News Analysis India

Tag: Manoj Tiwari

  • Lok Sabha polls 2024: Delhi: BJP targets third consecutive sweep, AAP hopes to capitalise on sympathy wave for Kejriwal

    With the BJP looking to increase its vote share and sweeping Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats for the third consecutive time, the AAP — contesting the polls in an alliance with the Congress — hopes to use the “sympathy wave” for arrested Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to break the saffron party’s streak. Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) constituents Congress and AAP are contesting the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance in Delhi, paving the way for a direct contest with the BJP. The AAP has fielded candidates from four seats while the Congress is contesting from three constituencies.

    Both the BJP and the AAP-Congress combine have fielded high-profile candidates, setting the stage for a keen contest to gain electoral supremacy.

    Virendra Sachdeva, the BJP’s Delhi unit chief, has said the challenge for the party this time is to increase the margin of victory. The Northeast Delhi seat, dominated by Purvanchalis and Muslims, will witness a key battle between two candidates who hail from Bihar. The BJP has fielded Manoj Tiwari, who is eyeing a third term in the Lok Sabha while the Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar will make his electoral debut for the grand old party.

    Kumar had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a CPI ticket from the Begusarai seat in Bihar.

    A BJP leader in Delhi, requesting anonymity, said Tiwari has a high chance of retaining the seat and asserted that Kumar’s past as a student leader and his association with the Left is likely to have a polarising effect. The Congress is looking to capitalise on Kumar’s popularity and his oratory skills to make a mark in the crucial battle ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections in 2025. In East Delhi, AAP has fielded Kuldeep Kumar — its Dalit MLA — from the general seat in a move that may also impact voters of the community in the 12 reserved Assembly segments spread over different Lok Sabha seats.

    Besides capitalising on a direct contest with the BJP, AAP claims there is an anti-Modi sentiment among Dalit and Muslim voters in East Delhi that will benefit it electorally in the seat.

    In 2019, Gautam Gambhir won the seat after defeating the Congress’ Arvinder Singh Lovely by 3.93 lakh votes. AAP’s Atishi was third in the contest.

    This time, the coming together of AAP and the Congress is likely to consolidate the anti-BJP vote, AAP leaders said.

    BJP leaders in Delhi, however, are confident of retaining all the seven seats the party has held since 2014.

    They pointed out that the votes polled by party candidates on each of the seven seats in 2019 were higher than the total votes secured by the AAP and the Congress candidates.

    In the 2019 elections, the BJP had secured 56.5 per cent of the polled votes in the national capital, the Congress 22 per cent, and the AAP 18.1 per cent.

    The saffron party has also sought to balance the caste factor in announcing its candidates — fielding Harsh Malhotra, a Punjabi from East Delhi, Baniya leader Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk, MLA and Gujjar leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Jat leader Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, and Dalit leader Yogendra Chandolia from the reserved North West Delhi seat.

    It has fielded two women candidates — Sehrawat and Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi — and that will help bring more women votes, the BJP leaders said.

    AAP is looking to make electoral gains through sympathy in the aftermath of Kejriwal’s arrest in a money-laundering case linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy.

    The party’s campaign also revolves around Kejriwal’s arrest. Its ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’ campaign urges people to reply to Kejriwal’s arrest with their votes.

    Earlier this month, in an interaction with PTI editors at the news agency’s headquarters, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had said, “At this point, I do not know about the status outside Delhi but I can say with confidence about Delhi that there is massive sympathy among the people for AAP, Arvind Kejriwal. Even the people who support the BJP are feeling that this is too much and should not have been done.”

    The AAP has also fielded three-time MLA Somnath Bharti from the New Delhi constituency, Sahiram Pehelwan from South Delhi and Congress ex-MP Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi.

    The Congress, which announced its candidates on April 14, has fielded veteran leader JP Agarwal from Chandni Chowk and former BJP MP Udit Raj fron the reserved Northwest Delhi constituency.

