News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Left Congress not due to any individual or for any post: Jitin Prasada

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A day after switching over to the BJP, Jitin Prasada Thursday said he left the Congress not because of any individual or for any post, but due to the “rising disconnect” between the party and the people of Uttar Pradesh.

    Prasada, who had also served as a Union minister in the Congress-led UPA government and whose family had been associated with the party for three generations, joined the BJP on Wednesday, and termed the saffron party “only true national party” in the country.

    Prasada, among the group of 23 Congress leaders who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi last October seeking an organisational overhaul, didn’t put blame on any individual within the party for his departure.

    “I left the Congress not due to any individual or for any post. The reason I left the Congress was because there is a rising disconnect between the party and the people. And that is the reason, its vote share is shrinking in Uttar Pradesh and there is no plan to revive the party,” Prasada told PTI Thursday.

    Underlining that his decision to join the BJP was taken after discussions and deliberations, he said he wants to serve his people, his state and the nation.

    He could not protect his people’s interests while being in the Congress, he said, asserting the BJP is the only institutionalised national party in the county.

  • Between perfomance and politics, turmoil surfaces within NDA in Bihar

    Express News Service
    PATNA: The Hindustani Awami Morch (HAM), one of the constituents of Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, on Wednesday demanded the formation of ‘Coordination Committee’ within the NDA.

    This was a telling sign that all is not well with the ruling alliance.

    This comes few days after State BJP chief Dr Sanjay Jaiswal expressed his displeasure on the functioning of district administration in preventing crimes against Dalit by a particular section of people in the state.

    With this mind, the HAM stirred up politics within the NDA in Bihar with the demand for Coordination Committee.

    “We’ve demand to form coordination committee to sort out any kind of grievances within the NDA internally instead of going in public through media or other channels of communication,” Danish Rizwan-spokesperson of HAM said, adding that those who are trying to create confusion will be exposed.

    He said that whosoever from NDA making statements are giving a chance to the opposition for slamming the state government.

    Over the last few weeks, leaders of NDA constituents including JDU and BJP have tweeted contrary statements against each other.

    Earlier, Upendra Kushwaha had also tweeted in sarcastic tone on Jaiswal and asking PM Modi to follow what Nitish Kumar had done by granting reservation to girls in medical and engineering college admission.

    When another BJP leader Janak Ram also raised a voice against crimes perpetuated by some people of a particular community, the HAM chief Jitan Ram Manjhi had indirectly attacked on him tweeting that no one should attempt to disturb the cordial social bonding of Dalit and the minority people.

    “The Dalit-Muslims of the state are united. Those who are feeling pain in their stomach due to Dalit-Muslim unity, are raising their fingers on the Bihar government. In Bihar, the law is doing its job,” Manjhi said.

    The BJP leaders had alleged that atrocities on Dalits by Muslims in Purnia, Champaran, Gopalganj and Jamui were on the rise. The BJP minister in the government, Janak Ram, had said that the conversion of Mahadalits is being done in Gopalganj and Jamui.

    Sources from the NDA said that differences within the NDA particularly between BJP and the JDU are cropping up over many issues.

    The differences have widened further after the release of report of NITI Aayog in which Bihar has been ranked at worst in performance. The BJP leaders, trying to console Nitish Kumar, are saying that developments have taken place under his leadership but JDU is attributing the worst state performance to lack of special status to Bihar on the part of the union government.

    BJP leader and national general secretary of OBC wing Dr Nikhil Anand on being asked about the HAM demand said that the NDA is working on common agenda of crime and corruption free sustainable development of the state.

    “Nitish Kumar is excellently leading the state and coordinating well with all the alliance partners. There is no significance on the statement of any individual,” he added.

    But sources from NDA noted that the HAM had created division in the UPA also on the issue of formation of Coordination committee.

    Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav taking advantages of growing ruckus within the NDA termed the Nitish Kumar led government as a fungus imposed by the Election commission on Bihar in November.

    Reacting against Tejashwi statement, Dr Anand said, “If Tejashwi Yadav is saying Nitish Kumar government is a fungus, what is Tejashwi himself? He is a Chinese virus!” he said.

