News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • MP: Video shows woman being taken off stage after she chants ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’

    By PTI

    INDORE: A video purportedly showing a young woman being removed from the stage after she raised ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans during an Independence Day function here has gone viral on social media.

    The incident occurred in Rajbada area of the city on Sunday during the event that was organised by a local resident named Bilal Khan, sources said.

    After the video started making rounds on social media, BJP MLA Malini Laxman Singh Gaud on Wednesday demanded legal action against the persons responsible for taking the woman off stage and said that “Taliban culture” will not be allowed in the country.

    In the video, the young woman is heard raising slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ and then chanting ‘Jai Jai Shri Ram’.

    Following this, some youths from the audience stand up and start raising ‘Ya Hussain’ slogans.

    The video then shows some people arguing with the woman following the sloganeering, after which a policeman intervenes and she is taken off stage.

    Talking to reporters, MLA Gaud said, “I have seen this video today. The incident of the young woman being taken off the stage is shameful and we condemn the misbehaviour with her.”

    Talibani culture will not be allowed in this country and legal action should be taken against the people who took the girl off the stage, she said.

    Gaud said, “People living in India will have to chant ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. Those who do not do so should be thrown out of here.”

    Sarafa police station in-charge Sunil Sharma told PTI that the woman had expressed a wish to speak during the Independence Day function, but the people present there opposed the controversial part of her speech.

    He said that the woman remained on the stage for a few minutes only and left soon after the uproar while the organisers of the event brought the situation under control.

    Police have registered a case under IPC section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) against Bilal Khan and others for organising the programme without permission of the administration, Sharma added.

  • Congress concerned with welfare of only one family: Jyotiraditya Scindia

    Under Modi #39;s leadership, the country is successfully curbing the spread of coronavirus, he said.

  • BJP to move HC on appointment of Mukul Roy as PAC chairman

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: BJP on Tuesday said it will move Kolkata High Court next week for speedy disposal and time bound hearing by the speaker of BJP’s objection to the appointment of its former national vice-president Mukul Roy as chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

    Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari told reporters that Roy, who had turned up at the Trinamool Congress office days after being elected as BJP MLA from Krishnanagar North, has now sought one month’s time from Speaker Biman Banerjee to reply to the charges of the saffron party that he has been illegally appointed as PAC chairman and should be disqualified under the anti-defection law.

    Roy, who had been asked by the speaker to reply to BJP’s charges against him, Tuesday sent a letter to the speaker’s office requesting he be granted a month’s time to do so citing poor health.

    He was granted the time, an assembly secretariat official said.

    “Roy’s letter is faulty. He merely said he is unwell and needed time till the middle of September to give his side of story. But that is not enough. The speaker’s office agreed to the request. We cannot wait for this to drag on indefinitely in this way.”

    “We will move the high court next week urging the court’s direction in this matter. We are consulting lawyers,” Adhikari said.

    Referring to Roy’s comment to the media in the assembly premises that he was an MLA of BJP but was ready to work for TMC to increase the party’s base in Tripura, Adhikari said “I had commented on it on that day itself.”

    “TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is the only person to clarify which party Mukul Roy belongs to. She and her nephew Abhisek Banerjee had embraced him with much fanfare at the Trinamool Congress office only sometime back,” Adhikari said.

    Commenting on it, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said “Suvendu should first explain if anti-defection law shouldn’t be used against his father Sisir Adhikari who is yet to step down as MP. He was elected on TMC ticket and pledged loyality to Amit Shah before assembly elections.”

    After Roy was appointed PAC chairman in the first week of July, BJP MLAs had staged a walk out from the assembly and then submitted a memorandum to the speaker demanding his removal from the post.

    The saffron party lawmakers cited documents to support their demand, video clips of Roy’s press meet at the TMC office and a screenshot of his tweet after returning to TMC.

    Roy, who had been with TMC since its inception, had left the party following differences in 2018 and joined BJP.

    He was nominated as BJP candidate in West Bengal assembly polls and won.

    But he returned to Trinamool Congress which was called ‘Ghar wapsi’ by the party.

