News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Nadda chairs key meeting of BJP general secretaries to take stock of Covid relief work by party workers

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP chief JP Nadda on Saturday chaired a key meeting of the party’s general secretaries to take stock of the relief work done by party workers in wake of the second wave of Covid, sources said.

    The meeting was the first in-person huddle of the BJP national office bearers held after the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19.

    The meeting, which held at Nadda’s residence, was also attended by all morcha presidents of the BJP.

    After the meeting, Nadda along with BJP general secretary B L Santhosh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently to apprise him about the relief work done by the party.

    Later, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvarghiya in a tweet said the party carried out welfare work in 1.53 lakh villages across the country as part of its campaign ‘Sewa Hi Sangathan Hai’.

    More than 66,000 party workers also donated the blood during this campaign, nearly 12 lakh ration kits, more than 15 lakh covid preventive kits and more than 85 lakh masks were distributed.

    During the meeting, a reviewal of the party’s performance in the recently-held assembly elections was also done, sources said.

    The meeting was attended by all eight general secretaries of the BJP — Bhupender Yadav, C T Ravi, Dushyant Gautam, D Purandeshwari, Arun Singh, Dilip Saikia, Tarun Chugh and Vijayvargiya along with its general secretary (organisation) Santhosh and joint general secretary (organisation) Shivprakash.

    Nadda has called the meeting to review the relief and Covid preventive work done by BJP workers amid the pandemic.

    Another round of meeting will be held on Sunday which is expected to be attended by in-charges of all states.

  • Lust for power amid pandemic will lead to anarchy: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: In a veiled attack on former ally BJP, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said acting with “lust for power” during the coronavirus pandemic will lead to “anarchy”.

    Saving lives was the most important thing now, he said.

    Participating in an online interaction organised by Marathi daily Loksatta, Thackeray said people wouldn’t forgive him if he didn’t provide clarity on why he wanted power.

    “If people who voted for me do not survive the COVID- 19 pandemic, what is the use of power,” he said.

    “Acting with lust for power amid COVID-19 will lead to anarchy,” he said, without naming the opposition party.

    Becoming chief minister was never his goal, and his promise to his father, Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray on making a Sena worker chief minister “is yet to be fulfilled”, Thackeray said.

    “I was never politically inclined. I came into politics to help my father. A pandemic after 100 years happens during my tenure as CM. I have never shied away from responsibility.

    I am doing what I can to the best of my ability,” he said.

    Queried on whether the Sena’s alliance with the BJP, which ended on a bitter note post the 2019 Assembly polls, could be revived again, Thackeray said there was a trust deficit in the relations after the demise of BJP leaders Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde.

    “The BJP is now Delhi-centric. In an alliance, there has to be openness to air differences and resolve them.

    My new allies (NCP and Congress) treat me with respect. The MVA is an alliance where we had differences, so we are more open now,” he said.

    The alliance with the BJP saw its “golden period” when the two parties were in opposition with the saffron ideology holding them together and there was mutual trust and respect, Thackeray added.

    To another question, he said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi does call him often.

  • Farmers burn copies of farm laws near residences of BJP leaders in Punjab

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Farmers burnt copies of the Centre’s three farm laws near residences of BJP leaders and at other places in Punjab on Saturday as they observed ‘Sampoorna Kranti Diwas’ to mark the day when these legislations were promulgated as ordinances last year.

    Farmers carrying black flags raised slogans against the BJP-led central government for not scrapping the legislations which, they said, will “destroy” the farming community.

    Police personnel were deployed and barricades put up near the protest sites to maintain law and order.

    The call for observing ‘Sampoorna Kranti Diwas’ was given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting farmer unions spearheading the agitation against the farm laws.

    In Phagwara, farmers burnt copies of the farm laws near the residence of Union minister Som Parkash at Urban Estate.

    The protesters assembled near the GT Road and marched towards his residence.

    Police put up barricades on the road leading to Prakash’s house to prevent protesters from reaching there, officials said.

    The Union minister was not at home at the time of the protest.

    The agitating farmers also held a protest near Prakash’s residence in Mohali district. Police were deployed and barricades erected outside the minister’s house to prevent any untoward incident.

    In Chandigarh, a protest was held against the Centre for not repealing the farm laws, the main demand of the agitating farmers.

    After being promulgated as ordinances on this day last year, the farm legislations were passed by Parliament in September.

    The president gave his assent to the bills later that month.

    Scores of farmers have been camping at Delhi’s borders since November last year demanding that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

    However, the government has maintained the laws are pro-farmer.

    Several rounds of talks between the farmers and the government have failed to break the deadlock over these contentious laws. The government last held talks with farmer leaders on January 22.

    The talks between the two sides came to a halt after a January 26 tractor parade by farmers in Delhi turned violent.

