News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • BJP, allies agree on Assam seat-sharing after meet with Shah, Nadda; announcement soon

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The BJP and its two Assam allies — the AGP and the UPPL — on Wednesday “almost finalised” their seat-sharing pact for the Assam assembly polls and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two, sources said.

    The “agreement on 99 per cent” of the seats has been reached at a high-level meeting attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Shah’s residence, the sources said.

    BJP’s state unit chief Ranjit Dass, AGP President and state minister Atul Bora, UPPL chief Pramod Boro, BJP leader and state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also attended the meeting.

    A formal announcement on the number of seats each party will contest will be made in a day or two, the sources said.

    While the AGP, which won 14 constituencies in the 2016 assembly elections, may get around 25 seats to contest, the UPPL, which is a new partner of the BJP and does not have any MLA now, is expected to get around 12 seats to contest, the sources said.

    The BJP, which had won 60 seats in 2016, will contest the rest of the constituencies.

    The BPF, which was part of the BJP-led alliance, had won 12 seats in 2016.

    The BPF is no longer an alliance partner of the BJP and the regional party had recently joined the opposition Congress-led ‘Mahajoot’.

    Assam has 126 assembly constituencies.

    After the joint meeting, the BJP leaders met separately at the residence of Nadda to scrutinise the list of the party’s candidates for the polls.

    The BJP Central Election Committee, comprising top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is likely to meet on Thursday to approve the first list of candidates.

    The three-phased Assam assembly polls will be held on March 27, April 1 and April 6.

    In the first phase, 47 constituencies will go for polls, in the second phase, polling will be held in 39 constituencies and in the third phase, polling will be held in 40 constituencies.

    The last date for filing nominations for the first phase is March 9, the last date for filing nominations for the second phase is March 12 and the last date for filing nominations for the third phase is March 19.

    While chief minister Sonowal’s Majuli and AGP president Bora’s Bokakhat constituencies will go for polling in the first phase, minister Sarma’s Jalukbari and Assam BJP chief Dass’ current seat Sarbhog will go for polling in the third phase.

    The UPPL president Boro is the chief executive member of the Bodoland Territorial Council, an autonomous body created under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, comprising the Bodo tribal dominated areas of Assam.

  • None from Trinamool keeps relation with me, says Suvendu Adhikari’s father

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Senior Trinamool Congress MP Sisir Adhikari, whose sons Suvendu and Soumendu have joined the BJP, on Wednesday said that no one from his party maintains any relation with him, while the ruling party in West Bengal climed that it is evident where his soul is.

    The Adhikari family patriarch claimed that the TMC has also issued veiled threats that anyone from the party keeping relations with him or his sons will be thrown out.

    “No one from the party contacts me,” he said.

    Reacting to Adhikari’s comments, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said, “Sisir-da is a veteran person. Everybody understands where his soul is and where he physically is. Let him first decide on that.”

    Without naming any party, Chatterjee also said that it is now clear which direction Adhikari is headed to.

    Adhikari alleged that functionaries of the TMC have made deplorable comments on him publicly, which even leaders of the Congress or the CPI(M) have never indulged in.

    While Suvendu and Soumendu have joined the BJP, another son Dibyendu, who is also a TMC Lok Sabha MP, and Sisir Adhikari have not been attending any meeting or programme of the Mamata Banerjee-led party for several months.

    Adhikari, who has been a TMC MP from Kanthi since 2009, has been in politics for several decades.

  • You produce children, why should government pay for their education: UP BJP MLA to women

    The remarks were allegedly made when a group of women approached Auraiya MLA Ramesh Diwakar for fee waiver in private schools during a public interaction in his constituency on Sunday.

  • Don’t teach us Hindutva, why no Bharat Ratna for Savarkar yet: Uddhav Thackeray to BJP

    The BJP has been targeting the Shiv Sena chief for quot;giving up quot; his Hindutva ideology for sharing power with the NCP and Congress.

  • RSS world’s biggest school of patriotism: BJP on Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of Hindutva organisation

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday lauded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the “world’s biggest school of patriotism” as it slammed Rahul Gandhi for likening the Hindutva organisation to radical Islamist outfits in Pakistan.

    Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told a press conference that it will take the Congress leader a long time to understand the RSS, the ideological fountainhead of the ruling BJP.

    The RSS is the “world’s biggest school of patriotism” and that is why it is held in high esteem, he said. The RSS’ role is to affect good changes in people and inspire patriotism in them, he told reporters after he was asked about Gandhi’s comments.

    In a conversation with Kaushik Basu, professor at the Cornell University in the US and India’s former chief economic advisor, Gandhi had alleged on Tuesday that the RSS uses schools run by it to push a particular world view like the radical Islamists in Pakistan do in madrassas.

    The Congress leader also termed the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi a “mistake”.

    However, he added that it was fundamentally different from the current scenario as Congress at no point attempted to capture the country’s institutional framework.

    Hitting back at Gandhi, Jaavdekar said his statement was “laughable” as his party had then ended the independence of institutions, denied media freedom and jailed dissenting voices. He said lakhs of people, including MPs and MLAs, were arrested during that time while institutions were denied any freedom.

