News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Have not received No-confidence motion notice: Haryana Assembly Speaker

    By ANI
    CHANDIGARH: After Congress said it will move a “no-confidence motion” against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) government in Haryana, Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta on Friday said that he has not received any motion.

    Speaking on the ‘No Confidence’ motion, Gupta said, “As far as ‘No Confidence’ motion is concerned, till now I have not received any motion if I receive it, we will discuss it after eighteen members support the motion. The Opposition can bring it, we will take it forward as per the norms.”

    He further said, “Today is the first session of the year, it is likely to last till March 16. The final dates will be mentioned after the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting.”

    Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kanwar Pal and Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed attended the BAC meeting.

    Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said it will give a no-confidence motion to the Speaker against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) government in Haryana.

    Earlier the budget announcement was to be on March 10 but as per sources after the BAC meeting, it has been decided that the budget will be presented from 12 noon to 2 pm on March 12 and there will be no question hour on the budget day.

    Gupta said that the Private Member’s Bill was rejected as it was not in line with the rules as any matter which is sub judice cannot be discussed in the Assembly.

    Speaking to ANI, Haryana Assembly speaker, said, “The Private Member’s Bill which was sent by the Opposition leader was not in line with the rules because the matter is sub judice and nay matter which is in court cannot be discussed in the Vidhan Sabha, which is the reason it was rejected.”

    He said that only the Centre can make amendments to the Farm laws and not the state.

    The budget discussion will take place on March 15. Haryana Chief Minister proposed to extend the session. Now the budget session will be till March 18 and actions will be taken to extend it till March 19 if needed. 

  • EC seeks report on Trinamool’s complaint about PM’s photo on COVID-19 vaccination certificate

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has sought a report from the West Bengal chief electoral officer on the Trinamool Congress’ complaint that the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the COVID-19 vaccination certificate violates the model code.

    A functionary said on Thursday that the state CEO has been directed to file a report to verify the veracity of the TMC’s complaint.

    Based on the CEO’s report, the poll panel would decide the future course of action, the functionary explained.

    The ruling TMC in West Bengal had on Tuesday approached the poll panel about the PM’s image on vaccination certificates generated through the Co-Win platform being a violation of the model code of conduct in Bengal and other poll-bound states.

    It had termed the picture a misuse of official machinery by the prime minister.

    The model code came into force on February 26, the day the Election Commission had announced assembly polls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

  • Assam Assembly polls: BJP, allies finalise sharing of 86 out of 126 seats

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The BJP and its two alliance partners in Assam — the AGP and UPPL — have finalised their seat-sharing arrangements in 86 Assembly segments where polling will be held mostly in the first and second phase, BJP state unit chief Ranjit Dass said on Thursday night.

    Assam has 126 assembly constituencies where elections will be held in three phases, on March 27, April 1 and April 6.

    “The BJP and its allies have finalised the seat-sharing arrangements. I am not disclosing now the number of seats each party will contest as our alliance partners have to sort out some of their internal issues,” Dass told reporters here after meetings with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), United People’s Party Liberal as well as the BJP top brass.

    The BJP state unit chief said his party will announce its own candidates for the first two phases soon.

    However, the party has not finalised candidates in 12 seats for the time being and has kept them pending, he said.

    Asked whether Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will again be projected as the chief ministerial candidate for the coming assembly polls, the BJP state unit president said the party does not make such an announcement where it has its own government.

    “We project a chief ministerial candidate where we don’t have our own government. Where we have our own government, we don’t make such an announcement,” he said.

    Before the 2016 assembly elections, when Congress was in power, Sonowal was projected as the chief ministerial candidate by the BJP.

    The BJP Central Election Committee, comprising top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also met on Thursday to approve the list of party candidates for Assam.

    In the first of the three phases, 47 constituencies will go for polls.

    In the second phase, polling will be held in 39 constituencies and in the third phase, 40 constituencies.

    The last date for filing of nomination for the first phase is March 9, for the second phase it is March 12 and for the third phase, the last date of submitting nomination papers is March 19.