  • ‘I Will Ask Dhoni Why Was I Dropped,’ Virat Kohli’s Contemporary Seeks Explanation From Former Captain After Retirement | cricket news

    Manoj Tiwary could have been one of the greatest sports stories in India. Alas, he retires from cricket having underachieved massively with just 15 international matches to his name. Tiwary played his last cricket match, a Ranji Trophy game against Bihar at home ground Eden Gardens for Bengal. As he leaves the field, he talks about his regrets, one of them if not playing any Test match for India.

    But Tiwary also regrets not having a long white-ball career with India either. He does not blame his captain at that time who was MS Dhoni. Tiwary, however, says he will certainly ask questions to Dhoni whenever he meets him the next time on why he was dropped despite no fault of his own.

    Also Read | Meme Games Begin After Rohit Sharma Angrily Tells Indian Batsmen To Walk Back Causing Declaration Confusion

    Tiwary had scored his first ODI hundred vs West Indies in December 2011 but had to wait for seven months before getting another game to represent the country. Tiwary missed 14 straight matches for India despite his hundred and was even ignored for Australia tour in 2012 while Virat Kohli, Suresh Rain who were struggling for runs got picked.

    Thank you Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club for the wonderful farewell felicitation. Your constant support throughout my career had been a blessing. My sincere gratitude! __#GoodByeCricket #CSJC pic.twitter.com/eLYMZGkNkq — MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) February 19, 2024

    “I want to hear from him whenever I get the opportunity. I will definitely ask this question. I would like to ask Dhoni why I was dropped from the team after scoring the century, especially in that tour of Australia where nobody was scoring runs, neither was Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina. I have nothing to lose now,” Tiwary said.

    Tiwary could not make his Test debut. The batsman played 12 ODIs, scoring 287 runs with one hundred and fifty each to his name. He also featured in 3 T20Is, but scored just 15 runs. Tiwary played 98 IPL matches as well and accumulated 1695 runs. But he could not make his Test debut, a regret with which he has to live his life after retiring from the sport. He also questions why he was not picked despite averaging 65 in first-class games.

    “When I had completed playing 65 first-class matches, my batting average was around 65. The Australia team had toured India then, and I had scored 130 in a friendly game, then I scored 93 against England in a friendly game. I was very close, but they picked Yuvraj Singh instead. So Test cap and the fact that I was ignored after getting the Man of the Match award for scoring a hundred…I was ignored for 14 straight matches. When self-confidence is at its peak and someone destroys that, it tends to kill that player,” Tiwary said.

  • Lok Sabha bypolls: With Nirahua win, three Bhojpuri film stars on list of BJP MPs

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: They might be strong competitors in the Bhojpuri film industry, vying for top honours as singer-hero, but the trio of Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ will now be seen sharing the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha as members of the same political party BJP.

    Though Tiwari who represents North-East Delhi, and Gorakhpur MP Kishan are already popular faces in the corridors of power, Nirahua is the latest to make his entry by winning Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypoll, the results of which were announced on Sunday.

    The three stars of the Bhojpuri film industry had worked together in the movie “Ganga Jamuna Saraswati” released in 2013.

    Though there might be other factors also for Nirahua winning the Azamgarh seat, his direct attack in his now popular style among the masses because of his several outings in the Bhojpuri cinema with “”Akhilesh hue farar… ,Nirahua datal rahe” (Akhilesh is absconding, Nirahua is digging his heels in”) helped him get prompt reaction during his campaign trail.

    Nirahua, who got a pan-India identity thanks to his stint in the reality show ‘Bigg Boss 6′, helped the ruling BJP not only in winning popular support but also cut into the base of the Samajwadi Party’s core Yadav vote bank.

    Knowing well the support because of his background that he got, Nirahua took to Twitter to thank his two colleagues Kishan and Tiwari, terming both as “bade bhaiya’ (big brother).

    “Honorable MP Gorakhpur and Bhojpuri cinema’s superstar bade bhaiya @ravikishannji, I express my heartfelt gratitude to your trust and blessings. I promise you that I will live up to the expectations of the respected people of Azamgarh,” he said through his official ‘Nirahua Hindustani’ account.

    He also made a similar tweet thanking Tiwari for his blessings.

    From the same seat, Nirahua had lost to SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    After winning by over 8,000 votes, the actor-singer tweeted, ““People’s victory! You have done wonders to the people of Azamgarh. This is your victory. From the day of the announcement of the bypoll dates, the way you all have showered love, support and blessings to the BJP this is its victory.”

