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Tag: MLAs

  • UP to witness keen contest in Feb 27 Rajya Sabha polls

    Lucknow: The February 27 Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh will witness a high-pitched electoral battle ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP fielding eight candidates and the opposition Samajwadi Party three for the 10 seats up for grabs. The outcome of the polls to the Rajya Sabha is likely to have an impact in the politically crucial state just ahead of the general elections in the country.

    The ruling BJP and the principal opposition SP have the numbers to send seven and three members respectively unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, but with the BJP fielding Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate, a keen contest is on the cards in one of the seats.

    Seth, a local industrialist and former SP leader, joined the BJP in 2019. He filed his nomination in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior party leaders. Voting for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats will be held on Tuesday and the results will also be announced the same day.

    The BJP and the SP are the two largest parties in the 403-member state assembly with 252 MLAs and 108 MLAs respectively. The Congress, an alliance partner of the SP, has two seats. BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) 13, NISHAD Party six, RLD nine, SBSP six, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik two and the BSP one. Four seats are currently vacant.

    The seven other candidates fielded by the BJP are former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind) party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain. The SP has fielded actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman. To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first preference votes, an official said.

    Elaborating further about the Rajya Sabha elections, Returning Officer Brijbhushan Dubey said, “A candidate will need 36.37 first preference votes to register a win. At present, there are 399 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.”

    Asked whether the three jailed MLAs will also be able to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, Dubey told PTI that it would be decided by the court and the political party concerned.

    SP MLAs Irfan Solanki and Ramakant Yadav and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) legislator Abbas Ansari are in prison.

    Dubey further said that MLAs will enter from gate 7, take ballot papers from room 80 and head to Tilak Hall to cast their votes.

    “Polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm. Counting will commence from 5 pm and results are likely to be announced on Tuesday night,” he added.

    Exuding confidence in the BJP’s performance in the Rajya Sabha elections, Maurya told PTI, “All BJP candidates will register a win in the Rajya Sabha elections.”

    Chief whip of the Samajwadi Party in the legislative assembly Manoj Pandey said all SP MLAs will be voting for the party’s candidates in the Rajya Sabha election.

    Asked if one of the SP candidates may eventually fall short by one vote, Pandey said, “How will we fall short? Our people had contested (the 2022 UP Assembly elections) from the SBSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. And, basically, they are from the SP.”

    Although Pandey exuded confidence that MLAs of the SBSP and the RLD will vote for the SP candidates, both parties have joined the BJP-led NDA.

    Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel, an ally of the Samajwadi Party, had earlier said that she would not vote in the Rajya Sabha polls as she did not agree with the SP decision to field Bachchan and Ranjan.

    Speaking to PTI on Sunday, she said, “I will be voting in the Rajya Sabha elections. That is my right and my duty. But I have not decided yet who will be the candidate.”

    On whether the two jailed SP MLAs would be casting their votes, Pandey said, “The party is making efforts to bring them to Lucknow so that they can cast their votes.”

    “All the three candidates fielded by the party will emerge victorious in the Rajya Sabha elections,” former chief secretary of the state and SP candidate Ranjan told PTI.

    He added that unlike the Lok Sabha elections or the legislative assembly elections, Rajya Sabha polls are a different ball game altogether.

    Congress MLA from Pharenda in Maharajganj district told PTI, “Now, with the Congress and Samajwadi Party forging an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, the picture here is also very clear. We will vote for the candidates fielded by the SP. The candidate of the SP will be our candidate. We will vote for the SP candidate, about whom we will be told by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.”

    Ramashish Rai UP unit chief of Rashtriya Lok Dal, which recently switched over to the NDA fold said that all the RLD MLAs will vote for the BJP candidates in the ongoing Rajya Sabha elections.

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  • Rajya Sabha polls: Congress may sequester its MLAs in resort

    The ruling Congress is said to be planning to sequester its 135 MLAs in a private resort ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled for February 27 as the party leaders are worried over reports of its MLAs and independent members being approached by the NDA leaders.

    The presence of Kupendra Reddy, a wealthy businessman, as JDS candidate in the electoral fray has disturbed the peace of top Congress leaders, especially, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar.