    In the 2016 Assembly polls, the BJP won 60 seats and the AGP 14.

    The UPPL is a new partner of the BJP and does not have any MLA now.

    The Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which was part of the BJP-led alliance, had won 12 seats in 2016.

    It is no longer an alliance partner of the BJP and recently joined the opposition Congress-led ‘Mahajoot’.

  • Bengal polls: Saffron brigade goes to EC, Trinamool demands removal of state election in-charge

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday approached the Election Commission against municipal administrators in West Bengal, alleging that they continue to function in their roles even after the end of their five-year tenure.

    The party also claimed that the Trinamool Congress-led state government has not held municipal elections fearing loss of face in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

    In a memorandum to the EC, BJP stated that 125 of the 135 municipal bodies in the state completed their tenures in April-May last year. But no polls have been held yet.

    “Apprehending failure in the municipal elections which could have ramifications in the Assembly, TMC influenced the state election commission and got municipal polls postponed,” alleged the memorandum submitted by a BJP delegation consisting of the party’s national general secretary Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and others.

    The TMC, on the other hand, have demanded the removal of deputy election commissioner Sudip Jain, who is in-charge of the state. They accused him of being biased against them.

    TMC spokesperson Sougata Roy said party leader Derek O’ Brien has written to the Election Commission demanding that Jain be removed as he was biased against them t during 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    “During Parliamentary polls, Sudeep Jain had taken several steps which were not only against the norms of the Election Commission but also against those of the federal structure. We don’t have any faith in him. We (TMC) apprehend that this time, too, he will take steps which will either directly or indirectly help the BJP,” Roy said at a press conference.

  • Amid reports of infighting ahead of Bengal polls, defectors to get BJP ticket

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The BJP on Thursday is learnt to have finalised candidates for the first few phases of Assembly elections in Assam and West Bengal, with fresh faces in the former and turncoats in the latter getting preference.

    The central election committee (CEC) of the BJP met on Thursday to approve the list of candidates, screened by the respective poll-bound state units of the party. The final lists are likely to be released in the next few days. 

    Apparently to ward off faction fighting, the BJP is not likely to field any of the Lok Sabha MPs, as also West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh, in the Assembly elections.

    The party is also struggling to keep its house in order, as old-timers and new entrants engage in feud over multiple issues, including ticket distribution.

    The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, left its doors wide open for leaders from other parties, as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.

    The possibility of naming a chief ministerial candidate for West bengal, too, is remote.  But the BJP CEC is learnt to have given the go-ahead to the party’s bid to reward the defectors from the ranks of the ruling Trinamool Congress, which includes the likes of Suvendu Adhikari, Rajeeb Banerjee, Dipak Kumar Haldar. 

    According to a senior BJP leader, the strategy had initially reaped dividends for the saffron camp, which labelled the TMC as a “sinking ship”, but it eventually led to infighting within the organisation and diluted the party’s “fight against corruption”, as several new entrants were found to have graft charges against them.

    The party recently did a course correction, and stopped the mass induction, but the damage by then was done, with the leadership now having to face the “herculean task” of identifying suitable candidates from 8,000 aspirants for the state’s 294 constituencies, the senior leader said.

    “We never thought that induction of leaders from other parties could lead to such a situation. Every day we hear reports of infighting between the old-timers and newcomers. We apprehend that post announcement of names (of contenders), discontentment within the camp will grow further,” the BJP leader noted.

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, however, insisted that expanding the party’s base was necessary at this juncture.

    “The BJP is a big family. When your family grows, such incidents do take place. If we don’t take people from other outfits, how will we grow? That said, everyone has to abide by the rules and regulations of the party. No one is above the party,” Ghosh said.

    Elections in Bengal, poised to be a stiff contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases, beginning with polling for 30 seats on March 27.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

    According to the saffron camp sources, many state leaders and the RSS — the BJP’s ideological parent – have aired their displeasure over induction of certain leaders from other parties.

    Thousands of activists from rival parties joined the saffron camp in the last few months during the ‘jogdan mela’ (joining programme) in various districts of the state.

