News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Gujarat cadre IAS officer to join BJP in UP after taking VRS

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Gujarat cadre IAS officer A.K Sharma, who recently took voluntary retirement from service, will be joining the BJP here soon, a party spokesperson said on Thursday.

    The 1988 batch officer from Mau district in Uttar Pradesh is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had worked with him in Gujarat.

    He has expressed his desire to work for the party and will be joining the party, BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan said on Thursday.

    Sharma joins the BJP at a time the party is finalising candidates for elections to the 12 seats of the Legislative Council on January 28.

    The last date for filing of nominations is January 18.

    Asked if Sharma could be made a candidate by the party, Chandra  Mohan said the names are decided by the central leadership.

  • BJP seeks resignation of Dhananjay Munde over bigamy

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The opposition in Maharashtra is gunning for the resignation of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde after he disclosed he had two wives. While BJP Maharashtra president Chandrakant Patil said that Munde should resign on moral ground, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sought a fair probe into the allegations leveled against the minister.

    Meanwhile, former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya wrote to the Election Commission of India, seeking Munde’s disqualification referring to the law that a bigamous person could not become the member of any house. Meanwhile, Munde alleged that his second wife and sister in-law were blackmailing him.

    “I was not able to fulfil their demands, and this is the reason behind them levelling wild allegations of sexual harassment against me,” Munde said. Munde’s second wife’s sister Renu Sharma had lodged a complaint against Munde, claiming Munde had promised her a role in a film and used her for personal interests.

  • BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari moves Calcutta High Court seeking police protection

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, seeking direction to the West Bengal Police for providing him protection in view of alleged aggression and attack on him and his supporters by workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

    He claimed that he has been the subject of spiteful aggression launched by TMC since he left the party and joined the BJP in December.

    Adhikari mentioned in his petition that he has been appointed the chairman of Jute Corporation of India, a post equivalent to the rank of a Union cabinet minister.

    Stating that he has been made a ‘Z’ category protectee by the central government owing to “severe threat perception”, he said in the petition that this cannot be the reason for the state authorities to remain dormant and indifferent over his security.

    Adhikari prayed for an order, directing the authorities in the West Bengal government to immediately ensure full-proof security for him, including security arrangements at the places of his visit for holding public meetings and on his travel routes.

  • Supreme Court order on farm laws moral defeat for BJP-led Centre: Shiromani Akali Dal

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday said the Supreme Court order staying the implementation of three new farm laws till further orders was a “resounding moral defeat” for the BJP-led government at the Centre.

    The SAD held its core committee meeting, led by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, here on Tuesday in the wake of the apex court order.

    Harcharan Bains, the principal advisor to the party president, said the committee passed a resolution, saying “the apex court order fully vindicates the stand and steps taken by the SAD prior to the passage of the anti-farmer bills”.

    “We had advocated then also that the passage of the bills be put off, a Select House Committee be formed and the consent of farmers be taken before introducing the bills in the House,” he said, while pointing out that the SAD had walked out of the BJP-led NDA and party leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned as a Union minister over the farm laws.

    The SAD also described the composition of the committee formed by the Supreme Court to look into the farmers’ grievances against the laws as “most unfortunate and unacceptable”, according to a party statement.

    It said the composition and character of the committee “fully exposed the anti-farmer nexus” between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the Centre.

    The profile and background of the members of the committee clearly show that this was done at Singh’s instance, the party alleged.

    “How else would you find in the committee names such as that of a known supporter of the anti-farmer laws, B S Mann, a former Congress MP whose son was nominated to the PPSC by the chief minister,” Bains said.

    The Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the controversial farm laws till further orders on Tuesday and decided to set up a four-member committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and the farmers’ unions protesting at Delhi’s borders over the legislations.

    The four members of the committee set up by the apex court are BKU president Bhupinder Singh Mann, Shetkeri Sangathana, Maharashtra president Anil Ghanwat, Pramod Kumar Joshi, director for South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, and agriculture economist Ashok Gulati.

  • Swami Vivekananda’s land will never allow BJP’s ‘hate politics’ to triumph: Abhishek Banerjee

    By PTI
    .KOLKATA: Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee Tuesday mocked the BJP for claiming to be a follower of Swami Vivekananda and said the people of the state will never allow “hate politics” of the saffron camp to triumph in Bengal, where the monk was born in 1863.

