News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Vasundhara Raje loyalists accommodated in Rajasthan’s BJP working committee

    Express News Service
    JAIPUR: Grappling with a deep rift within the Rajasthan unit, the BJP has appointed 93 members and 50 special invitees to the party’s state working committee. Significantly, a sizeable chunk of leaders in the new working committee is known supporters of Vasundhra Raje, which signifies that the BJP is making a special effort to placate the former Chief Minister.  

    Although nearly 70 of the 93 members are close to other senior leaders such as BJP Chief of the state unit, Satish Poonia, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Gulab Chand Kataria and his deputy leader Rajendra Singh Rathore, about 15 members are long-time Raje loyalists. In addition, among the 50 special invitees, 31 are said to be keen supporters of Raje.

    BJP national office bearers, state core committee members, state office bearers and all-district presidents will be permanent invitees of the State Working Committee. Five 5 Muslim leaders and 14 women have been included in the 93-member working committee in a bid to provide “balanced representation”.

    Last week, Raje had been included in the party’s high-powered core committee for the state unit. After the BJP lost the Assembly elections in Rajasthan two years ago, Raje has been marginalized and kept out of state party forums. But with BJP President JP Nadda including her in the core committee, Raje had made a clear comeback.

    Sources in the BJP say that Raje still enjoys huge support among party MLAs in Rajasthan and has a strong base within the state party unit.

    The BJP top brass seems to have learnt its lesson from the political crisis which erupted in Rajasthan last year during the tussle between CM Ashok Gehlot and rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot. Raje and her supporters had not been kept in the loop and her tactical silence at that time had played a vital role in the survival of the Gehlot government. By accommodating the Raje camp adequately in the State Working Committee, the BJP hopes to check the infighting in the state unit.

  • ‘AAP will take legal action against BJP’: Manish Sisodia over doctored video of Kejriwal

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said that his party will take legal action against the BJP for allegedly sharing a doctored video of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on social media recently.

    A BJP spokesperson had tweeted a video claiming that Kejriwal has supported the three contentious farm laws.

    ​Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sisodia said, “The BJP knows that Kejriwal is the only leader with credibility and hence they have used his doctored interview to create a false impression among the people.”

    “This doctored video was created by selectively editing a long interview of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and placing fake bytes in some places. The Aam Aadmi Party will not allow such machinations by the BJP and will take legal action against them,” he said.

    Sisodia claimed that since the BJP has ‘failed in all its machinations’ against the farmers, they plotted a new scheme riding on Kejriwal’’s popularity.

    “We pity the BJP’s tactics who despite having their government at the Centre and in many states, have lost people’s trust and hence have to use Arvind Kejriwal’s doctored video to save the farm laws,” the deputy CM said. 

    Sisodia said when BJP couldn’t explain the farm laws to the farmers, it started branding them traitors and Khalistani.

    Then BJP conducted a sponsored protest at the Red Fort and disrespected the national flag. Now, Indian public has understood BJP’s ill-intentions and does not believe in their conspiracies.

    “BJP sent its goons to Singhu border where they disrespected the Sikh community by throwing their turbans and attacked the protesting farmers. They tried to portray it as an attack by the locals, but thankfully Indian public saw through this and has understood BJP’s tactics,” Sisodia said.

  • BJP leaders assure Matuas of Shah’s meeting soon, Trinamool blames it of resorting to falsehood

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: With Union Home Minister Amit Shah cancelling his visit to Matua stronghold Thakurnagar in North 24 Paragans district on Saturday, senior BJP leaders Kailash Viayvargiya and Mukul Roy met prominent members of the commuity and assured them that the central minister will hold a meeting for them “very soon”.

    Vijayvargiya, BJP national general secretary and Roy, the party’s national vice-president, were closeted in an over an hour long meeting with party MP Santanu Thakur.

    They told the members of the community that Shah’s visit to Thakurnagar was cancelled due to sudden developments in Delhi and that he will visit the place “very soon” and address the Matuas during his next visit to the state.

    Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal from Saturday was cancelled at the last minute following a blast outside the Israeli embassy in the national capital.

    His proposed meeting at Thakurnagar assumes importance as the Matuas with an estimated population of 30 lakh in the state can influence the poll outcome in at least 60 assembly seats in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts of poll-bound West Bengal.

    Polls are likely to be held in April- May this year.

    Later, Roy told reporters “Amit Shah spoke to Santanu Thakur about holding the proposed meeting on any coming day and asked the organizers not to dismantle the stage originally erected for the meeting”.

    “Please don’t dismantle the stage and keep yourself ready for all last minute arrangements in 24-48 hour notice. My office will keep you posted,” Roy quoted Shah as having told Santanu Thakur.

    Meanwhile, Matuas living in pockets near the Bangladesh border who had come to the headquarters of the sect looked distraught at the sudden change of plan and left the venue.

    “Shah could not come due to developments in Delh. He is a busy person. We are ready to wait for him,” a member of the community said.

    Mamatabala Thakur, Trinamool Congress leader from the community on the other hand said the cancellation of the scheduled meeting showed that Shah had nothing concrete to offer to the Matuas regarding the citizenship issue.

