News Analysis India

Tag: KC Tyagi

  • Did INDIA Bloc Offer PM Position To Nitish Kumar? Congress Reacts |

    The Congress party on Saturday responded to the claims of Janta Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi about Nitish Kumar being offered the Prime Minister’s position by the INDIA bloc. “We don’t have any such information,” stated Congress general secretary KC Venugopal in a press conference following the Congress Working Committee’s meeting in Delhi.  

    The JD(U) senior leaders pointed fingers at the coalition for mistreating Nitish Kumar; he alleged that those who previously rejected Nitish Kumar as the INDIA bloc’s national convenor are now proposing to make him Prime Minister. He further said that this is the ‘game of politics’ and the JDU will not run back to the INDI Alliance.  

    With 12 seats in Bihar, Kumar’s JD (U) has become a significant ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to reach the magic number of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha. JD (U) was crucial in the formation of INDIA bloc last year. However, it returned to the NDA in January after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name was suggested as the potential prime ministerial candidate for the INDIA bloc.  

    On Friday, while supporting the NDA proposal to name Narendra Modi as the leader of the coalition, Kumar expressed his confidence by saying, “Next time when you come, those who have won here and there this time will lose. I am confident about it. They never worked for the nation. They never served the country. The country will progress under your (PM Modi) leadership.”  

    He added that all the pending work in Bihar will be completed. It is very good that all of us have come together, and we will all work together with you (PM Modi). 

  • Narendra Modi will be prime ministerial candidate for 2024 general elections: JDU leader KC Tyagi

    By ANI

    PATNA: Janata Dal-United party’s general secretary KC Tyagi asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and will be the candidate for the post of Prime Minister in the 2024 general elections.

    “PM Narendra Modi ji is and will be the PM candidate for 2024 general elections,” he said. Tyagi’s comments came after he claimed that “Nitish Kumar has qualities to become PM”

    Moreover, JDU national president Lalan Singh said, “There is a difference between having the qualities to become PM & filing a claiming to be one. PM material means he (Nitish Kumar) has the capabilities and capacity to lead the country. We are a small party, how will we claim for it.”

    JDU and NDA are partners in a coalition government in Bihar. Tyagi also suggested that NDA coordination committees should be set up at the national level to ensure the smooth functioning of NDA. “NDA coordination committees should be set up at the national level, in Bihar, and at other places also, to ensure smooth functioning of NDA,” Tyagi had said.

    Reacting to Tyagi’s comment of coordination committees to be set up, BJP MP Ajay Nishad from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur said, “BJP Government at the Centre is a majority government. BJP has more than 300 MPs. Even if any party wants to leave NDA, it will have no impact on BJP.”

    Tyagi also said that JDU wants to expand the party’s base and therefore, it has decided to contest Manipur and Uttar Pradesh elections.

    In view of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, JDU announced that it will contest the elections alone if no alliance is formed with parties in the state. Notably, BJP is in alliance with JDU in Bihar. However, BJP is contesting alone and is in power currently in Uttar Pradesh.

    On August 8, KC Tyagi said the party’s first priority is to contest Manipur and Uttar Pradesh elections in an alliance with the BJP while adding that JD(U) will contest independently in case there no alliance is formed. Speaking to ANI, Tyagi said, “JD(U) will contest elections in Manipur and Uttar Pradesh. Our first priority is to contest forming an alliance with BJP. We will contest independently in case there no alliance is made.”

    The assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur are due early next year.

  • Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, JD-U leader K C Tyagi meet INLD chief O P Chautala

    By PTI
    CHANDIARH: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and JD-U leader K C Tyagi on Sunday met INLD president Om Prakash Chautala at his residence in Gurgaon in Haryana to enquire about his well-being and also discussed political matters.

    The meeting with the leaders of the Janata Dal (United), a BJP ally, comes at a time when the 86-year-old INLD chief is batting to forge a “third front” at the national level.

    Bihar Chief Minister Kumar and JD-U general secretary Tyagi met Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala at his Gurgaon residence and enquired about his well-being and discussed political matters, senior Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala tweeted.

    The three leaders also had lunch together.

    O P Chautala, who is a former chief minister of Haryana, had on Tuesday said that he will contact opposition leaders soon to forge a “third front” at the national level and had also revealed his plans of meeting Kumar and Tyagi over lunch.

    Kumar and Tyagi had earlier closely worked with O P Chautala’s father and former deputy prime minister late Devi Lal.

    O P Chautala had last week asserted that the biggest need today is to get rid of the “anti-people” and “anti-farmer” government at the Centre.

    The BJP is the ruling party at the Centre and has alliance governments with the JJP in Haryana and with JD(U) in Bihar.

    He had said before September 25, the birth anniversary of Devi Lal, he will try to meet opposition leaders and urge them to come on one platform.

    On Tuesday, O P Chautala while referring to his announcement of a lunch meeting with Kumar, had said, “He will have lunch with me at my residence on August 1.