  • Buzz grows on BJP vice-president Mukul Roy’s return to TMC after Abhishek Banerjee’s hospital visit

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The buzz that BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy may return to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has grown louder since Wednesday’s visit by TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee to the hospital where Mukul’s wife is undergoing COVID treatment.

    According to sources, Abhishek enquired about her health and wished her a speedy recovery. Though Mukul’s wife, Krishna, was admitted to the hospital on May 14, no BJP leader had bothered to pay her a visit. Abhishek’s visit, understandably, has set the alarm bells ringing in the saffron camp.

    Within two hours of his visit, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh changed his schedule and rushed to the hospital. The following day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself dialed Mukul and enquired about his wife’s health. 

    Amid all this, some political observers in the state have linked Abhishek’s visit with one of the statements Mamata made while campaigning for the election, in which she compared Mukul and Suvendhu Adhikari.  “Mukul is facing injustice by them (BJP). He has been fielded in the constituency which is far away from his hometown. What I can say he (Mukul) is much better than him (Suvendu),” she had said. 

    If one reads that statement and Abhishek’s hospital visit together, the panic in the BJP is understandable. “Abhishek’s visit to the hospital was enough to scare the BJP leaders about a possible re-run of the defection episode. And this time, the exodus would be from the saffron camp. If a national vice-president of BJP changes his political allegiance, it will definitely send a wrong message to the electorate and will damage the party’s image nationally,” said Bishnupriya Dutta Gupta, a political science professor.

    “Though we have differences, his (Abhishek’s) courtesy is exemplary,” said Subhrangshu, Mukul’s son, who joined the BJP last year.

  • TMC meet to strategise how to take on BJP central leadership’s vendetta politics

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The first organisational meeting of Trinamool Congress, since its landslide victory in the recently concluded assembly elections, slated to be held Saturday is likely to take up strategies to counter “vendetta politics by BJPs central leadership”.

    A senior TMC leader told PTI on Friday, the party will focus on strategising on countering the vindictive attitude of BJP-led centre which he claimed was out to needle the democratically elected” Mamata Banerjee government.

    The meeting is expected to be attended by all senior TMC leaders including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Subrata Bakshi, Saugata Roy, Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay, firebrand speaker Mahua Moitra and youth wing head Abhishek Banerjee as well as the party’s campaign advisor Prashant Kishor.

    The meet will also deliberate on the party’s strategy for the upcoming by-polls which the party will be fighting including polls to the Bhabanipur assembly constituency in Kolkata, from where Banerjee is expected to contest.

    TMC leaders said the meeting will deliberate on how to politically take on what the party leadership believes to be an attempt to needle it by the central leadership by targeting the states bureaucracy including former chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, by engineering CBI raids on TMC leaders and continued attempts to flag stray incidents of post-poll violence with a communal narrative.

    A mass campaign to focus public attention towards attempts to destabilise TMCs work is likely to be discussed, said sources.

    The meeting is also likely to deliberate on the development plank of the party which the state government is implementing including the newly announced `Duare Tran (Relief at your doorstep) meant to help people in the aftermath of cyclone Yaas.

    The chief minister, youth wing head Abhisek Banerjee and senior leaders Subrata Bakshi will guide how to implement these social welfare programmes and deliver help to the poor affected by cyclone and covid,” they said.

  • Farmers to protest outside houses of BJP lawmakers across India on June 5

    By PTI
    GHAZIABAD: Farmers protesting the contentious farm laws will hold demonstrations outside the residences of BJP lawmakers across the country on Saturday, a Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) office-bearer said on Friday.

    The protest outside the residences of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs and MLAs is to mark the one year of the promulgation of these laws as ordinances by the Centre, the official said.

    “The protestors would burn the copies of the legislations outside the residence of BJP MPs and MLAs across the country as a symbolic protest against the Centre,” BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik told PTI.

    “In districts where there is no BJP MP or MLA, the protest would take place outside district magistrate’s office,” he added.

    The decision for the June 5 protest was taken during a recent meeting of leaders of the farmers’ associations and unions which are camping on Delhi borders since November 2020.

    Hundreds of farmers are encamped at Delhi’s borders demanding that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

    However, the government, which has held multiple rounds of formal dialogue with the protestors, has maintained that the laws are pro-farmer.

  • Rift arises in Bihar NDA over BJP MLC Tunna Pandey’s jibe on CM Nitish Kumar

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Ties between Bihar’s NDA allies JDU and the BJP took a beating after BJP MLC Tunna Pandey called Nitish Kumar a “chief minister of circumstances”.  The JDU has asked the BJP to take action against Pandey.

    Pandey had echoed late RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin’s comments mocking the CM. “Md Shahabuddin had rightly called aid Nitish Kumar a Chief Minister of the circumstances. Had Nitish wanted, Shahabuddin’s body could have been brought to Bihar,” Pandey told the media recently.