  • Union minister Shantanu Thakur claims arrest during BJP rally, Bengal cops say himself boarded van

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Union Minister Shantanu Thakur on Tuesday claimed that he was arrested at Birati in North 24 Parganas district even as the police said that he himself boarded a police vehicle.

    BJP workers had assembled at Birati as part of the party’s “Shahid Samman Yatra” in West Bengal.

    Thakur, who is a member of the Lok Sabha from Bongaon constituency in North 24 Parganas, claimed that he was arrested by the police when he went to a temple there to offer puja.

    A police official said that while BJP workers were arrested for illegally assembling there, Thakur had boarded the police vehicle on his own.

    Thakur and other BJP leaders, including Jay Prakash Majumdar and Archana Majumdar, along with party workers and supporters were taken to the Airport police station.

    “I came to offer puja and was arrested by the police,” the Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways told reporters.

    On the claim of the police that he was not apprehended and that he himself boarded the police vehicle, Thakur said, “If I had got arrested on my own, why will so many others be there with me here.”

    Thakur alleged that the police told him that he was doing “illegal work” by being at that place.

    “I believe that democracy and ‘adhyatma bad’ (spiritualism) has been finished in West Bengal,” he said.

  • Separate ‘North Bengal’ state voice of people: Union Minister John Barla

    By PTI

    SILIGURI/KOLKATA: Union Minister John Barla said on Tuesday that the creation of a separate state of ‘North Bengal’ is the voice of the people of the region.

    Addressing a press conference in Siliguri as part of the BJP’s ‘Shahid Samman Yatra’, Barla said he would discuss the issue at the appropriate level to bring to fruition for creating a separate state.

    “Creation of a separate state of North Bengal is the voice of the people of the region. I will raise the issue at the appropriate level,” the minister said.

    Barla, a BJP MP from Alipurduar who is at present the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, said the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal did nothing for the minority population of the state and used them for getting votes.

    “What work has the TMC government done for the minorities? You have taken their votes for your political advantage,” he claimed.

    In the name of development, TMC is resorting to terror tactics and torture, Barla alleged.

    “See how post-poll violence erupted in West Bengal,” he added.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to work along with the state government but the TMC government was always fighting with the Centre, he alleged.

    Referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s efforts to unite the opposition, Barla said, “Didi is dreaming to become the prime minister. It will never happen.”

    In 2024, BJP will wrest all the 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal and by good margins, he claimed.

    Raju Bista, the BJP’s Darjeeling MP, alleged that more than 150 party workers were killed in “post-poll violence” across West Bengal and the ‘Shahid Samman Yatra’ was undertaken to remember them.

    “West Bengal is racing towards President’s Rule and we urge the President, the prime minister and the home minister to save us from Mamata Banerjee’s rule of oppression,” he said.

    Meanwhile, several BJP workers, including party MLA Sankar Ghosh, were detained by the Siliguri Metropolitan Police for gathering without permission amid the COVID-restrictions, officials said.

    Bista said they gathered for taking part in the “Yuva Sankalp Yatra” to mark the 75th year of Independence.

    Union minister Subhas Sarkar, who was scheduled to lead one part of the ‘Shahid Samman Yatra’ from the BJP’s state headquarters in Kolkata to Burdwan city, claimed he was stopped by police from travelling with party supporters.

    The Minister of State for Education continued his journey in his car and visited Belur Math on the way.

    “We were not violating COVID protocols. As the police did not allow BJP supporters to accompany me, I can only say that they are scared of democratic protests. We will continue to raise voice against atrocities by Trinamool,” he said.

    Earlier, the police detained BJP workers at Birati in North 24 Parganas where they gathered to take part in another leg of the ‘Shahid Samman Yatra’, officials said.

    Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur alleged that he was also detained by the police at Birati even though he was in the area to offer puja at a temple.

    Police claimed that the BJP leader himself boarded a police van.

    Speaking to reporters, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said one leg of the Yatra was scheduled in north Bengal, another at Birati and the third from the state party headquarters in Kolkata.

    “The Shahid Samman Yatra was aimed at letting the world know what was happening in West Bengal,” Ghosh said.