    “This victory is dedicated to your trust and the hard work of Godlike workers,”” Nirahua said.

    “Nirahua Hindustani” is also a popular Bhojpuri film franchise with three sequels so far.

    He is among the most successful Bhojpuri actors, with successive five box office hits released in 2015.

    He also owns the production house Nirahua Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

    Speaking on the success of Bhojpuri actors in the electoral arena, Ravi Kishan said, “Bhojpuri samaj consists of some 25 crore people and also contributes to electing PM of the country.”

    On the recent back-to-back success of stars like him, Kishan said that all like him are connected with the masses and come from humble backgrounds and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recognising them.

    “Other parties have, however, not paid heed to the Bhojpuri actors,” Kishan lamented.

    Kishan also recalled how the three had shared the screen in the movie “Ganga Jamuna Saraswati”.

    Political analyst Pervez Ahmed said that the reason behind BJP reposing faith in Bhojpuri stars in recent times is primarily the sizeable population of Bhojpuri-speaking people who are seeing those conversing in their own language also as their representatives.

    “Nirahua also got the backing of the Bhojpuri speaking people and BJP’s experiment has proved to be successful yet again,” he added.

    Nirahua, who belongs to a famous Biraha family of Ghazipur, started his career as a Birha singer.

    He made his film debut in the Bhojpuri drama “Humka Aisa Waisa Na Samjha” (2006), and gained popularity with his roles in “Chalat Musafir Moh Liyo Re” (2006), “Nirahua Rikshawala” (2008) and “Pratigya” (2008).

    His other works during this period include “Parivaar” (2008), “Rangeela Babu” (2009), “Nirahua No.1” (2009), and “Saat Saheliyan” (2010).

    “Nirahua Hindustani” (2014), his 50th film, was a big hit. He also has some patriotic films to his credit, such as “Patna Se Pakistan” (2015) and “Border” (2018), which are one of the highest-grossing Bhojpuri movies of all time.

    His famous film “Nirahua Chalal London” (2019) is the first Bhojpuri movie shot in London and outside the Indian subcontinent.

    In 2019, He also made his debut on OTT platforms, by playing the role of a police officer in the web series “Hero Vardiwala”, which was also the first-ever web series made in the Bhojpuri language.

  • People of Bihar living in West Bengal will vote for development: Manoj Tiwari

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday said the people of Bihar living in West Bengal will vote for “development”, paying no attention to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who has voiced support to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the upcoming Bengal polls.

    The Northeast Delhi MP, who hails from Bihar, said leaders from the state should stop treating its people as their vote bank in other states.

    “Tejashwi should have learnt his lesson from the Bihar polls, where people voted in favour of the BJP and the JD(U) due to their development aspirations.

    His appeal to the people from Bihar living in Bengal to support the TMC will fail as they will vote for the BJP and development,” Tiwari said.

    Seeking to forge unity among secular political parties in the West Bengal Assembly polls, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Yadav met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday and appealed to the people from Bihar domiciled in Bengal to vote for the ruling TMC.

    Yadav said the first priority of his party was to stop the BJP’s progress in West Bengal.

    He, however, ducked questions by journalists on whether the RJD will contest the election in an alliance with the TMC, saying the upcoming polls will be a fight for saving “ideals and values”.

    “Our party’s stand is to provide full support to Mamataji,” he said.

    Tiwari, a former Delhi BJP president and a popular Bhojpuri singer and actor, is likely to be one of the star campaigners for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal.

    The Assembly polls for 294 seats in the state will be held in eight phases starting March 27 and The results will be announced on May 2.

  • Actor, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari blessed with a baby girl

    Actor-politician Manoj Tiwari welcomed a baby girl and shared the first picture with a sweet photo on his Twitter page in which he is seen holding the newborn baby in his arms.

    Manoj Tiwari announced on December 30 and people have been pouring in congratulatory messages for him.

    While sharing the first photo with his newborn daughter, Manoj wrote on his Twitter page, “मेरे घर आयी एक नन्ही परी… I am blessed with a baby girl… जय जगदंबे…”