was “attacked” by “Shiv Sena gundas” in Pune Municipal Corporation premises when he had gone there in connection with allegations of irregularities in contracts to run jumbo COVID-19 hospitals.

    “I am attacked by Shiv Sena Gundas inside the premises of Pune Mahapalika,” he tweeted, while BJP Pune president Jagdish Mulik said the former had to be taken to Sancheti Hospital for treatment.

    Condemning the attack on Somaiya, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said the former Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai North fell down when he was manhandled.

    He said Somaiya was not one to be intimidated by such tactics, adding that the latter had similar experiences when he visited Yavatmal to speak on allegations against Bhavna Gavali as well as Hasan Mushrif (in Kolhapur).

    Pune Shiv Sena president Sanjay More, however, said he and party colleagues were going to hand over a memorandum on irregularities taking place in BJP-ruled PMC but Somaiya refused to accept it and tried to speed away in his car.

    Sancheti Hospital doctors said Somaiya fell on his back and also hurt his wrist, adding that his condition was stable.

    A video of the incident showed Somaiya being surrounded by people and falling on the stairs of the PMC complex before being escorted by security personnel into a car.

  • BJP’s Christian outreach in Goa with 30 per cent tickets

    Express News Service

    MUMBAI: While the BJP is contesting on a Hindutva agenda in states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, in Goa it has changed tack as it realises that the road to power lies via the Christian vote bank. Of the 40 candidates fielded by the party, 12, i.e., 30 per cent, are Christians.

    The Christians comprise 25-27 per cent vote base in Goa, second largest after Hindus. However, Hindus do not vote as a block. Earlier, the BJP had tried its strategy of Hindu votes’ consolidation in the coastal state but that did not work. 

    “With Hindu vote bank politics, BJP never crossed 10 seat-mark in Goa Assembly. This time, it has decided to accommodate as many minority candidates as possible. Whether that works or not will be interesting to see because other parties are also banking on the same vote bank in the name of secular politics,” said a political observer.

    Among the BJP’s Christian candidate is Atanasio Monserrate, who has been fielded from Panaji denying ticket to former chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal. A BJP leader admitted that the party wanted to send out a message to the minority community by preferring Monserrate over Utpal.

    Interestingly, Manohar Parrikar had a good support base among the Christian community, which helped him and the BJP remain in power for a long time.

    “Now, Parrikar is not around while his son Utpal has posed a challenge to the official BJP candidate. By denying ticket to Utpal, we have sent a message to the Christians that Monserrate is more important than him,” the leader said.

    The BJP had fielded six Christian candidates in 2012 elections and seven in 2017. Both times, all these candidates romped home. After 10 Congress MLAs joined the BJP in 2019, BJP’s Catholic MLAs’ in tally rose to 15.

  • Rahul Gandhi to declare Cong’ CM face for Punjab polls on Sunday: Harish Chaudhary

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will announce the name of the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab elections on Sunday when he visits Ludhiana for a virtual rally, party’s senior leader Harish Chaudhary said on Friday.

    Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi reiterated that he would wholeheartedly back the party’s candidate who would be named for the chief ministerial post.

    “On February 6, Rahul Gandhi ji will visit Ludhiana and from there will address a virtual rally in the afternoon and announce the CM face,” Chaudhary, who is party’s Punjab affairs in-charge, said here.

    Channi, who was in Bhadaur, the second assembly seat from where he is contesting the polls, when asked about the party’s announcement about the CM face, said, “I had already said from the stage in Jalandhar (virtual rally) that I will go with party’s decision on CM face. I have already made a commitment from the stage in Rahul Gandhi’s presence that whosoever is made CM face, I will wholeheartedly back him and the same commitment has been made by Navjot Singh Sidhu and other leaders.”

    “Whosoever’s name is announced, we will go with him,” Channi added.

    During his last visit to Punjab on January 27, Gandhi while addressing a virtual rally in Jalandhar, had announced that the Congress will soon declare its chief ministerial face for the February 20 polls and a decision on it will be taken after consulting the party workers.

    Besides taking feedback from the leaders and workers of the party, the Congress is also seeking the opinion of the public on who should be its chief ministerial candidate through an automated call system.

    In the 117 assembly constituencies in Punjab, Congress MLAs and party leaders along with supporters in as many numbers as allowed according to the Election Commission guidelines will remain present when Gandhi addresses the virtual rally from Ludhiana, Chaudhary said.