    The BJP has no right to celebrate Swamiji’s birthday, the Trinamool Congress MP from Diamond Harbour said while addressing a rally in south Kolkata.

    “West Bengal, which is the birthplace Swami Vivekananda, has no place for hate politics imported from Gujarat”, he said.

    The 158th birth anniversary of the monk, a key figure who had introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world and established the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, is being celebrated on Tuesday.

    Calling the BJP as “fake Ram Bhakts”, he accused the saffron party of “following the principles of Nathuram Godse who had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi”.

    “They claim to be followers of Lord Ram. They are not followers of Ram, they are followers of Nathuram (Godse). They are followers of divisive politics,” he said.

    Abhishek Banerjee is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.

    “I don’t want to politicise today’s event. But, I must say one thing that a political party is trying to portray itself to be a follower of Swami Vivekananda. I want to tell BJP members that Swamiji never preached hate politics and communalism, which is the basis of the saffron party,” he said.

    Accusing the BJP of insulting icons of Bengal such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Banerjee said, none of them propagated pitting one religion against other, like the BJP.

    “The people of Bengal and the land of Vivekananda, which is his birthplace, will reject the hate politics practiced by the saffron party.”

    “The BJP has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) according to which a person will get citizenship based on religion. Did Swamiji ever say that citizenship should be granted after determining one’s religion?” the MP asked.

    According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

    The Trinamool Youth Congress, led by Abhishek Banerjee, took out a five-km long rally in the city on Tuesday commemorating the birth anniversary of the 19th-century monk.

    The TMC and its youth wing also took out rallies in various parts of the state.

    The monk’s birth anniversary has triggered a war of political one-upmanship between the TMC and the BJP, with the saffron party also lining up several programs across the state to celebrate the day.

  • For BJP, UP panchayat elections a dry run for 2022 Assembly polls

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The ruling BJP’s Panchayat poll overdrive in UP is apparently being taken as the rehearsal for Mission 2022 in the political circles in the state. The rural local body polls are likely to take place in March-April.

    The term of around 59,000 panchayats in the state ended on December 25 and the government-appointed Assistant Development Officers as the administrators in all the panchayats removing the digital signatures of the pradhans from the portal of e-gram swaraj to prevent any fraud.

    As per the political observers, the BJP is preparing the ground for 2022 by using the rural polls as a ‘test’.

    The BJP has stepped up efforts to oil its organisational machinery and activate the grassroots to make the cadre battle-ready for 2022, says Prof Ashutosh Mishra, a political scientist.

    The panchayat polls (for the post of pradhans) and elections for Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat members will be held simultaneously. The pradhans are not elected on party symbols. It is only the Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat polls for which political parties officially field candidates.

    The panchayat polls will be followed by indirect elections to the post of Zilla panchayat and kshetra panchayat chairpersons.

    “The party is taking the rural body polls as the dry run for 2022. The party is concertedly engaged in making inroads into rural areas by building the party organisation up to the booth level. Simultaneously, it is also engaging with district-level party workers. The sessions to sensitize the district levelworkers for panchayat polls are already underway since January 7 and will continue till January 17.

    “While the party’s UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh has been touring the state to meet the lowest rung workers of the state. He was on a visit to eastern UP, especially Jaunpur, to meet the party workers on Monday. Singh has already had several rounds of meetings before chalking out a detailed programme and assigning duties to leaders,” said a senior BJP leader.

    On Sunday, Singh was in Chandauli adjoining Varanasi while state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh visited Ayodhya and held day-long deliberations to give final shape to preparations for the panchayat polls.

    The BJP has also announced that it would contest only Zilla panchayat elections (members as well as chairpersons). “BJP basically is a party of urbanites. Actually, It faces a stiff challenge from SP and BSP in rural areas. So its current outreach is aimed at creating a hype about panchayat polls among the party workers till village level to make it’s base strong in rural areas and reap its benefits in 2022,” says Prof Mishra.

    “New BJP has a different working style. The party keeps the workers always on their toes. Earlier, booth-level seminars were held followed by Kisan panchayats and now district-level meetings for panchayat polls are going on. The next assignment for the cadre would be ready by the time district level parleys are over,” said a senior BJP leader.