    As many as 28 MLAs, including 19 from the TMC, and a sitting MP of the ruling camp have switched over to the BJP over the past few months.

    Prominent among them are heavyweight politicians and former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, Sovan Chatterjee and Jitendra Tiwari.

    Discontentment in the saffron camp, which had been brewing for a while, first surfaced in September last year, when veteran leader Rahul Sinha was replaced by Anupam Hazra, a former TMC MP, as national secretary.

    Sinha openly spoke about the “injustice meted out to him to make space for leaders from the TMC”.

    Union Minister Babul Supriyo and other BJP leaders, including state general secretary Sayantan Basu and state Mahila Morcha chief Agnimitra Paul, had in December opposed Tiwari’s induction into the party.

    The state BJP leadership had then issued show-cause notices to Basu and Paul for speaking on the issue in public.

    Tiwari was taken into the saffron fold earlier this week.

    Several BJP old-timers across the state had objected to the induction of former state minister Syamaprasad Mukherjee, ex-TMC MP Dasharath Tirkey, and rival camp leaders Sukra Munda and Mihir Goswami.

    In certain pockets, BJP supporters have also come up with posters, which stated that local leaders would prefer backing an Independent candidate to supporting “parachuted leaders from the TMC”.

    “Old-timers are worried that new entrants from the TMC would hog all the limelight and the efforts put in by them to strengthen the party would go in vain.

    They are apprehensive that they might not get due recognition, and tickets could slip out of hand,” another senior state BJP leader said.

    “In East Midnapore, there are 16 seats. Adhikari might pitch for his loyalists who have followed in his footsteps and joined the BJP. The same could happen in Howrah, where Rajib Banerjee wields considerable influence.”

    “If you accommodate them, old-timers will get angry; if you don’t, the loyalists will get infuriated. It’s a precarious situation,” the BJP leader said.

    Political analysts feel that a lack of strong leadership and over-dependence on central leadership might put the saffron party at a disadvantage.

    “Once the candidate list is out, it will lead to massive infighting. If the BJP fails to control this situation, it will be Achilles heels for the saffron camp,” political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty asserted Echoing him, another political pundit, Suman Bhattacharya, said induction of “tainted leaders” from the TMC has diluted the BJP’s main poll plank – ‘fight against corruption’.

    “The BJP, which had been levelling corruption allegations against TMC leaders, ended up welcoming some of them into the party. This has put a question mark on the BJP’s credibility as an alternative to the TMC,” he added.

    The TMC leadership — at the receiving end of the exodus — contended that only “rotten elements” have left the party to join the BJP.

    “The saffron camp has turned into a dustbin of the TMC. It is good riddance for us,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.

    The opposition CPI(M) claimed that the switchovers only go on to prove that the BJP and the TMC are “two sides of the same coin”.

    Making light of the claims, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP is the largest party in the country, and knows well how to tackle such “minor issues”.

    “People of Bengal have made up their mind to oust the TMC. These instances (of infighting) are minor hiccups, and we know how to tackle it. It won’t be an issue in the long run,” he said.

    The BJP will also be fielding actors and actresses in the state, sources said, adding that since it had won just three Assembly seats in the 2016 polls, there’s ample scope to strike a fine balance between the new entrants from other parties and their own cadre. 

    ALSO READ | Bengal polls: BJP receives 10,000 applications for tickets

    In Assam, the BJP is particularly looking to draft in fresh blood to beat anti-incumbency against the Sarbanada Sonowal-led NDA government, with special thrust on educational qualifications and “innovative leadership” skill sets. 

    The BJP’s central election committee meeting convened by party chief J P Nadda, was attended by Modi and senior Union ministers like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Narendra Singh Tomar.

    Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and leaders from the West Bengal party’s unit were among those who attended the meeting.

    “Special focus in the choice of candidates is on the educational qualifications and innovative leadership skills to execute the vision of the prime minister to connect the initiatives of the government with the people,” said a senior BJP functionary.