    Now for him to say that they did not target institutions is laughable, Javadekar said.

    The BJP leader also took a swipe at the Congress over its promise to nullify the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Assam if it is voted to power in the state.

    “The Congress party in 2015 demanded citizenship for Hindu Bengalis & Buddhists who migrated from Bangladesh, today the same Congress says that it will nullify CAA if voted to power. Consistent inconsistency & Election opportunism,” he later tweeted.

    Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had made the statement during her recent campaign in Assam.

    Javadekar shared a 2015 news report citing the Congress’ demand for citizenship for Hindu and Buddhist refugees from Bangladesh.

    Responding to a question at the press conference, the minister also rejected allegations that the Income Tax raids on the premises of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and actor Taapsee Pannu were linked to their comments, which are seen at times critical of the BJP.

    “This is too much,” he said to the question and added that “probe agencies undertake investigations based on credible information and the matter later goes to courts as well.”

    The Income Tax Department on Wednesday raided premises linked to the filmmakers, including Kashyap, who launched the now-dissolved production house Phantom Films, Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibhashish Sarkar and Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu, officials said.

  • BJP’s turn to apologise for Gujarat riots after Congress admits ‘Emergency error’: Nawab Malik

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to apologise for the 2002 Gujarat riots following Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s admission that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accepted that the declaration of the Emergency was wrong. After 45 years of its implementation, Congress has accepted their mistake,” Malik said.

    “Congress has also apologised for the Delhi riots. Now it’s the turn of the BJP to apologise for the Gujarat riots. It takes a large heart to accept the wrongs of the past, to accept that the declaration of ’emergency’ was a mistake. Rahul Gandhi has done it,” he added.

    Congress leader and the party’s former president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    On 25 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had announced a national emergency in view of ‘threats to national security.During the emergency, opposition leaders were arrested, censorship was imposed, and a ban was announced on grassroots organisations which lasted for a period of 21 months

    Over a thousand people were killed during the three-day riots that ensued at several places in Gujarat after around 58 people lost their lives when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was torched at the Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002.  

  • Assam polls: Akhil Gogoi’s party proposes to field united opposition candidate against BJP

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: Jailed anti-CAA activist Akhil Gogoi has appealed to all the opposition parties to unitedly give only one candidate against every BJP nominee to defeat the incumbent government, newly floated Raijor Dal said on Tuesday.

    Gogoi, president of Raijor Dal even offered not to contest the polls to unite the opposition against the BJP.

    Addressing a press conference here, Raijor Dal Working President Bhasco De Saikia said,”According to Akhil Gogoi, the strategy adopted by the Congress-led Grand Alliance is not sufficient to defeat the BJP.

    “We have to have an understanding on every seat so that there is only one candidate against the BJP.”

    He, however, clarified that Raijor Dal is not going to join the Grand Alliance, but only proposing a broad-based understanding to defeat the BJP-led NDA.

    “We cannot join the grand alliance till the time AIUDF is there in the grouping. We believe that AIUDF is also a communal force and complements the BJP on many issues,” Saikia said.

    Raijor Dal has formed an alliance with another newly formed regional party Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the two parties have announced not to join the grand alliance.

    The Congress, which was in power for 15 years in Assam since 2001, has formed a grand alliance with AIUDF, CPI, CPI (M), CPI(ML), BPF and Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM) to fight the upcoming assembly election against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

    The BJP will be going to polls with the allies-Asom Gana Parishad (agp) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL)- its partner in the Bodoland Territorial Council.

    Of the total 126 seats in Assam Assembly, elections to 47, mostly in Upper Assam, will be held on March 27, while 39, in Barak Valley and Central Assam, will go to polls on April 1 and voting in the remaining 40 seats in Lower Assam will be held in the final round on April 6.

  • It is up to Ganguly whether he will attend PM’s Kolkata rally: BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Amid speculation over Indian cricket board president Sourav Ganguly attending the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on March 7, the BJP on Tuesday said that it would be up to the former cricketer to decide whether he will be there or not.

    If the former Indian captain considers attending the programme, health and weather conditions permitting, he will be most welcome, BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya told reporters in Kolkata.

    Ganguly was discharged from hospital on January 31, three days after he underwent a fresh round of angioplasty to clear clogged coronary arteries.

    Two more stents were implanted during the surgery.

    Following a mild heart attack in early January, he was diagnosed with Triple Vessel Disease.

    A stent was inserted into one of the blocked arteries at that time.

    “We know Sourav is under rest at home. If he considers attending the meeting, health and weather conditions permitting, he will be most welcome. If he is present, we think he will like it. The crowd will also like that. But we don’t know. It is for him to decide,” Bhattacharya said.

    There was no word from the side of the 48-year-old BCCI chief on the issue.

    There has been speculation that he will join politics ahead of the assembly election in the state.

  • Satish Poonia vs Vasundhara Raje: Rift in Rajasthan BJP ranks visible even on Nadda visit

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR:  BJP chief JP Nadda was in Jaipur on Tuesday trying to bridge a growing rift in the party’s Rajasthan unit.

