News Analysis India

Tag: Delhi

  • Mamata Banerjee to skip meeting on simultaneous polls in Delhi

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday said she would skip the meeting of the ‘one nation one election’ committee in New Delhi on Tuesday, citing engagements related to the upcoming state budget. The TMC supremo said she has communicated to the committee chief, former President Ramnath Kovind, about her inability to attend the meeting. “I have cancelled my New Delhi trip… The state budget will be presented in the assembly on February 8, and there are only two days to go. In this situation, I had to call off the visit,” Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat. “I have already spoken to Kovind ji about this,” she said. The chief minister said TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee will be present at the meeting in the national capital.

    The committee is mandated to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats keeping in view the existing constitutional framework.

    Banerjee had last month written to the panel members, expressing her disagreement with the concept of simultaneous polls, contending that it would be against the basic structure of “constitutional arrangements”.

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  • Delhi Liquor Policy Case: ED moves court after Arvind Kejriwal skips 5th summons, hearing on Feb 7 – The Economic Times Video

    Enforcement Directorate has moved to Rouse Avenue Court and filed a complaint against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for not complying with the summons issued by the agency in the Delhi liquor policy money laundering case. Court heard some submissions today and put up for February 7, for the remaining submissions and consideration.

  • “World’s biggest party caught stealing votes”, Kejriwal led AAP protests against BJP

    Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and other party leaders, protested in Delhi against the BJP over the Chandigarh mayoral elections.”BJP messes up in elections; there were often allegations that BJP wins elections by messing up; BJP steals election votes, tampers with EVMs, gets names removed from the voter list, and adds fake names, we heard. We used to hear that fake votes were cast, but never found any proof. There is a verse written in the Gita, Yada Yada hi Dharmasya Glanirbhavati Bharata: whenever too much sin is committed on this earth, then the God above will come to the earth. This election in Chandigarh shows that they are the pot of sin. How did it get filled? When the pot of sin gets filled too much, then nature moves its broom, God moves its broom, and corrects things. The Chandigarh election was a small one. The world’s biggest party was caught stealing votes in the Chandigarh elections; it was caught red-handed.” said CM Kejriwal at Delhi while addressing the protest.”We have not come here to seek power. Elections keep coming. Parties keep on coming and going. Leaders keep on coming. Leaders keep on coming. Today the BJP is ruling; tomorrow someone else will be. There should not be any playing with our democracy; those who have started playing with the elections, those who are playing with the democracy, were caught on camera,” the CM added.Speaking about the potential misuse of election machinery on a large scale in the Lok Sabha election, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “If they can create such a big mess in a small election like Chandigarh, then it is obvious that they can create such a big mess in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, whether it is so or not, no matter how they come in front of the country. This is a wrong thing, so friends, we strongly condemn it and today, from this platform, I want to warn the people of the country that when you come after casting your vote, you think that you voted for a particular party, but after that, your vote gets counted. What happens is nothing; you press someone’s button inside the machine, the vote goes to someone’s account, and someone’s name is removed from the voter list, If democracy is in danger, election are meaningless.”

    “We all have to come together and raise our voice against it, under any circumstances, we should not let democracy die; do not let the country be tampered with. Now we will not make any mess in a peaceful manner; we will peacefully go towards the headquarters of BJP. We will stop wherever the police stop us, we should not not have to quarrel with the police,” said CM Kejriwal.

    Earlier the Delhi Chief Minister skipped the fifth summons from the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the alleged Delhi Liquor scam. Kejriwal and his party have called the summons illegal.The BJP however accused the Delhi CM of running away from the investigative agency.”Arvind Kejriwal, if there is nothing to hide…then why are you not presenting yourself before the ED and other agencies? You are the same Kejriwal who, under Anna Hazare’s tutelage, said that first there should be resignation and then investigation. Today you refuse to cooperate with investigation. You say that these are all politically motivated, as if doing ‘bhrashtachar’ is your ‘shishtachar’…How long will you play this victimhood card?…This is the ‘charitra’ of INDI alliance, that the only thing that binds them is commission and corruption, not a mission or vision” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said.

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  • ED summons Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal again on January 18

    The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has again issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asking him to appear before the agency on January 18.

    This is the fourth time Kejriwal has been summoned by the federal agency in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into the Delhi Excise policy alleged scandal. Kejriwal was earlier summoned thrice by ED but he had previously declined to appear citing prior engagements linked to the now-concluded assembly elections.

    He was then asked to appear on December 21 and January 3 but Kejriwal skipped the summons calling them “politically motivated and illegal”. In February a local Court had taken cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe into the Delhi government’s now-scrapped liquor policy.

    The federal agency has alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used the money raised from the Delhi liquor scam to fund the Goa election campaign.

    “Investigation of the trail of this kickback so far has revealed that part of these funds was used in the election campaign of the AAP,” the agency had alleged in its supplementary chargesheet.The charge sheet had mentioned an alleged call between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Indospirits owner Sameer Mahendru, an accused in the case, wherein Kejriwal allegedly asked him to carry on working with AAP communication’s incharge Vijay Nair.The agency had alleged in its charge sheet that Nair had arranged a meeting between Sameer Mahendru and Kejriwal over facetime where Kejriwal allegedly told the former that “Vijay is his boy and that Sameer should trust him and carry on with him.” Kejriwal, however, had described the allegations as “fiction”.