  • BJP worker shot dead by militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam 

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: Militants on Tuesday shot dead a BJP worker in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

    The assailants fired upon Javeed Ahmad Dar near his residence in Brazloo Jageer area of the south Kashmir district at around 4.30 pm, they said.

    Dar, who was affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, died on the spot, they added.

    Security forces have cordoned off the area and a hunt has been launched to nab the militants, they said.

  • Trinamool Congress wants Tripura; rivals ask how it will manage to make inroads 

    By PTI

    AGARTALA: Encouraged by a landslide victory in West Bengal’s assembly elections held earlier this year, Trinamool Congress is now eying BJP-ruled Tripura where the party feels it can make strong headway in the next assembly elections slated for early 2023.

    A host of TMC leaders including its national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have been flying into Tripura to try and build a base and an organisation for the party which till now has been confined to Bengal.

    The space ceded by the Left parties and Congress and the hope that the electorate is unsatisfied with status quo seems to have prompted the TMC to try and make inroads.

    Its leaders in their appearance in the Northeastern state are trying out the tactics similar to BJP’s in West Bengal elections — reiterating that they will be able to capture power with ease, that law and order has collapsed in the state, employment generation is at a low ebb and that the ruling BJP workers have unleashed a reign of terror.

    The TMC rallies and programmes have been repeatedly targeted by a bunch of people whom the party alleges are ‘BJP sheltered goons’, though the charges have been denied by BJP.

    Banerjee and his convoys have been attacked at least thrice.

    Two MPs of the party from West Bengal – Dola Sen and Aparupa Poddar were also attacked on Independence Day in South Tripura district.

    TMC, observers say, may get some mileage and sympathies for the attacks, but to be able to translate this into votes, will have to build an organisation which till now is nascent.

    Banerjee and TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh have been targeting leaders and workers fromBJP, especially former Congressmen within BJP, and CPM to woo them into the party fold. It is to be seen how far this attempt will be successful.

    However, till now the number leaders who have crossed over have been few and far between.

    An ex-MLA from the Congress, Subal Bhowmick, who later joined BJP and again returned to Congress, and a former Congress minister Prakash Das have been among those few.

    Banerjee has however optimistically said that by the end of December, committees would be formed in all booths of the state.

    BJP Tripura unit on August 13 observed ‘Dhikkar Diwas’ (Condemnation Day) to protest against what it calls a conspiracy by the Trinamool Congress to create an ‘anarchic situation’ in the state.

    Tripura BJP chief spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty is obviously not amused.

    Chakraborty contends that TMC, a regional party in Bengal is trying to get the tag of a national party, by trying to foray into Tripura. To be a national party it requires at least six percent of the national vote.

    His colleague, Tripura BJP General Secretary Tinku Roy feels the Trinamool leaders are not in sync with the state’s politics.

    A feeling which TMC leaders used to echo about BJP leaders visiting Bengal ahead of the elections.

    “They stay at posh hotels and stage dramas one after another. They don’t even have a basic idea of Tripura’s geography”.

    He had also lashed out at the “Khela Hobe” slogan and said the most important democratic process cannot be compared with a game.

    The TMC has had no electoral presence in Tripura since its inception in 1998.

    In 2016, six Congress MLAs led by former TPCC President Sudip Roy Barman had however defected to the party.

    These MLAs later joined BJP ahead of the 60-member assembly elections held in 2018 on the plea that they received no support from Mamata Banerjee’s party during their crisis.

    The TMC filed nominations in 24 seats in the 2018 assembly elections, but could not win a single seat and secured a mere 0.3 percent vote share.

    The BJP, which won the election with 36 seats and 43. 59 per cent vote share, formed the government, while the CPIM, which had ruled the state for around 25 years, got 16 seats despite a 42 per cent vote share.

    The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (IPFT), which has now allied with the BJP, won eight seats.

    The state elections were fought largely between the Left Front and the BJP-IPFT alliance.

    The Congress, which was the main opposition, crumbled as its support base was cannibalised by BJP in the last assembly elections.

    However, to complicate matters, a newly emerged Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), led by former state Congress president Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman, has come into the political jigsaw of the border state.

    Deb Barman, who was the state unit president of Congress, quit the party in September 2019, citing differences with the high command.