  • Congress erosion on as BJP snaps up Jitin Prasada

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The BJP set off alarm bells within the Congress on Wednesday by engineering the crossover of another young leader, former Union minister Jitin Prasada. With this, the party appears to have made clear its intention of poaching the remaining young talent within the Congress, a ploy that began with the induction of Jyotiraditya Scindia.

    A similar exercise in Rajasthan is a work in progress. Union minister for railways Piyush Goyal did the honours for inducting Prasada. Giving a perspective to the latest acquisition, BJP’s media in-charge Anil Baluni recalled that Jitin’s father Jitendra Prasada had once contested against Sonia Gandhi for the Congress chief post, suggesting the door was open for leaders of substance who were otherwise rotting in opposition parties.

    While Prasada lost a couple of Lok Sabha elections ever since the rise of the BJP in UP, he had served as a minister during the UPA tenure. He was a signatory to the letter by 23 Congress leaders who had demanded a full-time Congress president earlier. 

    Saffron camp hopes to gain from weakening of Congress

    Prasada , a Brahmin, had represented Shahjahanpur (2004) and Dhurara (2009) Lok Sabha constituencies. With the Congress hoping to wean away the Brahmin constituency in UP in the forthcoming Assembly elections, Prasada could help stem the erosion in the BJP’s vote bank.

    While Prasada may have lost much of the political turf on his home ground due to the Congress’ marginalisation in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP hopes to gain from the weakening of the main Opposition party in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra to keep its 2024 script intact.

    The Himanta Biswa Sarma experiment in Assam has already handed the BJP a fall back option to beat anti-incumbency by creating a talent drought in the Congress. 

    The BJP will also hope that Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot is able to turn rebellious again with enough strength to hand over power in the state to the party. 

    ​With the BJP’s own house in Rajasthan not in order, an “outside help” can be of strategic interest for the party’s top brass to reset the equations in the state, remarked a key BJP strategist.

  • BJP leadership in Delhi to meet three Bengal MPs

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Three BJP MPs from West Bengal Nishith Pramanik, Arjun Singh and Saunitra Khan arrived New Delhi on Wednesday to meet the party’s national leadership.

    The three visited the national capital after West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP’s national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah this week.

    Sources in the BJP said the three MPs were asked to visit Delhi as the BJP’s high-command wants to take stock of the election loss in West Bengal and the post-poll situation in the state.

    “Pramanik, the Cooch Behar MP, will be asked to explain why the saffron camp failed to retain its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in north Bengal in the recent Assembly elections. Singh is also expected to elaborate the reason behind the BJP’s debacle in his own LS constituency,” said a BJP leader.

    ​Sarkar, however, was asked to visit Delhi as the party did not perform up to its expectation in the belt dominated by Matuas, a Hindu religious sect comprising refugees from Bangladesh.

  • Vasundhara Raje missing in new BJP posters in Rajasthan

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR: Photos of former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje are missing from the new hoarding put up at the state BJP headquarters. It has photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda and BJP state president Satish Poonia and leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria, but photo of Vasundhara Raje is conspicuously missing.

    Amit Shah’s photo is also missing in the new poster. Earlier, the main hoarding at the party headquarters had photographs of former CM Vasundhara Raje and deputy leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore along with Satish Poonia and Gulabchand Kataria. It also featured national leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda.

    On April 13, the Karni Sena workers had splashed ink on the photo of Gulabchand Kataria on the main hoarding at the BJP headquarters. During the by-election campaign, Kataria had made comments about Maharana Pratap, which had led to the incident and on April 13. 

    Raje has been the chief minister of state twice and her photo not being on the hoarding has created strong buzz in the political circles regarding an internal tussle within the state saffron camp.

  • Congress must reclaim position as India’s big tent party, says Milind Deora after Jitin exit

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Soon after his Congress colleague Jitin Prasada quit the party to join the BJP, Milind Deora on Wednesday said the Congress must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party and asserted that it still has a strong bench which, if empowered and optimally utilised, can deliver.

    A former chief of the Mumbai Congress, Deora, however, wished that several of his friends, peers and valued colleagues hadn’t left the party.

    Congress leader Prasada joined the BJP on Wednesday, in a shot in the arm for the saffron party as it prepares for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year.

    In an obvious reference to the development, Deora tweeted, “I believe in @INCIndia as a party that can & must reclaim its position as India’s big tent party. We still have a strong bench that if empowered & optimally utilised, can deliver.”