    Matuas originally hail from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and began migrating to West Bengal in the beginning of the 1950s, mostly due to religious persecution.

    Senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee claimed that BJP was giving “false promises” to the community.

    Referring to the assurances by BJP in the past about Citizenship Amendment Act among the Matuas, Mukherjee, who is also a senior state minister, said “Matuas have always had citizenship in Bengal. They have voted.”

    “How can you give citizenship to those who are already citizens? Those who have ration cards are citizens,” he said.

    In November 2020 Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had distributed 25,000 land pattas to refugees from the Matua community.

    “This land right document will ensure that they are citizens,” Mukherjee pointed out.

    “Parliament rules were supposed to be framed within six months for Citizenship Amendment Act after the Lok Sabha polls. They (BJP) asked for more time to make rules, leaving thousands of people in uncertainty. Now they are using COVID- 19 as an excuse. All of this is jumla (false promise),” he addedd.

  • To protest against arrest of dad, Bengal BJP leader’s daughter refuses to receive bicycle from Mamata government

    By PTI
    SURI: A Class 10 girl in West Bengal’s Birbhum district has refused to receive a free bicycle from the state government to protest against the arrest of her father who is a local BJP leader, the headmaster of her school said on Saturday.

    Moutrisha Dey, a student of Kusumi High School in Rampurhat subdivision of the district, wrote a letter to the authorities of the institute saying that she would not receive the bicycle as her father was arrested allegedly in false cases.

    “Biycles under the Sabuj Sathi scheme were distributed among students on Friday. She refused to accept it. We have informed the higher authorities and returned the cycle,” the headmaster of the school, Srikanta Mondal, said.

    Free bicycles are distributed to students from classes 9 to 12 in government and government-aided schools and madrasas of the state under the Sabuj Sathi (green companion) scheme.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the scheme in 2015.

    The schoolgirl alleged that the police arrested her father on September 17, 2020, after implicating him in false cases.

    “We had to suffer a lot while my father was in police custody and judicial custody,” Dey told the media.

    Her father Sushanta Dey, the president of Mayureshwar-II block of the BJP, claimed that the police filed one case after another against him on the basis of false allegations last year and he is now out on bail.

    “I had to spend 35 days in police custody and jail custody,” he said.

    The decision of not receiving the bicycle was taken by his daughter, he said.

    Local leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress, however, alleged that the girl did not accept the bicycle at the instigation of her father ahead of the assembly elections due in April-May.

  • Rajib Banerjee, other disgruntled Trinamool leaders join BJP ahead of Bengal polls

    By PTI
    KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: A day after quitting the Trinamool Congress, former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee joined the BJP in New Delhi on Saturday along with a few other disgruntled leaders of the state’s ruling party in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    Banerjee and MLAs Prabir Ghosal and Baishali Dalmiya, who was expelled from the TMC a few days ago, former Howrah Mayor Rathin Chakraborty and actor Rudranil Ghosh flew to the national capital on a special plane from Kolkata, and met central BJP leaders.

    They have joined the BJP, party general secretary and the party’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya told PTI following the meeting.

    Later, Shah tweeted, “Former TMC leaders Mr. Rajib Banerjee, Ms. Baishali Dalmiya, Mr. Prabir Ghoshal, Mr. Rathin Chakraborti and Mr. Rudranil Ghosh joined BJP today in New Delhi. I am sure their induction will further strengthen BJP’s fight for Sonar Bangla.”

    BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and Vijayvargiya arrived in Delhi with them.

    “Kailash Ji and I are at the Hon’ble HM Shri Amit Shah Ji’s residence with former TMC leaders,” Roy tweeted welcoming the new entrants into the saffron party.

    The TMC, which has been facing dissent from a number of leaders ahead of the assembly election due in April-May, said that those who are leaving do not have a long political history and they will fail to create much impact.

    Earlier on December 19, in the biggest single-day exodus from the TMC, political heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, along with 35 party leaders, including five MLAs and an MP, had joined the BJP during Amit Shah’s rally in Medinipur.

    Rajib Banerjee earlier in the day said he had a word with Union Home Minister Amit Shah who called him to the national capital.

    “After I resigned from the TMC, I received a call from the BJP leadership. Amit Shah ji told me to come over to Delhi. He also requested me to pass on the information to five other important public figures who wanted to serve people in a better way to accompany me.”

    “If I get an assurance on the state’s development, if I get an assurance that I can work for the betterment of people, I will join the BJP,” he told reporters at the Kolkata airport.

    When asked what role does he expect to play in the BJP, Banerjee said it is for the party to decide.

    “I want to work for the people. So whatever role is assigned to me, I will accept,” he said.

    Instead of mudslinging at each other, the Centre and the West Bengal government should work together for the people of the state, the suave 47-year-old leader said.

    Actor Rudranil Ghosh, who has recently been voicing his discontent over the issue of governance in Bengal and alleged corruption in the distribution of monetary compensation to Cyclone Amphan-affected people last year, said he wants to work for people and play an important role in the state in future.

    Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghosal recently alleged that repair of a road in his constituency was not being allowed by a faction of the party to harm his poll prospects.