    He had, on Monday, accused JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy of making “offers” to Congress MLAs to influence them to vote for his party candidate in the February 27 polls. The Congress has even filed a complaint with the Vidhana Soudha police accusing the Opposition parties of trying to lure its MLAs with offers of bribes for voting for the JDS candidate in the RS polls.

    Reddy has emerged as NDA’s surprise fifth candidate. If not for him, the four candidates would have won unopposed.

    The Congress is confident of securing the full support of its 135 MLAs, and three independents to get its three candidates through. There are only four RS vacancies in Karnataka, and the BJP and Congress have fielded one and three candidates, respectively. The JDS has maintained that it has fielded Reddy not to let the NDA’s surplus votes go waste. AICC leader Ajay Maken and sitting Rajya Sabha members GC Chandrashekar and Syed Naseer Hussain are contesting from the Congress while the BJP has fielded former MLC Narayansa Bhandage. A candidate needs 45 votes to win.

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  • Jharkhand Congress Chief on dissatisfaction among party MLAs over State Cabinet expansion: ‘We are aware, will discuss it’ – The Economic Times Video

    Ranchi (Jharkhand): After meeting a group of Jharkhand Congress MLAs after their swearing-in ceremony for cabinet expansion in Jharkhand. State Congress President Rajesh Thakur on Feb 17 said that MLAs were unhappy and had gone to the swearing-in ceremony at request. Rajesh Thakur said, “They (Congress MLAs) had expressed their feelings even before the oath-taking ceremony. They were unhappy, they had gone to the swearing-in ceremony at our request. We are aware of their feelings. We will discuss it.” Congress MLA Anup Singh said, “We are 12 people in total. We have shared our concern with our PCC president through a letter. Our demand is the same as before. Attending the oath ceremony does not mean that we have forgotten our demands. We are only trying to let our party know about our concerns.”

  • ‘Operation Kichad’: Cong slams BJP, says Goa MLAs crossover fast-tracked due to Yatra success

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The crossing over of eight of its Goa MLAs to the BJP is part of the ruling party’s ‘Operation Kichad’, the Congress said on Wednesday and claimed the “break” was fast-tracked because of the visible success of its Bharat Jodo Yatra.

    In a body blow to the party in Goa, eight of the Congress’ 11 MLAs, including former chief minister Digambar Kamat, joined the ruling BJP. Congress is now left with just three MLAs in the 40-member Assembly.

    “Operation Kichad of BJP in Goa has been fast-tracked because of the visible success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. BJP is nervous,” Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

    “A daily dose of diversion & disinformation is handed out to undermine the Yatra. We remain undeterred. We will overcome these dirty tricks of the BJP,” he said.

    His party colleague Pawan Khera echoed him and said the BJP, rattled by the Bharat Jodo Yatra, had organised ‘Operation Kichad (mud)’ in the coastal state.

    “Once again it has been proven that the BJP can only break,” the Congress’ communication department head said in a tweet in Hindi.

    “Those who are not able to support this difficult journey of uniting India, fearing the threats of BJP, cross over to those who break (they) should understand that India is watching,” he added.

    The eight MLAs joined the BJP in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and state BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade.

    In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP in Goa. The BJP retained power in the coastal state after sssembly elections in March this year. It has 20 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress’ strength will be depleted from 11 to three.

    NEW DELHI: The crossing over of eight of its Goa MLAs to the BJP is part of the ruling party’s ‘Operation Kichad’, the Congress said on Wednesday and claimed the “break” was fast-tracked because of the visible success of its Bharat Jodo Yatra.

    In a body blow to the party in Goa, eight of the Congress’ 11 MLAs, including former chief minister Digambar Kamat, joined the ruling BJP. Congress is now left with just three MLAs in the 40-member Assembly.

    “Operation Kichad of BJP in Goa has been fast-tracked because of the visible success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. BJP is nervous,” Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.

    “A daily dose of diversion & disinformation is handed out to undermine the Yatra. We remain undeterred. We will overcome these dirty tricks of the BJP,” he said.

    His party colleague Pawan Khera echoed him and said the BJP, rattled by the Bharat Jodo Yatra, had organised ‘Operation Kichad (mud)’ in the coastal state.

    “Once again it has been proven that the BJP can only break,” the Congress’ communication department head said in a tweet in Hindi.

