News Analysis India

Tag: radha mohan singh

  • Will Yogi Adityanath lead BJP in UP polls? Saffron party, RSS conduct hectic parleys

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh on Monday held meetings with the top state leaders and RSS office-bearers here to review the party’s programmes in the politically crucial state where assembly polls are due next year.

    UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, and senior RSS official bearers Dattatreya Hosabole and Krishna Gopal were present at a meeting held at the CM’s residence by the central leaders who arrived on a two-day visit.

    “No political discussions took place in the meeting. It was more on the organisation, especially the programmes, training and ‘pravaas’ (taking stock of organisational matters),” a senior leader, who was privy to the consultations, said.

    He also said that no discussions were held on the election of zila panchayat chairpersons or the 2022 assembly elections.

    This is the second visit by the central leaders this month as the party sets in motion preparations for the crucial assembly polls next year in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    During their earlier visit from May 31 to June 2, Radha Mohan Singh had shot down speculation of a leadership change in the state and had defended the Yogi Adityanath government’s handling of the COVID-19 situation.

    On Sunday, Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya said the state’s next chief minister will be decided by the BJP’s central leadership after the assembly polls, prompting the Samajwadi Party to suggest that the ruling party is divided on the leadership issue.

    Earlier in the day, the two central leaders met UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and state general secretary Sunil Bansal and discussed various campaigns of the party.

    The two leaders later headed for the office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Niralanagar locality in the state capital.

    Party sources said that at the RSS office, Santhosh and other party leaders met Sangh office bearers, including ‘Kshetra Pracharak’ Anil.

    They are understood to have held discussions on 2022 UP Assembly elections and the allegations of corruption in the purchase of land in Ayodhya by the Ram temple trust, the sources said.

    However, when asked about the meeting, Swatantra Dev Singh said that it was a courtesy call and no particular issue was discussed.

    A UP BJP spokesperson said that Santhosh will hold meetings with party office bearers and review COVID-19-related campaigns and other ”seva” works.

    He will also give his guidance for upcoming party campaigns and programmes.

    A party office-bearer said that Santhosh has come for the “monthly review” of the various ongoing programmes of the party.

    “There are 11 programmes, and he has come to see how they are being implemented by the UP unit of the BJP,” he said.

    Opposition parties have been attacking the Yogi Adityanath government over the situation during the second COVID-19 wave and plan to raise it as a major election issue.

    In recent days, they have trained guns at the BJP over allegations of corruption in the purchase of land in Ayodhya by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

    The BJP leaders have hit back at the opposition, claiming it was an attempt to derail the Ram Temple construction by levelling false allegations.

    Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya has said the state’s next chief minister will be decided by the BJP’s central leadership after the assembly polls, prompting the Samajwadi Party to suggest that the ruling party is divided on the leadership issue.

    The labour minister made the remark Sunday at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state headquarter here while replying to a question from reporters. The chief minister will be finalised by the central leadership after the Assembly elections,” Maurya said.

    The remark appeared to go against the statements made earlier by other party leaders who suggested earlier that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be the party’s CM face again in the assembly elections early next year.

    Last week in Etah, BJP’s state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh said the polls will be contested under Adityanath’s leadership.

    “Corruption and hooliganism have ended and development is taking place. We will fight the 2022 elections under the hardworking and honest chief minister Yogi Adityanath,” Singh had told reporters.

    But Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya had earlier said in Bareilly that the party’s national leadership will decide under whom the upcoming elections will be fought.

    When asked if there was any confusion in the party over this, BJP spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava played down the issue.

    “Swatantra Dev is the state unit president and what he has said is important. What Keshav Prasad Maurya and Swami Prasad Maurya have said is on the basis of the party’s norms and traditions,” he said.

    “Formally, the announcement of the chief minister’s name is made by the parliamentary board, and so Keshav Prasad Maurya and Swami Prasad Maurya would have said this,” Srivastava added.

    In a statement, however, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the situation “laughable”.

    “Voices of dissent against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have started to emerge from within the party.

    Two responsible ministers have said that after the elections, the centre (central leadership) will decide who will be the chief minister.

    This situation in the state politics is laughable,” he said.

    The opposition leader’s statement comes on a day when BJPs national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh and UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh are on a visit to the state, meeting leaders from the party and the RSS.

    This is the second visit to Lucknow by the two central BJP leaders this month as the party gears up for the assembly elections.

    During their last visit, they had shot down speculation that change in leadership in the state was imminent.

  • BJP’s UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh dismisses speculations of imminent Cabinet reshuffle

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: BJP national vice-president Radha Mohan Singh on Sunday dismissed speculations over an imminent Cabinet reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government and said the chief minister may fill a few ministerial vacancies at an appropriate time.

    Singh, also the party’s UP in-charge, made the remarks after his meeting with Governor Anandiben Patel, which he described as a “personal” one.