    Addressing a meeting of the state executive at the Birla auditorium, he stressed the need for unity as he tried to motivate leaders and workers ahead of the four assembly by-elections.

    Infighting in Rajasthan BJP has grown uglier of late, with state chief Satish Poonia and former CM Vasundhara Raje at loggerheads. Raje supporters claim the party has sidelined her and are openly demanding that she should be the CM face in the 2023 Assembly polls.

    The divide was visible when state leaders went to the airport to receive Nadda. Raje and Poonia supporters stood in different corners.

    Though Nadda did not name any leader, he dropped enough hints and asked all sections to project a united face of the party. He advised party leaders that any ‘Ekla Chalo Re’ policy by any leader will not work.

    “A person becomes a leader only through his actions and by taking everyone together,” said Nadda. He said that many leaders have given up self-analysing.

    “Knowingly or unknowingly, we assume that we know everything. This is the beginning of stagnation. The truth is our productivity decreases,” he said.

    “I request everyone here to do self-analysis. What is your commitment, your relevance? Politics is a place where you have to relevant.”

    “Relevance means how much are you contributing to the party. How much are you acceptable. As a leader, you will have to develop the quality of taking along everyone which will increase your acceptance,” he said in a candid address.

    “This has harmed us and I believe everyone should focus on self-analysis to make the party stronger.”

    The meeting was attended by the party’s central office-bearers from Rajasthan and functionaries of the state unit.

    BJP national general secretary and state in-charge Arun Singh, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and Kailash Chaudhary, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, leader of opposition in state assembly Gulabchand Kataria, deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore and other leaders were present on the stage.

    Nadda’s visit assumes significance as it came ahead of Raje’s planned ‘dharmik yatra’ next week, seen as an attempt to re-assert her influence in the state unit after maintaining a low profile since the BJP’s defeat in 2018 assembly polls.

    Raje and her loyalists are planning a show of strength on March 8 on her birthday. 

    The party, which will soon be facing bypolls in four assembly seats, has distanced itself from Raje’s ‘yatra’, saying it was a “personal matter”.

    In signs of growing factionalism in the party, Raje’s supporters have raised the demand to declare her as the CM candidate for the next elections.

    A 20-odd MLAs recently expressed resentment against the state leadership for allegedly not being allowed to raise public interest issues in the assembly.

    “Are we working with maturity? There should be self-analysis,” Nadda said at the meeting while stressing that the leaders should keep on striving to enhance their relevance, acceptance and maturity.

    He said that one becomes a leader by actions.

    “Leadership is developed when you take everyone along,” Nadda said, adding “the BJP is a cadre-based party and it is our responsibility to strengthen that cadre.”

    Speaking on the agitation against the agri laws, the BJP national president alleged that farmer leaders have “only done politics” and said it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who took steps for the welfare of the farmers.

    He claimed that the reforms initiated by the central government will change the fortune of the farmers.

    Nadda also targeted Congress for changing its stand on the issue.

    “Did they not promise to abolish APMC in their manifesto?” he asked. He directed the party leaders to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level.

    Expressing confidence that the BJP will return to power in Rajsthan, he directed the party unit to strengthen Mandals by April 15, complete the formation of booth level committees by September 25 and activate ‘Panna Pramukhs’ by December 25.

    The assembly elections are due in Rajasthan in 2023.

    Praising Prime Minister Modi for the handling of the COVID pandemic, the BJP chief said that he saved the country by timely imposing lockdown and encouraged scientists in India to develop vaccines which resulted in the world’s largest vaccination programme.

    He also spoke about the central government introducing the world’s largest healthcare programme through the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

    Targeting the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, he alleged that its priority is not to deliver good governance.

    He also targeted the state government on the issue of crimes against women and atrocities against Dalits.

    Addressing the meeting, the BJP’s state president Satish Poonia said the party will hold demonstrations across the state against the Congress government from 6 to 14 March.

    Earlier, Nadda, who arrived at Jaipur airport from Delhi, was given a grand welcome by the party workers at several locations from the airport to the Birla auditorium meeting venue.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Existential crisis for Chirag Paswan’s LJP as 175 party leaders and workers join BJP

    Express News Service
    PATNA: The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is heading towards an existential crisis, facing mass desertion. Less than two weeks after hundreds of leaders and workers, including 18 district presidents, joined the Janata Dal (United), the Chirag Paswan-led outfit suffered another major jolt on Tuesday as 175 leaders and workers in West Champaran (Bettiah) joined BJP. 

    Those who deserted the party included LJP’s district president Shyamanand Chaurasia and former vice-president Radheshyam Rai, apart from five-block presidents and 150 panchayats heads.

    Breaking away from the NDA in Bihar, LJP had pitched itself as a major challenger to the JD-U ahead of last year’s Assembly elections.

    Following a poor performance, the party has struggled to keep its flock together.  The ruling JD-U may get another boost.

    There is a buzz that Rashtriya Lok Samata Party may merge with the Nitish Kumar-led party.