    “Those who are not able to support this difficult journey of uniting India, fearing the threats of BJP, cross over to those who break (they) should understand that India is watching,” he added.

    The eight MLAs joined the BJP in the presence of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and state BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade.

    In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP in Goa. The BJP retained power in the coastal state after sssembly elections in March this year. It has 20 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress’ strength will be depleted from 11 to three.

  • RS polls: With close contest expected in several states, parties sweat it out to keep flock together

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI/JAIPUR/MUMBAI: Ahead of the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls, political temperatures were soaring in several states that could see close contests, with parties trying to keep their flock together and trading accusations of poaching of MLAs.

    After more than two decades, Maharashtra will witness a contest in the Rajya Sabha polls as there are seven candidates in the fray for six seats.

    The Shiv Sena has decided to shift its MLAs to a five-star hotel in south Mumbai to ward off overtures and the ruling MVA leaders were holding talks with smaller parties and Independents backing the tripartite dispensation.

    Maharashtra | Shiv Sena MLAs being shifted to a hotel in Malad, Mumbai ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections pic.twitter.com/BdZOI8CuBJ
    — ANI (@ANI) June 6, 2022
    The BJP has asked its MLAs to come to Mumbai in the next two days. “We were in ‘The Retreat’ (at Madh island in northwest Mumbai) and all our ministers too were present there. We will be moving to hotel ‘The Trident’ (in south Mumbai),” Sena MLA and party spokesperson Sunil Prabhu said.

    The Trident is a stone’s throw from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly where voting will take place.

    In the 288-member House, smaller parties have 16 MLAs together while the number of Independents is 13. A total of seven candidates- BJP (3), Shiv Sena (2), NCP (1), and Congress (1)- are in the fray for the six RS seats. The contest for the sixth seat is between BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik and Sena’s Sanjay Pawar.

    Mumbai | Ahead of June 10 RS polls, meeting of Maha Vikas Aghadi partners begins- Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP discuss the strategy. Maharashtra CM & Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge among others present at Trident pic.twitter.com/JqPLg63saI
    — ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2022
    In Rajasthan, the BJP wrote to the Enforcement Directorate and the Rajasthan chief electoral officer, expressing apprehensions about horse-trading and the use of black money in the Rajya Sabha polls.

    The Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajasthan BJP president Satish Poonia, Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore and party whip Jogeshwar Garg accused the Congress of misusing government machinery to intimidate MLAs.

    Their reaction came as Rajasthan police serve a notice to BJP legislator Chandrakanta Meghwal in a five-year-old assault case.

    Meghwal, who is camping in Jaipur with other MLAs of the party ahead of elections to the upper house, did not appear at the police station in Kota.

    ALSO READ | Congress complains to EC over ‘horse-trading’ in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan

    After the notice, the opposition BJP accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of hatching a conspiracy but an aide of the Congres leader dismissed the charge saying the case against Meghwal was registered when the BJP was in power.

    The Congress had shifted its MLAs to Udaipur on June 2, saying it fears horse-trading by the BJP.

    Congress leader Mahesh Joshi gave a letter to the chief electoral officer demanding action against alleged horse-trading attempts.

    Joshi, however, did not name anyone or any party in the complaint. He had also given a similar complaint to the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Sunday. Elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha from the state will take place on June 10.

    ALSO READ | Notice to Rajasthan MLA in five-year-old case, BJP links it to Rajya Sabha polls

    While the Congress can easily win two and the BJP one, the contest is for the fourth seat for which the BJP is backing Independent candidate Subhash Chandra.

    Chandra claimed that eight Congress MLAs may vote for him and asked former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot to also cross sides. This would be an opportunity for Pilot to avenge his “humiliation”, the media baron told reporters.

    Pilot, however, advised Chandra to withdraw from the contest to avoid being humiliated. “An advice to the Independent candidate of Rajasthan — Better to be out of the contest before voting on 10th. It is better to be humble than to be humiliated,” he tweeted.

    “Unfortunately politics is not like making a TV series where you decide who will do what,” he said, targeting the media baron.

    Meanwhile, an official statement claimed the two legislators of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have decided to support the ruling Congress after meeting Gehlot.