    “BJP is a party which always remains in poll mode and gives equal importance to all elections. We strive hard to give our best in all. So the upcoming panchayat polls are the immediate goal for us and we are focusing on them,” says Dr. Chandra Mohan, a senior BJP leader.

  • Mamata government’s decision to bring resolution against farm laws poll gimmick to fool masses: BJP

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh wondered that if the TMC is so concerned for the farmers, then why is it quot;creating roadblocks quot; for the implementation of the new agriculture laws.

  • Political blamegame errupts as Thackeray government downgrades BJP leaders’ security

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to scale down the security cover of opposition leaders, while extending it for Maha Vikas Aghadi ministers and leaders, has drawn flak from the BJP, which termed the action as vendetta politics.

    However, Congress came out in support of the Tackeray government, stating that the security cover upgrade or downgrade was based on police report after analysing the situation.

    The grade of security given to former chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was reduced to Y plus escort from Z.

    Fadnavis’ wife and daughter’s security cover too witnessed a downgrade. Maharashtra BJP state president, who had been given Y plus security, would have none now.

    Meanwhile, MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s cover was brought down to Y plus security from Z.

    Shatraghan Sinha found his cover had been upgraded to Y plus escort from Y, while U B Nikam’s Z security was upgraded to Z plus in Mumbai.

    Estranged Congress leader Kripashankar Singh’s security cover has been scrapped altogether.

    Union minister for state Ramdas Athwale’s security cover has reduced to Y from the earlier Y plus escort, while former governor of Uttar Pradesh Ram Naik, former BJP minister Ashish Shelar and former Sena Minister Deepak Kesarkar’s found their security cover downgraded to Y from Y plus.

    The police department also cancelled the security cover extended to several BJP leaders, including Sudhir Mungantiwar, former CM Narayan Rane, BJP MLC Prasad Lad, BJP MLA Ram Kadam, Haribhau Bagade, Rausaheb Danave, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, Shobhatai Fadnavis etc.

    Maharashtra state legislative council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar and Maha Vikas Aghadi minister Vijay Wadettiwar have been given Y plus escort security cover in Mumbai.

    Besides, Shiv Sena youth leader Varun Sardesai, Sena MLA Vaibhav Naik, Minister Abdul Sattar and Minister Dilip Walse Patil and Sunil Kedar have been also provided with security cover.  

    Interestingly, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s spouse Sunetra Pawar was given the X security by Uddhav Thackeray government.

    Lashing out at the government, the opposition called the action as vendetta politics. However, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant referred to the action of the Modi government, reducing the security cover of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka.

    “Was it vendetta politics then? Maha Vikas Aghadi is not into vendetta politics. The security was reduced or scrapped or upgraded as per the internal report of the police department,” Sawant added. 

  • Big turncoat influx from Trinamool comes with its share of worries for BJP

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Why is the rank and file of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) making a beeline for BJP, was a question the party’s national president J P Nadda sought answer to when he met the core committee at Burdwan on Saturday.

    The question arose in the wake of reports of clashes among the old and new hands, especially the turncoats.

    “During the Saturday’s conversation, Naddaji realised that many TMC leaders were joining the BJP with the hopes of getting tickets. Their followers, aspiring for party berths, are following them. The leadership has instructed us to welcome the TMC defectors, and the state unit has no role in the induction process,” said a senior BJP leader in Kolkata.

    Sources in the BJP said the exodus from TMC is attributable to BJP’s bright chances of toppling the TMC. 

    While Nadda did not pursue the matter, he made it clear that he knew the turncoats were power-hungry and shifting side eyeing berths in the party.

    A section of BJP leaders in Bengal has already opposed the decision of welcoming TMC turncoats, claiming it might trigger intra-party feud. 

    Several clashes between the old BJP hands and newcomers have already taken place in the recent past.

    Two BJP functionaries were issued show-cause notices after they opposed the induction of TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari.

    The exodus from the TMC might strain the saffron camp’s intra-party fabric ahead of the Assembly elections, said another BJP leader. 

    “BJP has made inroads, riding on the shift in CPM supporters’ political alignment. The CPM workers had been considering the BJP as a platform to combat TMC.