    “Mohammad Shahabuddin has been punished for speaking the truth, he had said after coming to Siwan from Bhagalpur Jail. He had rightly said that Nitish Kumar is the Chief Minister of the circumstances. He was punished for speaking the same truth,” Pandey alleged. 

    Stepping up his attacks, he called the Bihar CM a leader who has not fought any elections.  “Nitish Kumar is, indeed, the chief minister of Circumstances what Md Shahabuddin had said about him long ago. Last time, he was the second number party and this time his party has become of third number party but has become CM and all follow him as a leader. What could be a bigger irony than that,” he said. 

  • BJP withdraws central force protection for party MLAs, leaders in West Bengal

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The BJP’s national leadership has withdrawn the central force protection of more than 100 party MLA and leaders in West Bengal. The decision was conveyed to the Union Home Ministry on Thursday.

    The party made the decision after more than a dozen BJP MLAs refused to accept the protection, saying it would hurt the party’s public image. The MLAs said that the presence of gun-wielding security personnel around them was damaging the party’s people-friendly image.

    The party conducted a study into the concerns expressed by the MLAs and found them to be real. “The visuals of BJP leaders guarded by central forces while interacting with common people would hurt the party. Bengal voters have not seen an elected representative roaming around with central force personnel around him or her. It contradicts the political picture that the Bengalis have nurtured,” a senior BJP leader in Kolkata said.

    While addressing election rallies, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the Centre over the “excessive” use of central force personnel and their alleged “highhandedness” during the eight-phase Assembly elections in the state.

    After the ruling party secured a landslide victory, the presence of central forces around the party leaders was causing damage to the saffron camp’s image, admitted the BJP leader. Before the elections, as many as 18 BJP leaders used to get central force protection in the state. The number went up to 168, just ahead of the elections. 

    The BJP had accorded central force protection to a number of party candidates who defected from the Trinamool Congress. The protectees were seen doing mundane activities like shopping in local markets with central-force jawans around them. 

  • BJP backs Yogi Adityanath, quells rumours of CM change in Uttar Pradesh

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The BJP’s central leadership on Wednesday backed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, quelling rumours about an impending leadership change in the state, ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections.

    However, the party’s central leadership will seek to iron out the rough edges in the relationship between the UP government and the state unit of the saffron party. Sources say a rejig of the party organisation and the induction of a few new faces in the state council of ministers can be expected.

    There were rumours that the BJP’s national leadership is planning a major rejig in Uttar Pradesh that may see Chief Minister Adityanath removed.

    The BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh and party vice president Radha Mohan Singh, also the party in charge of Uttar Pradesh, has been meeting senior party leaders and ministers in the state. They will soon submit a report to the party’s national president J P Nadda.

    Based on the report, Amit Shah and Nadda are likely to chart out the next course of action in the state.​Sources say during these meetings, party leaders expressed their disappointment with the government over the handling of the Covid pandemic and well as a growing disconnect between party leaders and the government.

    Sources say the central leadership of the party will also consider changing the president of the party’s state unit Swatantra Dev Singh, despite strong resistance from a section within the state unit that says it’s too late to make a leadership change, with polls just eight months away.

    Sources say while the Central leadership wants A K Sharma, a former senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) drafted in the state Cabinet with a key portfolio, the chief minister continues to oppose the idea and wants Sharma to continue his works in the eastern part of the state.

  • BJP leader shot dead by militants in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: Militants on Wednesday evening shot dead a BJP leader in Tral area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir. A woman was also injured in the militant firing

    A police official said militants fired from point-blank range at BJP leader Rakesh Pandita at Tral Payeen area of Pulwama district in the evening.

    Pandit, who is a Kashmiri Pandit and a councillor of Tral Municipal Committee, sustained multiple bullet injuries in the militant attack and was shifted to nearby hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

    The injured woman, who is said to be the daughter of Pandita’s friend, has been hospitalized.

    Immediately after the militant attack, police and CRPF men rushed to the area and launched a search operation to track down the militants responsible for the attack. The search operation was going on when reports last came in.

    A police official said preliminary investigation revealed that three militants were involved in the attack and their identity is being ascertained.

    The BJP leader, according to a police spokesman, was provided two Personal Security Officers (PSOs) and secured hotel accommodation in Srinagar. He said the BJP leader went to Tral without taking PSOs along with him.

    BJP spokesman Manzoor Bhat said Pandita had visited Tral as one of his relatives residing there had died a week back.

    “We strongly condemn the militant attack,” he said and urged police to identify and punish the militants involved in the attack.

    Bhat said the attack reflects the frustration level of militants and BJP won’t be cowed down by repeated attacks on its workers and leaders by militants in the Valley.

    Former J&K Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti also condemned the killing of BJP leader.

    “Shocked to hear that BJP leader Rakesh Pandit has been shot dead by militants. These senseless acts of violence have brought only misery to J&K. My condolences to the family & may his soul rest in peace,” Mehbooba tweeted.