    “I only wish that several of my friends, peers & valued colleagues hadn’t left us,” he said.

    Deora, Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot were once considered as the young brigade of the Congress.

    They had also served in the erstwhile Congress government at the Centre.

    Scindia and Prasada have left for the BJP, while Pilot and Deora seem to be upset over certain issues in the party and repeatedly called for course correction.

  • Posters come up against BJP’s Rajib Banerjee in Howrah

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Posters were put up against BJP leader Rajib Banerjee in Howrah’s Domjur on Wednesday, terming him a “traitor”, amid speculations over his future political move.

    The posters, purportedly put up by local TMC workers, stated that Banerjee who switched over to the BJP ahead of the assembly elections was not welcome to join back the party.

    The posters came up a day after the former TMC minister warned members of his new party in a social media post that “people will not take kindly to threats of President’s rule” against a government elected with a huge mandate.

    He has also skipped a meeting of the state BJP on post-poll violence, adding further fuel to the speculations.

    “Rajib Banerjee is corrupt and a traitor. We urge the party leadership that he should not be taken back,” a local TMC worker said.

    Domjur MLA Kalyan Ghosh said TMC supporters don’t want Banerjee to return to the party.

    “They have told me about this. It is true that he had betrayed the party,” he said.

    Banerjee lost the Domjur seat as a BJP candidate by around 42,000 votes to Ghosh.

    The BJP discarded the matter as an internal affair of the TMC.

    “TMC and corruption are synonymous. Until he had joined BJP, such allegations were never made. However, it is an internal matter of the TMC,” a BJP leader said.

  • If there is any national party today, it is BJP, says ex-Congress leader Jitin Prasada after joining saffron party

    By Agencies
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Jitin Prasada joined the BJP on Wednesday, in a shot in the arm for the saffron party as it prepares for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year.

    He joined the BJP in presence of Union minister Piyush Goyal and its chief spokesperson Anil Baluni.

    Speaking on the occasion, Prasada said, “I have a three-generation connection with Congress, so I took this important decision after a lot of deliberation. In the last 8-10 years I have felt that if there is one party that is truly national, it is BJP. Other parties are regional but this is the national party,” said Prasada afrer joining the BJP.

    He also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership of the country and also lauded other senior party leaders. 

    Noting that politics is for public service, Prasada said he realised he cannot do it in the Congress and could not protect people’s interests.

    Goyal heaped praised on him, lauding him as a leader of stature whose induction will boost the BJP.

    It will also help him in serving the society, the minister added.

    The 47-year-old Prasada, a former Union minister, comes from a well known Brahmin family of Uttar Pradesh and was serving as the Congress leader in-charge of West Bengal before joining the BJP.

    His father Jitendra Prasada was a noted Congress leader.

    With the Congress in dire straits in Uttar Pradesh and he himself losing the Lok Sabha polls twice in a row, Prasada’s decision to join the BJP may help him politically at a time when the saffron party is working overtime to boost its ranks in preparation for the assembly polls.

    It will also help the BJP keep Brahmins, a section of whom are said to be unhappy with the party in Uttar Pradesh, in good humour in the politically important state of India, party sources said.

    Speculation was rife even during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections of Prasada joining the BJP, but it is believed that the Congress leadership had then managed to persuade him against quitting the party.

    (With PTI, ANI inputs)

  • Suvendu Adhikari meets PM Modi in Delhi, discusses political dynamics

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi on Wednesday.

    According to sources, the two leaders discussed the alleged violence against BJP workers in West Bengal post Assembly elections and political dynamics in the state.

    On Tuesday, Adhikari met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other union ministers and BJP leaders in Delhi.

    Adhikary arrived in the national capital late on Monday night.

    Last week, Suvendu Adhikari submitted a representation about post-poll retributive violence to West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

    Several incidents of violence after the declaration of the state’s Assembly poll results have been reported.

    Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that several of its party workers have been killed in the violence. However, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has denied the allegations.

    The state government, on May 25, had informed the Supreme Court that three people have been arrested in connection with the alleged killing of two BJP workers in post-election violence on May 2 in the state. 

  • Suvendu Adhikari in Delhi to save skin in Narada case: TMC leader

    Adhikari, a former minister in the last Mamata Banerjee-led government, had joined the BJP just before the 2021 assembly elections.