    Also, potential candidates who have the ability to take the party forward in the next decade, too, will get picked, the functionary added,

    The West Bengal unit has recommended Trinamool defector Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

    ALSO READ | Bengal polls 2021: Aditi Munshi, Subhadra Mukherjee, Dheeraj Pandit join TMC ahead of  elections

    For Tamil Nadu, the party is likely to wait for the formal announcement of seat adjustments with allies before it releases its list of candidates.

    Party to field professionals in Kerala, TN

    “In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the BJP will give ample scope to professionals with credible public achievements besides the committed cadre in the candidate selection, while the turncoats from the Congress will get the ticket in Puducherry,” sources stated.  

    With the former “Metro Man” E Sreedharan in the saddle, the BJP is likely to experiment in candidate selection to gain popular attention in Kerala to further its aim to emerge as the third force in the state.

    (With PTI Inputs) 

  • BJP corporator arrested in molestation case: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: A BJP corporator from Murbad in Thane district has been arrested for allegedly molesting a woman corporator, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Thursday.

    The minister was speaking in the Legislative Council.

    “Corporator Nitin Telavane from Murbad tried to molest a woman corporator after barging into her house around 12.40 am (last night),” the minister said.

    “Action has been taken against him under IPC sections 452 (house trespass), 354 (molestation), 354A (sexual harassment) and 506 (criminal intimidation),” he said.

    “Telavane, who is from the BJP, has been arrested,” the minister added.

    On Wednesday, the opposition had tried to corner the government over an alleged incident in Jalgaon where girls at a hostel were `stripped and forced to dance’ by policemen.

    But Deshmukh stated on Thursday that there was no truth to the allegations.

  • Bengal polls 2021: Tie-up with TMC in Bengal suicidal for Left, might lead to BJP’s victory, says CPI(M)

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Acknowledging that the advance of the BJP in West Bengal was “real”, the CPI(M) has said that despite certain circles advocating its tie-up with the TMC in the state, such a move would be “suicidal” for the Left and will mean victory for the saffron party.

    According to an editorial in the latest edition of the party mouthpiece People’s Democracy, the CPI(M) and the Left parties have the biggest stakes in the elections in West Bengal and Kerala.

    “The situation in West Bengal is the most complicated. The BJP is making a serious bid to capture power in the state. For that, it is deploying all its men and resources backed by the RSS. The 2019 Lok Sabha election saw a polarisation between the TMC and BJP and the latter won 18 of the 42 seats polling 40.6 per cent (of votes). The Left Front got squeezed out in this polarisation and got only 7.4 per cent of the votes. The CPI(M) and the Left Front have been strenuously working to recover lost ground,” it said.

    “The danger of BJP advance in West Bengal is real. This has led some liberal and Left circles outside Bengal to advocate cooperation with the TMC by the CPI(M) and Left Front. This would be suicidal for the Left and actually facilitate a BJP victory,” according to the editorial.

    It also stated that the strong discontent against the TMC and its “thuggish misrule” and attitude to Mamata Banerjee and her party on the part of the Left will drive all the anti-TMC voters into the arms of the BJP.

    ALSO READ | Bengal polls 2021: TMC likely to release candidate list on Friday

    “In fact, it is the projection of an alternative combination of the Left Front, Congress and other non-BJP, non-TMC forces that can rally these people and deprive the BJP of additional support,” it said.

    The contest in Kerala is between the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

    The BJP is aspiring to become the third pole as it knows very well that it cannot be the main contender in these polls.

    The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government under Pinarayi Vijayan’s leadership has a remarkable record of performance in developmental work and social welfare measures, it said.

    The editorial also alleged that in Assam, the BJP has sought to use the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to advance its communal agenda.

    “In the run-up to this election too, the BJP leadership is indulging in rabid communal rhetoric with the patent aim of creating a communal polarisation. It is therefore of utmost importance, to ensure the defeat of the BJP alliance in this election,” it said.

    It said that to defeat the ruling BJP in Assam, a combination of seven parties has emerged comprising Congress, AIUDF, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), Anchalik Gana Morcha and Bodoland People’s Front.

    In respect to Tamil Nadu, the editorial said that this election is not the usual contest between the two Dravidian parties and its allies as in the past.