    According to BJP sources, these TMC leaders were supposed to join the saffron party during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally at Dumurjula in Howrah on Sunday.

    However, Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal was cancelled at the last minute.

    The ruling TMC in West Bengal was rocked by a fresh bout of desertions on Friday with Banerjee quitting the party and several other leaders rallying behind him.

    Reacting to the development, senior TMC MP and party spokesperson Sougata Ray said, “Those who left don’t have a long political history and most of them were inducted into the party by Mamata Banerjee. In future, the TMC will be careful.”

    Another senior TMC leader and minister Subrata Mukherjee said, “What can we do if anyone wants to go? Ours is a big party. We cannot prevent dissenters by deploying military. But they will fail to create much impact.”

    TMC minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said that it has to be seen how these leaders fare in the polls if they decide to contest.

    “We are none without Mamata Banerjee. We had been contesting elections in her name,” he said.

    Veteran CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose claimed that there is little difference between the TMC and the BJP and both lack ethics.

  • Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre, says ‘Dare to talk about China’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: In another attack on Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that the Chinese Army is building a new road and post in Sikkim. He dared the government to talk about China.

    “Do not be afraid too much, Dare to talk about China today!” he tweeted (translated from Hindi) attaching a picture of a news report with the headline “Satellite pictures showing the activities of China building new road and post at Sikkim Border.”

    This comes as several Indian soldiers were injured in a brawl with the Chinese soldiers along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) near the Naku La area in Sikkim. The Indian Army on Monday clarified that it was a “minor face-off” between the troops on January 20.

    The face-off was resolved by local commanders as per established protocols, the Army said in a statement.

    Earlier, Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “China is expanding its occupation into Indian territory. Mr 56″ hasn’t said the word ‘China’ for months. Maybe he can start by saying the word ‘China’.”

  • Farmers beaten up, journalists jailed: Shiv Sena slams Centre for imposing ‘BJP’s democrazy’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Sunday attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and said that “farmers beaten up, journalists jailed, protests discredited” is ‘BJP’s democrazy’.

    “Farmers being beaten up, honest journalists being jailed, genuine protests being discredited, arrogance of those in positions of power at its peak. This isn’t democracy but BJP’s democrazy,” tweeted Chaturvedi on Sunday.

    Earlier the Shiv Sena leader had slammed the Centre for failing to resolve the farmers’ issue and accused the Central government of not taking adequate measures to prevent the January 26 violence during the Kisan tractor rally.

    “This is the failure of the government to have not resolved the issue sooner, allowed it to fester for months and despite having constant inputs from various agencies about how things could go out of control not been prepared with adequate measures to stop this” the Rajya Sabha MP had tweeted on January 26 reacting to the Republic Day violence.

    On January 26, during the tractor rally, a group of farmers deviated from the assigned route, broke through barriers, clashed with security personnel in several parts of Delhi. They also vandalised property and even entered the Red Fort, where they hoisted their flags.

    Over 25 FIRs have been registered in connection with the January 26 violence under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sections of IPC dealing with sedition.

    Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

  • Violence on Republic Day scripted by BJP to discredit farmers’ movement: AAP

    In response, Delhi BJP General Secretary Harsh Malhotra claimed that no BJP worker was involved in any violence or protest against the agitating farmers.

  • PM Modi should talk to farmers: Gehlot on agri laws protests

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take the initiative to talk to the agitating farmers and it should not be a matter of prestige as decisions are changed many times in a democracy.

    Gehlot also sought a judicial inquiry into the January 26 violence in Delhi and said agitations continuing for a long time is not in the interest of the nation.

    For over two months now, farmers from different states have been camping at Delhi’s border points to demand the repeal of the Centre’s three farm laws, which were pushed through in Parliament in September last year, amid protests from the Opposition.

    A tractor parade by the farmers to Delhi on Republic Day to highlight their demands descended into chaos and violence as they deviated from the designated route, broke barriers, clashed with policemen and hoisted religious flags from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

    Speaking to reporters here, Gehlot said, “I understand that there is still a chance for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call the farmers and discuss the matter to find a solution. Agitations continuing for a long time cannot be justified and they are not in the interest of the country.”

    “I hope the prime minister will look into this. It should not be a matter of prestige. Many times, decisions are changed in a democracy,” he added.

    Condemning the violence that took place during the tractor parade, the chief minister said it has no place in a democracy.

    “It is a matter of investigation how this situation was created. Why a judicial inquiry is not being conducted into this? It would make it clear that those who had been sitting peacefully for almost 70 days could not make such a mess,” he said.

    “It should also be investigated how some people managed to reach the Red Fort,” he said.

    While there are no exact estimates of how many farmers were hurt in Tuesday’s violence, the Delhi Police has said 394 of its personnel were injured.

    Thirty police vehicles and 428 barricades were damaged in the violence, the police said.

  • Violence on Republic Day scripted by BJP to discredit farmers’ movement: AAP

    Saurabh Bhardwaj said that, on January 26, BJP agent Deep Sidhu was allowed by the Delhi police to start his march to enter Delhi much before the farmers.