    A month later, he announced the name of his new outfit — TIPRA, which was initially a social organisation but in 2020, was turned into a political party.

    TIPRA surprisingly swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections in the first half of April this year by winning 18 of the 28 seats that went to the polls when the BJP won nine seats and one seat was bagged by an Independent candidate.

    TIPRA’s support obviously is the prize that many would try and gain given the electoral mathematics.

    TMC too is apparently trying to do just that.

    The WB General Secretary of TMC Kunal Ghosh recently met the Chairman of the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) Pradyot Kishore Debbarma.

    Thugh the leaders said that it was just a courtesy visit and no talks on forging analliance ahead the next elections were discussed, speculation remains rife.

  • Rahul Gandhi politicising Dalit girl’s rape, Twitter account should be locked again: BJP 

    The BJP also demanded that Twitter should again lock Rahul #39;s account as the victim #39;s family has denied his claim that he took their consent before posting the pictures.

  • BJP aims 50 per cent vote share to blunt any possible Opposition unity

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Moving ahead with its strategy to chase 50 per cent vote share in the Uttar Pradesh polls, the BJP is working on social engineering to blunt the electoral impact of the minority consolidation in favour of any Opposition unity. 

    With the BJP facing the elections in UP along with Uttarakhand early next year, the saffron outfit is learnt to be banking on its past successes of exploiting the caste dynamics in its favour even when there is an alliance of various political parties identified with specific communities in India’s politically most important state. The BJP is in power in both states.

    “We work with an aim to get past the 50 per cent vote share, and it will remain the strategy in UP. That is despite the fact that a perfect Opposition unity is only a theoretical proposition. On numerous occasions, it has been demonstrated that the meeting of the hearts of the top leaders doesn’t find resonance on the ground,” explained a senior BJP functionary.

    The Opposition unity, meanwhile, continues to be a work in progress. In the past, the BJP has succeeded against the combined might of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal — the sweeping win in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections being an example. 

    While the BSP was able to increase the party’s strength in the Lok Sabha from zero in 2014 to 10, the tally of the SP had remained stuck at five only. The RLD was unable to open its account, with both the father-son duo of Ajit Singh and Jayant Choudhary facing defeats. 

    The BJP leaders stated that the Congress was tactically kept outside the grand alliance in 2019 in the northern state to wean away the upper caste support base of the saffron outfit, which also hadn’t worked. 

    “The social constituents of the BSP, the SP and the RLD are known to be in conflicts, for economic and other reasons. The smaller OBCs and EBCs have shown in the past to have reservations against the dominance of one caste, which provides cushion to the BJP to work on its social engineering more effectively,” said another BJP functionary.     

    While the BJP works out strategy for 50 per cent vote share, the party leaders noted that the situations on the ground may be different in the elections, including the party’s task first to beat the anti-incumbency factor against the Yogi Adityanath government.

  • BJP begins ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ in Maharashtra

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: The BJP kick-started ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ in different parts of Maharashtra on Monday to spread the work of the BJP led central government.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with BJP members of parliament (MPs) had asked to reach out to the people and counter Opposition propaganda. He had asked them to inform people about the central government schemes and work done for the people during a pandemic.

    The 39 central cabinet ministers will participate in Jan Ashirwad Yatra at various points and address the people. Bharati  Pawar, the newly inducted minister for the state (health), said that they will take the Modi government’s work to people and expose the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) during this yatra.

    She said during a pandemic the Modi government tirelessly worked hard to help the people. 

    “We did not lag behind in extending the help to people during pandemic. The government started the free vaccinations, provided free ration and gas under the Ujjwala scheme.  All the good work credit goes to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government ensured that no one gets deprived of the government’s welfare schemes,” Pawar said.

    She also said that the centre provided the highest number of vaccines to Maharashtra, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi could not use all given vaccines to vaccinate the people. 

    “The state government should not criticize the centre for not supplying the vaccines to Maharashtra. It has little truth, more propaganda in it. All ministers will take such kind of Yatra in their respective areas,” the minister said.

    She said that people should not see this as a political yatra but a social program to reach out to the masses.