    However, the legislators said they want to stay in a circuit house or any other place than the hotel where other Congress legislators are camping, according to the statement.

    Six candidates are in the fray for the Rajya Sabha poll to four seats from Karnataka, leading to a heated contest for the fourth seat. The Congress on Tuesday appealed to the ‘secular MLAs’ to cast their ‘conscience votes’ for their candidate Mansoor Ali Khan.

    Congress Karnataka unit chief D K Shivakumar said he and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were making this appeal to everyone in the Karnataka Assembly. Offering to trade second preference votes with the Congress, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said his main agenda is to defeat the BJP.

    The former chief minister also claimed that even if JD(S) manages to get the 22 second preference votes from the Congress, it will be in a leading position.

    Despite not having the adequate number of votes to win the fourth seat from the state Assembly, all the three political parties in the state — BJP, Congress and JD(S) — have fielded candidates for the seat, forcing an election.

    “My main agenda is that BJP should face a defeat, I’m ready for it. After Congress General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala called me, I calculated and have personally informed him that we (JDS) are ready to transfer our 32 second preference votes to Congress, but want their (Congress) 24 second preference votes in return,” Kumaraswamy said.

    Speaking to reporters, he said he doesn’t have a better offer than this to make and asked Congress to prove its “secular commitment”.

    The six candidates in the fray for Rajya Sabha polls from the state are – Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, actor-politician Jaggesh and outgoing MLC Lehar Singh Siroya from the BJP, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and state general secretary Mansoor Ali Khan from the Congress, and former MP D Kupendra Reddy from the JD(S).

    Despite the JD(S) seeking support to ensure Reddy’s election to the Upper House of the parliament, the Congress did not withdraw its second candidate Khan from the fray and has issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to vote for the party’s candidates.

    There are talks within political circles that the BJP may be at an advantage if preference votes were to be counted and Congress and JD(S) don’t come to any understanding.

  • Lone woman among 10 ministers to be inducted in Punjab cabinet on Saturday

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Ten ministers, including a woman, will be inducted in the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab on Saturday.

    Among the 10 ministers, eight are first-time MLAs. The swearing-in ceremony of the Mann’s cabinet will be held at Punjab Raj Bhawan at 11 am, officials said.

    In a tweet on Friday evening, Bhagwant Mann put out a picture giving names of the 10 party MLAs who will be sworn-in as ministers and congratulated them.

    They include Harpal Singh Cheema, second-time legislator from Dirba and the party’s Dalit face. He was also the Leader of the Opposition in the previous Assembly.

    Two-time Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer will also find a berth in the Mann-led cabinet.

    Other MLAs to be inducted in the cabinet are Dr Baljit Kaur, Harbhajan Singh from Jandiala, Dr Vijay Singla from Mansa, Lal Chand from Bhoa, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Ajnala, Laljit Singh Bhullar from Patti, Brahm Shanker from Hoshiarpur and Harjot Bains from Anandpur Sahib.

    There are 18 berths in the cabinet, including the chief minister.

    After their oath-taking, the newly inducted ministers will assume charge in the Punjab Civil Secretariat and the first cabinet meeting of the AAP government will be held in the afternoon, sources said.

    Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit had on Wednesday administered the oath of office and secrecy to Bhagwant Mann in a ceremony at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

    The Aam Aadmi Party romped home with 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab assembly, decimating the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party combine.

  • Bihar Congress legislators protest outside assembly against ‘communal vitiation’

    By Express News Service

    PATNA: The provocative statement of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator against the members of a minority community, led to protest by the Congress MLAs on the first day of the budget session of the Bihar legislature on Friday.

    Two MLAs of the grand old party – Shakeel Ahmad Khan and Rajesh Ram – boycotted the customary joint address of Governor Phagu Chauhan and staged a protest outside the House, citing two incidents of ‘communal vitiation’ as reasons.

    The BJP MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur Bachaul demanded the withdrawal of voting rights of the minority community. The Bisfi MLA pleaded that the Muslims were given a separate country Pakistan at the time of partisan of  India in 1947. “Those who chose to stay back in India should be stripped of their voting rights and treated as second class citizens,” the BJP legislator said.

