News Analysis India

Tag: Lok Sabha 2024 elections

  • Mamata Banerjee among top frontrunners for PM in 2024: Babul Supriyo after joining TMC

    By ANI

    KOLKATA: Former union minister Babul Supriyo, who recently joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is among the top frontrunners for the prime ministerial post in 2024.

    “I want that the captain of our party Mamata Banerjee becomes the Prime Minister in 2024. Opposition plays an important role in a democratic system. Nobody can deny the fact that Mamata Banerjee is among the top frontrunners for the prime ministerial post,” Supriyo told ANI.

    Notably, TMC’s party mouthpiece ‘Jaago Bangla’ had recently sparked a row by saying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has failed to become an alternative face to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the potential alternative to Prime Minister Modi.

    Asked about why he switched to the TMC, Supriyo said, “I have not created any history by changing the party. A horde of leaders joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from other parties before the West Bengal Assembly polls. There are resentments among the old leaders. BJP should ask them about their resentments.”

    On post-poll violence, he said, “Post-poll violence is not desirable. It is being proved. I want that compensation should be provided to people who were affected by post-poll violence.”

    The former Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change had on Saturday formally joined TMC had quit the BJP following the recent Union Cabinet reshuffle.

    The sitting MP joined the Trinamool family in the presence of National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien.

    After joining TMC, Supriyo had told ANI, “I accepted the opportunity given to me by Didi (Mamata Banerjee) and Abhishek. I left politics wholeheartedly and I am accepting the opportunity wholeheartedly. I met Abhishek Banerjee. The work to be done for Bengal was presented before me. I am excited. I want to work under the leadership of Didi. I will meet Didi on Monday.”

    Earlier in August, BJP leader Babul Supriyo said he will continue to work constitutionally as a Member of Parliament but had withdrawn himself from active politics.

    “I will continue to work constitutionally as an MP in Asansol. Politics is beyond the constitutional post and I withdraw myself from it. I will not join any other party. I will vacate the MP bungalow in Delhi and release security personnel from their duties soon,” Supriyo had told ANI.

    Supriyo had announced he was leaving politics and will also resign as an MP. He had stated that he would not join any political party and neither have the parties including the Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) or Congress called him.

    Babul Supriyo had resigned in August as minister of state for Environment, Forest and Climate Change. In a Facebook post, he said that there was a difference of opinion between him and the state BJP leaders and that the difference of opinion among senior leaders was “harming the party”. 

  • Talk of Nitish Kumar being PM material shows his ambition to snatch top post: Chirag Paswan

    By PTI
    PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Monday fired a fresh salvo at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his political bete noire, whom he charged with harbouring the “ambition” to “snatch” away the top post in the country from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Paswan, who has been cornered within his own party following a recent split, sought to warn the BJP of the JD(U) de facto leader’s alleged plan through a flurry of tweets in Hindi.

    “A fresh surge in the ambition of PM material is apparent. If an alliance partner of the Prime Minister expresses such an ambition, it becomes obvious he is aiming to snatch away the post from the incumbent,” he tweeted, avoiding mentioning Kumar by name.

    His remarks came in the backdrop of an averment by Upendra Kushwaha, the JD(U)’s parliamentary board chairman, that the Bihar CM was a “Prime Minister” material.

    Kumar, who was once seen as a “secular” alternative to Modi, has distanced himself from Kushwaha’s remarks, saying he had no such aspirations and his only wish was to “keep serving Bihar as long as possible”.

    ALSO READ | Hinting at 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Mamata Banerjee says entire country to witness ‘khela’ in near future

    Chirag, who succeeded the late Ram Vilas Paswan as the LJP national president only to be sidelined upon his father’s death, said in another sarcastic tweet, “Our PM comes up with Mann Ki Baat. Another Mann Ki Baat has come from PM material though the latter is driven by self-interests”.

    Seeking to twist the knife, Chirag, whose decision to pull out of the NDA cost the JD(U) dearly in the assembly polls, added, “The PM material is busy striking at the roots of the BJP on the mercy of which he is enjoying his tenure as Chief Minister”.

    Kumar is serving his fourth term in office though his party had finished with a tally less than 45, far lower than that of the BJP, which bagged more than 70 seats.

    The Jamui MP insisted that by having adopted a stance at variance with the BJP on various issues, Kumar was working on his “gupt yojana” (secret plan).

    “The PM material is working on his secret plan against the BJP with the power he has come to enjoy owing to the party’s support. By striking notes of discord on caste census, population control and CAA-NRC, the PM material has embarked on the journey to realise his ambitions. Beware!” tweeted Chirag.

    He has been professing his loyalty to the saffron party and Modi, but left licking his wounds in the wake of the faction led by Paras getting recognition and his rebellious uncle’s induction into the Union cabinet.

  • Regional parties should form national front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls: Sukhbir Singh Badal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Regional parties should come together and form a national front to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Sunday and asserted that his party’s story with the saffron party was over.

    Underlining that issues of farmers are at the core of the SAD ideology, Badal said his party can never compromise on these and, therefore, severed its decades-old alliance with the BJP and moved out of the government at the Centre over three contentious farm laws.

    “SAD is a farmers’ party and their issues are core of our ideology. Whatever may happen and whatever cost we may have to pay, we wouldn’t let these laws be implemented in Punjab,” Badal told PTI in an interview.

    The Centre’s three farm laws have triggered a protest by farmers.

    In September last year, Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur quit as Union minister in protest against the legislations.

    The protesting farmers claim these laws will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

    Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.

    Talking about the SAD’s new alliance with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Badal said the alliance between the two parties is permanent and that the Akali Dal’s story with the BJP was over.

    On the party’s future course of action, Badal said that the SAD is talking to various regional parties so that they all can come on one platform before the 2024 general elections.

    “There is a need for regional forces to get together. Regional forces are more connected to the ground and have better understanding of the people. We have been talking to various parties. Regional parties should come together and form a front before the 2024 general elections.

    And I am sure before 2024 this front will emerge as very strong force,” he said.

    Badal further said it would be a second front rather than a third front as the main opposition Congress is no more a pan-India party.

    The BJP will be the new front’s main target.

    In the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, Badal said, farm laws will be the main issue for the Akali Dal and “if the party is voted to power, it will provide government job to a family member of all those farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest against the laws.”

    In addition, the government will provide free education to the children of the deceased farmers and pension to the parents of those who died young, Badal said.

    He also said the SAD will bet big on new and young faces and will try to field as many women as possible in the assembly elections slated for early next year.

    On a question about reports of alleged snooping on politicians, activists and journalists using Pegasus spyware, Badal termed it an attack on democracy and demanded establishment of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by an opposition MP to probe the matter.

    “This entire snooping episode is an attack on the Constitution, democracy and rights of the people.

    It is completely unethical and a JPC should be formed headed by an opposition MP to investigate it,” Badal said.