    It said that the fight against the AIADMK is also a fight to check the BJP and its advance.

    “In 2016, one of the reasons the DMK alliance could not win the assembly election was because four parties — CPI(M), CPI, VCK and MDMK — had contested separately as the People’s Welfare Front. Now all these parties are in the DMK-led alliance. It is essential that the DMK strengthen the alliance by a fair distribution of seats to these four parties,” it said.

    It also accused the BJP of “skulduggery” in Puducherry wherein the Congress government was toppled on the eve of the election.

    It alleged that first the government was not allowed to function using the Lt.

    Governor and then defections were “engineered”.

    In Puducherry, the V Narayanasamy-led Congress government resigned ahead of a vote of confidence last month.

  • ​Former TMC leader Sushanta Pal does squats on stage after joining BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: In a curious gesture, a former Trinamool Congress leader did squats on stage moments after joining the BJP in Purbo Medinipur district on Thursday, describing the act as an attempt to “atone past sins” during his tenure with the ruling party.

    Sushanta Pal, known to be a loyalist of TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, suddenly started doing squats, stopping his speech midway after receiving the BJP flag during a rally at Pingla area.

    “This is atonement for my sins when I was with the tyrant TMC, and had to follow whimsical and anti-people orders of the top leadership.

    I regret it now,” the former vice- president of Kharagpur Number 2 Block of the party said.

    Alleging that the TMC did not allow free and fair panchayat polls in 2018, occupying the local bodies by force, Pal said, “I have joined the BJP as I was feeling claustrophobic. I wanted to protest but my voice was muzzled.”

    As Pal did squats on stage, BJP supporters present at the rally chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans, while many looked on in bewilderment.

    The district unit president of TMC, Ajit Maity said, “Pal had been stripped of all responsibilities four years back. He is now indulging in ‘dramabaji’ (theatrics) at the behest of the BJP.”

    Earlier, several local TMC leaders, who were loyal to Adhikari and occupied posts such as municipality chairman, switched over to the BJP.

  • Rift between old-timers and new entrants cause of concern for Bengal BJP ahead of polls

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: With Assembly polls just three weeks away, the BJP, amid an all-out effort to oust Mamata Banerjee from power in Bengal, is also struggling to keep its house in order, as old-timers and new entrants engage in feud over multiple issues, including ticket distribution.

    The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide open for leaders from other parties, as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.

    According to a senior BJP leader, the strategy had initially reaped dividends for the saffron camp, which labelled the TMC as a “sinking ship”, but it eventually led to infighting within the organisation and diluted the party’s “fight against corruption”, as several new entrants were found to have graft charges against them.

    The party recently did a course correction, and stopped the mass induction, but the damage by then was done, with the leadership now having to face the “herculean task” of identifying suitable candidates from 8,000 aspirants for the state’s 294 constituencies, the senior leader said.

    “We never thought that induction of leaders from other parties could lead to such a situation.

    Every day we hear reports of infighting between the old-timers and newcomers. We apprehend that post announcement of names (of contenders), discontentment within the camp will grow further,” the BJP leader noted.

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, however, insisted that expanding the party’s base was necessary at this juncture.

    “The BJP is a big family. When your family grows, such incidents do take place. If we don’t take people from other outfits, how will we grow? That said, everyone has to abide by the rules and regulations of the party.

    No one is above the party,” Ghosh said.

    Elections in Bengal, poised to be a stiff contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases, beginning with polling for 30 seats on March 27.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

    According to the saffron camp sources, many state leaders and the RSS — the BJP’s ideological parent – have aired their displeasure over induction of certain leaders from other parties.

    Thousands of activists from rival parties joined the saffron camp in the last few months during the ‘jogdan mela’ (joining programme) in various districts of the state.

    As many as 28 MLAs, including 19 from the TMC, and a sitting MP of the ruling camp have switched over to the BJP over the past few months.

    Prominent among them are heavyweight politicians and former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, Sovan Chatterjee and Jitendra Tiwari.