    When two political leaders sit together, then political issues are naturally discussed,” he had said replying to a query. 

  • In open letter to JDU, LJP admits having helped BJP in Bihar election

    Express News Service
    PATNA: The LJP for the first time after the Bihar assembly elections admitted having helped the BJP.

    The Lok Janshakti Party-headed by Chirag Paswan on Wednesday made the claim in an open letter written to JD(U) National secretary KC Tyagi. The LJP blamed Nitish Kumar for JD(U)’s poor show in the elections. Accusing Nitish Kumar of “obdurate” stand on seat-sharing with LJP, Raju Tiwari — Bihar parliamentary board president of LJP — alleged that JD(U) was defeated due to Nitish Kumar’s insistence on fighting in more seats.

    Tiwari further alleged that Nitish Kumar wanted to rule as the big brother and give only 15 seats to LJP. “There was no dispute between LJP and BJP and still there are none now,” Tiwari wrote in the letter.

     “The LJP has always been in ideological difference with JD(U). That was the reason, LJP had never been in alliance with JD (U) even in past. But due to BJP, LJP continued supporting them in the NDA but then JD(U) attempted to cause damage to LJP in the Lok Sabha elections”, Tiwari alleged.

    The LJP, through the letter, also accused Nitish Kumar of attempting to take undue advantage of illness of Ram Vilas Paswan. Tiwari’s letter has stirred up the hornet’s nest by claiming that they helped the BJP on 104 out of 110 seats in assembly election while they put up a friendly fight in the remaining six.

    The letter also claimed that Chirag Paswan never made any individual attack on Nitish Kumar during the assembly election campaign except criticising his policies of Kumar. Justifying the decision to write an open letter to KC Tyagi, Tiwari said that Tyagi has been baselessly holding LJP responsible for the defeat of JD(U).

  • BJP, Congress spar over toxic data mining firm Cambridge Analytica’s use to influence elections

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Indian footprint of controversial data mining firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) that allegedly abused Facebook user data, on Thursday became political football as both the BJP and the Congress traded charges over who used it to influence elections in India.

    Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad raised the pitch by pointing an accusing finger at the Congress while issuing a stern warning to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg against using its data to profile Indians.

    According to some reports, CA had offered its services to both parties before the 2014 general elections, but that fell through.

    Categorically denying any link with the CA, Congress media department chairman Randeep Surjewala pointed out the shoe is on the other foot, as the CA website shows its services were used by BJP-JD(U) in Bihar polls in 2010.

    Also, “the firm’s Indian partner Ovlene Business Intelligence (OBI) is being run by the son of a former Rajya Sabha MP of the JD (U),” referring to India head of OBI Amrish Tyagi, son of JD (U) leader KC Tyagi, whose “services were used by Rajnath Singh in 2009”, he added.

    The BJP, he said, was trying to deflect public attention from the raging controversy over the deaths of 39 Indian hostages in Iraq and the massive publicity being received by party chief Rahul Gandhi’s Karnataka campaign.

    “The BJP is a factory of fake news and has produced one more fake product today,” he quipped.Prasad, however, wondered whether the Opposition party had used the agency’s playbook tricks to unleash divisive politics in Gujarat (during the Assembly elections) and now in Karnataka with the approaching state polls.

    Dirty tricks department

    Channel 4 sting operation catches Cambridge Analytica (CA) CEO Alexander Nix bragging that his company managed Donald Trump’s digital campaign.

    Says CA could send some girls to a rival candidate’s house as honeytraps, claims girls from Ukraine are particularly effective in the role.

    Trapping a rival candidate by offering a large amount of money, having the whole exchange recorded so it could be posted on the internet to show that the person is corrupt.

    The key is to use fake identities to cover footprint in target countries, like setting up of fake academic projects.

    Indian footprint

    CA works through Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI) owned by former JD(U) MP K C Tyagi’s son Amrish.

    Posing a set of seven questions, Prasad asked: “Was data theft and manipulation ability the sole criteria for which CA was hired by Congress? How many times did Rahul Gandhi and CA’s now sacked CEO Alexander Nix meet and what did they discuss? What is CA’s role in Rahul Gandhi’s social media presence? Can Congress deny CA’s role in its campaign to divide the society for electoral gains first in Gujarat and now in Karnataka? Has the Congress taken any action after damning revelations were made public? How much stolen data from CA are in possession of the Congress? How much data of Indian users did the Congress hand over to CA?”

    “I want to specifically warn the Congress that the nation will not tolerate any kind of data theft or manipulation. There have been more damning revelations about the role of CA, which has been found to be using illegal means of data manipulation to subvert democratic process in Kenya. We have all seen how Congress tried to divide the society in Gujarat just in order to win an election. We are seeing what they are doing in Karnataka. This is straight out of the Cambridge Analytica playbook,” he said.

    The party’s recently appointed chief of data analytics Praveen Chakravarty has also been accused of data theft in the past, he noted.

    The minister also stated that the Central government is in touch with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in the US to assess the privacy violations of Indian users.