    The migration from the TMC workers to BJP has created bad blood between CPM-turned BJP worker, as they now are finding their rival faces sitting across the same bench,”  the leader said.

    The discontent came to a head two days ago in front of BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh and Bengal observer Kailash Vijayvargiya in a rally in Nandigram. 

    The saffron camp announced a mega induction session and when the TMC turncoats arrived, BJP workers attacked them with plastic chairs and bricks.

    Ghosh had to stop his speech and ask the workers to stay disciplined.

    Former TMC strongman Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP last month, could not address the rally.

    The induction session had to be called off after the clash.

  • We are firmly with NDA: Senior JDU leader Lalan Singh dismisses rumours of ‘alliance exit’

    By PTI
    PATNA: Scotching rumours of JDU quitting NDA in Bihar amid talks of discomfort with the ally BJP, the ruling Janata Dal(United) on Sunday made it clear that the party is firmly with the ruling coalition in the state.

    JDU, one of the major constituents of Bihar NDA, is running a coalition government in the state with the help of BJP, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). “Speculations are doing the rounds in media circles with regard to our leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Some sends him somewhere while others are sending him somewhere else. “But, we would like to make it clear that our party (JD-U) is firmly aligned with the NDA,” senior party leader and MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said.

    Singh was talking to reporters at the partys state headquarters on decisions taken at the two-day meeting of its state executive and state council. He was accompanied by partys newly elected state president Umesh Kushwaha and working president and minister Ashok Choudhary.

    Singh’s statement assumes significance in the backdrop of opposition leaders speaking of political instability in the state in view of alleged lack of compatibility between the two major NDA partners- BJP and JDU.

    Eversince en masse migration of the JDU MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh to the BJP, speculations are rife of “differences” cropping up between the two allies even in Bihar on several issues.

    Seeking to fish in troubled waters, the opposition RJD and the Congress have been talking of mass defection of the JDU MLAs and some of their leaders also suggesting Nitish Kumar to leave the saffron party once again like in 2015 and join them.

    Kumar had himself, while speaking at the state council meeting Saturday, asserted that his government would complete its five year term, in an indirect rebuff to opposition leaders who have been speaking of political instability.

    The JDU de facto leader, who relinquished the post of the partys national president earlier this month, had also urged his party workers to look at the future banishing memories of the recent assembly elections in which the party suffered humiliating losses.

    Talking about partys other decisions and proposals that were passed at the state council meeting, Singh, who is JDU leader in Lok Sabha, said the party also discussed about strengthening its organisation. “It was general opinion of the party members that though the partys strength has dwindled but not its mass base (janadhar). We are not discouraged by it (the poll outcome)…we will rather work hard to further strengthen our partys organisation and move ahead,” Singh said.

    Though JDU’s top leader Nitish Kumar is on the chief ministerial chair in Bihar, the party’s strength went down to 43 in the recently concluded state polls as compared to 71 in 2015. On the other hand BJP bagged 74 seats in the October- November elections and catapulted the NDA to power in the state.

    The party also lauded the state governments role in combating novel coronavirus in the state which efficiently and effectively took measures to curb its spread, he said while stating that the state governments efforts have been appreciated by the central government which is evident from the fact that President conferred award on the state government.

    It may be noted that President Ram Nath Kovind had on December 30, 2020 conferred ‘Digital India Award 2020’ for transferring financial assistance directly into the beneficiaries bank accounts during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

    A resolution was passed at the meeting affirming that the party will unitedly work to implement the state governments ‘Saat Nischay- Part II’ (seven resolves-part 2) programme in order to make Bihar a strengthened, prosperous and self reliant state, the JDU leader said.

    Stating that the state government has started working on to provide 20 lakh jobs to youths of the state, Singh said that soon after the formation of Nitish Kumar government in the state, it gave its nod to create 20 lakh jobs in the very first meeting of the cabinet.

    “The state government is working on it,” he said while asserting that 20 lakh jobs will be created in times to come and 20 lakh youths will get jobs. Employment was a major poll promises of main political parties in Bihar polls. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s 10 lakh government jobs promise enthused youths during the polls.

    To counter this the BJP had promised creation of 1.9 million job opportunities in the state.