    Discontentment in the saffron camp, which had been brewing for a while, first surfaced in September last year, when veteran leader Rahul Sinha was replaced by Anupam Hazra, a former TMC MP, as national secretary.

    Sinha openly spoke about the “injustice meted out to him to make space for leaders from the TMC”.

    Union Minister Babul Supriyo and other BJP leaders, including state general secretary Sayantan Basu and state Mahila Morcha chief Agnimitra Paul, had in December opposed Tiwari’s induction into the party.

    The state BJP leadership had then issued show-cause notices to Basu and Paul for speaking on the issue in public.

    Tiwari was taken into the saffron fold earlier this week.

    Several BJP old-timers across the state had objected to the induction of former state minister Syamaprasad Mukherjee, ex-TMC MP Dasharath Tirkey, and rival camp leaders Sukra Munda and Mihir Goswami.

    In certain pockets, BJP supporters have also come up with posters, which stated that local leaders would prefer backing an Independent candidate to supporting “parachuted leaders from the TMC”.

    “Old-timers are worried that new entrants from the TMC would hog all the limelight and the efforts put in by them to strengthen the party would go in vain.

    They are apprehensive that they might not get due recognition, and tickets could slip out of hand,” another senior state BJP leader said.

    “In East Midnapore, there are 16 seats. Adhikari might pitch for his loyalists who have followed in his footsteps and joined the BJP. The same could happen in Howrah, where Rajib Banerjee wields considerable influence.

    “If you accommodate them, old-timers will get angry; if you don’t, the loyalists will get infuriated. It’s a precarious situation,” the BJP leader said.

    Political analysts feel that a lack of strong leadership and over-dependence on central leadership might put the saffron party at a disadvantage.

    “Once the candidate list is out, it will lead to massive infighting.

    If the BJP fails to control this situation, it will be Achilles heels for the saffron camp,” political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty asserted Echoing him, another political pundit, Suman Bhattacharya, said induction of “tainted leaders” from the TMC has diluted the BJP’s main poll plank – ‘fight against corruption’.

    “The BJP, which had been levelling corruption allegations against TMC leaders, ended up welcoming some of them into the party.

    This has put a question mark on the BJP’s credibility as an alternative to the TMC,” he added.

    The TMC leadership — at the receiving end of the exodus — contended that only “rotten elements” have left the party to join the BJP.

    “The saffron camp has turned into a dustbin of the TMC. It is good riddance for us,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.

    The opposition CPI(M) claimed that the switchovers only go on to prove that the BJP and the TMC are “two sides of the same coin”.

    Making light of the claims, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP is the largest party in the country, and knows well how to tackle such “minor issues”.

    “People of Bengal have made up their mind to oust the TMC. These instances (of infighting) are minor hiccups, and we know how to tackle it.

    It won’t be an issue in the long run,” he said.

  • Bengal polls: After Tejashwi, now Akhilesh to campaign in Trinamool’s favour

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday of misleading the people in West Bengal and said the party would campaign in favour of the TMC for the Assembly election.

    The comments came a day after Adityanath addressed a rally in minority-dominated Malda district where he alleged that cattle smuggling and “love jihad” were continuing unabated in West Bengal and the Mamata Banerjee government was endangering national security by indulging in “appeasement” politics.

    In a statement, Yadav said the BJP wanted to come to power in the state by spreading “confusion and propaganda” during the Assembly polls.

    “The Samajwadi Party will not allow this conspiracy of the BJP to succeed,” he added.

    He alleged that Adityanath was “misleading” the people and appealed to the voters not to fall prey to the designs of the BJP, which “indulges in politics of hate”.

    “It’s in the interest of democracy to be cautious of it (BJP),” the SP leader said.

    Yadav said SP vice president and former minister Kiranmoy Nanda would conduct an election campaign in support of the TMC in the state.

    Incidentally, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had also met TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee two days ago.

    “West Bengal is home to a large number of Hindi-speaking people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand,” he had said, adding the RJD’s stand is to provide “full support” to Banerjee.

    The high-stakes elections in West Bengal, poised to be a tough contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.