    Bachaul’s remarks came a day after Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM legislator and state chief Akhtarul Iman said the people belonging to minority community (read Muslim) be given due representation in elected bodies on their proportionate population.

    Irked over the BJP MLA’s statement, the AIMIM legislator said that he would take up the matter with the Speaker of the assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha and demand for his disqualification from the House.

    The BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal, however, tried to downplay the controversy. In a statement on Friday, he asked his party’s legislator to respect the religious sentiments of all sections of the society. “Don’t issue statements that hurt the religious sentiments of people,” he added.

    Khan, who represents the Kadwa assembly constituency, said that a JD-U worker belonging to the minority community was kidnapped, tortured and beaten to death. The perpetrators of the crime also burnt his body and then dumped it on the bank of the river. Two days later, the police recovered the body.

    The Congress MLA suspected the role of cow vigilantes in the killing of the man, a resident of Musarigharari in Samastipur district.  The video, which went viral on social media, showed the offenders’ audacity to disturbing questions such as whether he consumed beef.

    Rajesh Ram expressed concern over rising incidents of atrocities on the members of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes in the state. “The government is keeping mum while members of SC/ST community,” he said.

    Earlier, RJD MLA from Mahua Mukesh Kumar Raushan reached the assembly premises with a toy helicopter as a mark of protest against the state government’s decision to deploy helicopters in operation against liquor smugglers in the state.

  • Two West Bengal BJP MPs resign as MLAs after directive from party leadership

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP Lok Sabha MPs Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik on Wednesday tendered their resignation as members of the West Bengal assembly, to which they were elected in the recent polls.

    Sarkar and Pramanik, MPs of Ranaghat and Cooch Behar respectively, went to the assembly and submitted their resignation letters to Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    Pramanik said that they are quitting as MLAs as per the directive of the BJP leadership.

    The saffron party had also fielded two other Lok Sabha MPs – Union minister Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta but they lost the election.

    The saffron party bagged 77 seats while the Trinamool Congress secured a landslide victory winning 213 of the 292 constituencies that went to polls.

    Election was countermanded in two seats due to the death of candidates.

    “The BJP has risen from just three MLAs (in the 2016 elections) to 77 MLAs. In order to add experience in running the government, some MPs had been fielded,” Sarkar said.

    However, the party could not achieve its goal of forming the government in the state, he said.

    Sarkar asserted that their fighting the assembly election despite being MPs and then resigning after winning do not reflect any organisational weakness of the BJP.

    Pramanik said that they cannot remain members of both the Lok Sabha and the state assembly simultaneously.

    While Pramanik won in the assembly election by a wafer-thin margin of just 57 votes defeating TMC candidate Udayan Guha from the Dinhata seat, Sarkar won by a comfortable margin of 15,878 votes from Santipur.

    Dinhata and Santipur assembly segments fall within the respective Lok Sabha constituencies of Pramanik and Sarkar.

  • Akali Dal MLAs suspended from Punjab Assembly

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Members of the Shiromani Akali Dal were on Friday suspended for the remaining part of the Budget session of the Punjab Assembly for disrupting the proceedings of the House.

    Marshals then evicted the suspended MLAs from the House.

    The House witnessed uproar when Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was replying on the Governor’s address and legislators of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) rushed to the well of the House and started shouting slogans.

    Speaker Rana K P Singh adjourned the House twice and asked Akali Dal members not to disrupt the proceedings.

    When the Akalis continued to shout slogans in the well of the House, the Speaker first named all the members of the SAD and suspended them for the remaining part of the session.

    He even asked the watch and ward staff of the assembly to remove them from the House.

    When the House was adjourned, the Akalis sat on the floor of the House.

    The watch and ward staff then removed them from the House.

    The session would continue till March 10.

  • CM Baghel and Mercam gave the body to the body of the late Motilal Vora

    Motilal Vora, former Chief Minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh and former Congress leader who was Governor of Uttar Pradesh, paid floral tributes at Rajiv Bhawan in the capital Raipur today, including Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, members of the Council of Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, MLAs, people’s representatives. There was an influx of people for the last darshan of their leader. Chief Minister Mr. Baghel and State President Mr. Mohan Markam took the dead body of the late Mr. Motilal Vora to the chariot and left for the fort. Where he will be given a final farewell with state honors.