    Asked about the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle, Singh told reporters that “there is nothing like that”.

    Asked about the Cabinet expansion to fill some ministerial berths, Singh said some seats are vacant but they are not major ones.

    “As far as vacant seats are concerned, the chief minister will take a decision at an appropriate time,” he added.

    Singh also said the “BJP has the strongest organisation and most popular government in Uttar Pradesh”.

    About his meeting with Governor Patel, he said he had come to meet her because he had not been able to meet her for some time.

    “After becoming the party’s in-charge of UP, I have not met the governor,” he said.

    “When she was the Gujarat chief minister, I was the agriculture minister. I had an old association with Gujarat. As I could not meet her in the past six months, I met her today. This was a personal meeting,” he said.

  • Oxygen bank set up by former Union Agriculture Minister saves life of 272 Covid patients in Bihar

    Express News Service
    PATNA: An oxygen bank, set up by former union agriculture minister and Motihari MP Radha Mohan Singh, saved the lives of 275 Covid-19 patients in Bihar’s East Champaran district in the last fortnight.

    The oxygen bank was built with the help of local BJP MLA Pramod Kumar, who is the minister of sugarcane and law in Nitish Kumar-led state government.

    This oxygen bank was started with 100 cylinders of various capacities at a time when the state was passing through an acute shortage of medical oxygen.

    “Now, the lives of nearly 275 critical patients have been saved with the cylinders of oxygen supplied free of cost from this bank, which is now working under the supervisory role of local MLA Parmod Kumar and other volunteers”, Radha Mohan Singh claimed to the media on Thursday.

    The former minister said that the oxygen bank has been set up in line with the commitment of BJP under the party social responsibility towards the propel infected with the Covid-19.

    He told the media that the priority is accorded to the age of Covid patients, who are living at their homes in isolation far away from their working offsprings and other family members.

    A helpline number has been flashed across the district through various information sharing methods like public addressing systems and local newspapers about the oxygen bank setup.

    Singh said that the oxygen bank is playing the role of giving”pran vayu”(life air) to the people living in home isolation.

    Md Azum Parvez said that his father at Jirat village was critical in need of oxygen recently and he got cylinders from this bank immediately. “You will be surprised to know that demand has increased and a huge number of calls are received. The people think that having made an arrangement for oxygen cylinders, one can save their lives from Covid”, said a local Manoj Kumar.

    “With the opening of this oxygen bank, the people in need of it rush from dozens of villages with screenshots of oxygen levels of patients and one local guarantor to take the cylinders free of cost’, Pankaj Sinha, the in-charge of this oxygen bank said.

    He said that prompt services are provided to hyper needy patients. “We are arranging more oxygen cylinders to continue the services of the bank further till the possible third wave”, Sinha said, adding that cylinders with various capacities including of jumbo size are available.

  • Former Union minister sets up ‘oxygen bank’ in his Bihar constituency

    By PTI
    MOTIHARI: Amid the raging second COVID-19 wave which has left patients literally short of breath, residents of East Champaran district in Bihar have access to an ‘oxygen bank’ committed to prompt delivery of cylinders whenever required.

    Radha Mohan Singh, a multiple-term local MP who was the agriculture minister in the previous Narendra Modi cabinet, says the endeavour is in line with the BJP’s commitment to social service.

    “State minister Pramod Kumar, who is also the local MLA, and district unit chief Prakash Asthana have been assigned a supervisory role while IT cell convenor Pankaj Sinha has been made in charge of the oxygen bank,” Singh, who is also a national vice-president of the BJP, told PTI.

    “The team is equipped with 100 oxygen cylinders and arrangements are in place for refilling these.

    Party workers across the district have been apprised of this drive which aims at ensuring that no COVID death takes place in East Champaran because of non-availability of oxygen,” said Singh, who has assumed the role of the ‘patron’ of the drive.

    He said, “Till now, we have reached out to hundreds of COVID patients across those blocks of the district which fall under my constituency.

    As many as 262 critical patients have been saved because of timely supply of oxygen cylinders from our side.”

    A helpline number is in place and widely publicised and volunteers swing into action no sooner than a distress call is received, Singh said.

    “Our team has been instructed to pay special attention to those who are aged and living here alone, away from their children settled in other parts of the country or abroad.

    Priority is also being accorded to those who cannot afford an oxygen cylinder themselves,” he said.

    “It seems that the word has reached far and wide and I myself have been flooded with calls from people living in places like Mumbai and Delhi with request for help for their parents or relatives back home,” Singh added.

    The BJP leader also said that other efforts by the party include running of ‘Modi Aaahar Kendra’ eateries offering free food and supply of PPE kits among ambulance drivers.

    “We have also helped establish a telemedicine network. A team of doctors have been roped in for offering medical advice to those in home isolation,” he added.