    Ahead of the announcement of the chief ministerial face for the Punjab Assembly polls by the Congress, party’s state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had said “people at the top” want a weak chief minister.

    “People at the top want a weak chief minister who can dance to their tunes,” Sidhu said addressing his supporters in Amritsar on Thursday evening.

    However, he did not make it clear whether he was referring to the Congress central leadership or anyone else.

    When asked about Sidhu’s remarks, Chaudhary said, “If one goes through Sidhu’s entire statement, then this question won’t be asked. It will become clear that he is not speaking about Congress party but about Narendra Modi’s BJP.”

    He said Sidhu had assured the people of Punjab that when the party announces the name of the chief ministerial candidate, he would wholeheartedly support it. Channi had also repeated the same thing, Chaudhary added.

    To another related question to the “weak chief minister” remark of Sidhu, Chaudhary quipped, “Both Sidhu and Channi are not weak.”

    For the last several weeks, both Chief Minister Channi and Sidhu have, directly or indirectly, made a case for themselves to be declared as the party’s nominee for the top post.

    On Thursday, Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu said irrespective of who becomes the chief minister, her husband is a ‘hero’ and will remain so. Her reply came when asked about her husband’s political future if he does not become the chief minister of Punjab.

    Addressing a virtual rally in Jalandhar last week, Rahul Gandhi had said both Channi and Sidhu have assured him that whosoever is chosen as the party’s chief ministerial face, they will stand by the decision.

    He had said this after Sidhu demanded at the rally that the Congress declare its chief ministerial face for the Punjab polls and said he does not want to be a “showpiece”.

    Channi had then said he was never after any post and would wholeheartedly back the party’s candidate for the top post. Channi replaced Amarinder Singh as the chief minister in September last year. He is the first chief minister from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community in the state.

    Polling for the 117-member Punjab Assembly is scheduled to be held on February 20. The counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.

  • BJP taking country towards ‘danger’, wants only one ideology to rule in country: Rahul

    By PTI

    RAIPUR: In a scathing attack on the BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the saffron party of taking the country towards “danger” and said that along with the RSS, it wants only one ideology to rule over all states, languages and history which can never happen.

    Reiterating what he said in Lok Sabha a day ago, Gandhi said the “grave danger” is that the BJP is dividing the nation into two countries — one belonging to select billionaires and the other to the crores of common people.

    “I made a speech in Lok Sabha yesterday in which I talked about the two-three challenges facing the country. The BJP and its ideology are taking our country towards danger. What is the danger — the first grave danger is that the BJP is dividing the country into two countries,” he said while addressing a function at Science College ground in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur.

    “One country is of selected billionaires, where there is everything including planes, wealth and high technology, while the second one is of crores of the people of the country,” he said.

    “They think that by making two countries, the country which belongs to the poor is powerless and will remain quiet. They think the poor of the country are afraid. But the poor of the country are not afraid of anyone, rather they are the ones who have built the country,” Gandhi said.

    “If someone has taken India to this point and ensured the progress, it is not a party, but the farmers, labourers and the poor. So when it is asked what has happened in 70 years, it is an insult to farmers, their parents, labourers, and small businessmen, not to the Congress party,” he added.

    He said that the 100 wealthiest people in India have more money than 40 per cent of the population.

    “While 40 per cent struggle with hunger and poverty, 5-10 capitalist friends of the prime minister amass all the wealth, we don’t want a country like this. We will not allow the country to become so,” Gandhi asserted.

    “If there is progress in this country – then everyone will be part of it, not just some industrialists. If there is progress in the country, then everyone will benefit,” he said.

    On the occasion, Gandhi launched the Chhattisgarh government’s ‘Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhoomihin Krishi Majdoor Nyay Yojana’, under which landless labourers in rural areas will be given financial assistance of Rs 6,000 per year in three installments. The first installment of Rs 2,000 was deposited into the accounts of nearly 3.55 lakh landless families of labourers, barbers, blacksmiths, priests, forest produce collectors and shepherds, among others, on the occasion under the scheme.

    ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi launches welfare scheme for landless labourers in Chhattisgarh

    He laid the foundation stone of a memorial here that will house an eternal flame on the lines of the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ as a tribute to soldiers and security personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

    Gandhi also laid the foundation stone of ‘Gandhi Sevagram’ ashram to be built in Nava Raipur, similar to the one in Wardha (Maharashtra). In his remarks, Gandhi said this country is like a bouquet and people of different ideologies live in it.

    “The ideology, history, and culture in one state is different from that of the other. But if we say that there will be only one ideology in the whole country then it will be wrong,” he said adding that this will harm the country.

    “The BJP and RSS want that only one ideology should rule over all states, languages, and history in the country, which can never happen. For example, people of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh cannot tell people of Chhattisgarh how they should live, what should be the relation of tribals here with forests, and what should be the relation of farmers here with their land. Likewise, you cannot go to Vidarbha and tell farmers there that ‘you should live in this way,” the former Congress chief said.

    This is the bouquet of our country and this feeling of love and brotherhood, is what we call India, he said. Gandhi alleged that the BJP has been “attacking this India” and the Congress will oppose this attack and will show them the “real India”.

    The Congress leader also accused the BJP of spreading hatred in the country and making one religion fight with the other. 

    ALSO READ: BJP, RSS want rule of only one ideology, but it can never happen: Rahul Gandhi

    “They have spread hatred in the country. They are making one state fight with the other and one religion fight with the other religion. The powers outside India look at us and say that India is getting weak. The Chinese army could enter Ladakh because the BJP and our prime minister said after their entry into our territory that no one has entered,” he said.

    “Our work and the work of patriotism is to strengthen the country, help the poor and unite the country, not to spread hatred. So it is a battle of ideology. This is not a fight between one party and the other,” he said.

    Gandhi praised the Chhattisgarh government and said it is fulfilling its promises.

    Talking about his promise of providing Rs 2,500 to farmers, the Lok Sabha member from Wayanad said that the state government had fulfilled the promise of paying the actual amount for farmers’ hard work to them.

    He said the state government’s move to provide financial assistance to landless labourers working in farms is a big step towards the welfare of the poor and urged the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to increase the amount to be given to labourers under the scheme.

    In his remarks, Baghel said that the state managed to shield itself from the slowdown impact as it followed the directives of Rahul Gandhi to empower the masses by putting money in their pockets.

    Baghel said that the farmers in Chhattisgarh were content even as they were protesting in other parts of India. He said that one more step has been taken towards making Chhattisgarh a public welfare state.

    Gandhi also launched a coffee table book “Jo Kaha So Kiya” on the achievements of the Chhattisgarh government in the last three years.

    After an inspection of an exhibition on the development in the state, Gandhi suggested to the chief minister to take the “magic of Chhattisgarh” beyond the country so that the world gets the taste of the state’s products, knowledge, and history. Gandhi also tried his hand at pottery and ‘charkha’.

  • Samajwadi Party govt tried to withdraw cases against terrorists: Nadda

    In another incident, a CRPF camp in Rampur was attacked, in which seven soldiers were killed.

  • BJP takes umbrage to Rahul remarks

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and other BJP leaders on Wednesday hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in Lok Sabha on the judiciary and Election Commission and demanded an apology.

    “I condemn what Mr Rahul Gandhi has said about India’s judiciary and EC. These are vital institutions of our democracy. Mr Rahul Gandhi should immediately apologise to the people, judiciary and EC,” Rijiju wrote on Twitter.

    External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar pointed out that Rahul’s statement had factual errors. “In Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi said we could not get a foreign guest for Republic Day. Those who live in India know we were in the midst of a corona wave. The five Central Asian Presidents, who were to come, did hold a virtual summit on Jan 27. Did Rahul Gandhi miss that as well?”

    Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also took to Twitter. “Mr Rahul Gandhi, those who prefer to feed biscuits to dogs in the presence of leaders from Assam and then offer them the same biscuits should be the last people to talk about political decency. High command mindset is INC’s be all and end all. The people of India know it well.”

    Congress leaders jumped to Rahul’s defence. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said an attempt is being made to abolish institutions and implement the rule of one person in the country. “The gap between rich and poor is increasing.

    The Modi government is focussed only in the service of the big capitalists,” Gehlot tweeted. He added that Rahul, while raising the voice of the states, spoke the truth that the Central government does not believe in dialogue with the states. “The Centre takes unilateral decisions without consulting the states. People have found out about BJP’s repressive policies.”