Facing the onslaughts of Bharatiya Janata Party through extensive poaching of its ranks and file, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress have joined hands for the ensuing Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. Both the parties will contest 125 seats each in next month's elections. NCP chief Sharad Pawar made the announcement on Monday.
Pawar announced that the seat-sharing pact between Congress and and his 20-year-old party has been finalised. As per the arrangement, 38 seats will be left for allies to contest, he tweeted. Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats. Some seats will be exchanged with the Congress, he added.
The Congress and NCP had parted ways in 2014 after sharing power for 15 years. The two parties had contested the state elections on their own. That was Lso the first election in almost three decades when all parties in Maharashtra had fought separately. The BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in the state with 122 seats, while Congress had won 42 seats and NCP came close with 41 seats.
However, in recent times, the BJP has aggressively poached both the secular parties, especially NCP, leaving them almost bereft of any choice. Many of those who left have joined the BJP and a few have sought shelter with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. There is a general consensus among the political class and observers that neither Congress nor NCP can fight BJP on their own. This has forced Pawar to make reproaches and inch towards Congress.
The strong performance of BJP led alliance government, supplemented by acute political acumen of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has ensured victory for BJP election at every level, one after another. Even Shiv Sena, the sulking ally which acted as semi-opposition for BJP for five years, is singing praise of Narendra Modi. The alliance arrangement for seats has been finalised and it is a given thing that the saffron parties are fighting together. It has left the secular camp with no other option but to jump into fray together.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Helpless Cong- NCP Join Hands
Friday, May 11, 2018
Fingers Crossed on Karnataka
Fingers are crossed on what will happen in Karnataka elections that has witnessed intense drama and intrigue. Both Bharatiya Janata Party and ruling party in the State Congress indulged in a no holds barred fight leveling acquisition after acquisition on each other.
As the state prepares for tomorrow's assembly polls, the Election Commission has issued guidelines to political parties and media for strict compliance with the Model code of conduct till the election is over. The Election Commission has also imposed the ban on public opinion programmes in the media.
The high-voltage campaigning for the Assembly polls concluded last evening. Polling for 223 assembly segments will be held tomorrow and counting will take place on 15th of this month, i.e. Tuesday.
The election in Jayanagar Assembly constituency has been postponed following the death of BJP candidate B N Vijay Kumar. Total 2636 candidates are in fray out of which 617 are women. BJP has fielded 223 candidates while Congress has fielded 222 candidates. JD(S) is contesting in 201 constituencies.
More than 58000 polling booths have been set up for over five crores six lakh voters. The young voters' size has also doubled compared to the last assembly elections in the state. It was 7 lakh 22 thousand in 2013 and now 15 lakh 72 thousand young voters were added in the electoral roll.
There are 58008 polling stations set up, including 1312 auxiliary booths. The Election Commission has identified 12001 of them as critical or sensitive booths The Election Commission has deployed 585 companies of Central forces comprising of 45000 personnel for the poll duty. Over 3,50,000 polling personnel are put on poll duty in the booths.
Before reaching a standstill, Political parties and leaders made last ditch efforts to woo the voters.
BJP National President Amit Shah and Congress President Pameshwaran addressed a press conference in Bengaluru yesterday.
Shah accused Congress of adopting unfair means to rig the election. The BJP President said, there was 173 percent increase in the suicide of farmers in Karnataka and law and order situation has taken a nose dive. Shah alleged that 24 BJP and RSS workers were murdered in the state.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, his party fought a very good campaign, it stood together, raised fundamental issues and laid down a vision for the development of Karnataka.
Saturday, May 05, 2018
Gold Slips Below Rs 32,000 on low Demand
The prices of gold is experiencing downward train in a country like India that is obsessed with the precious metal.
Gold prices fell by 20 rupees to 31,980 rupees per 10 grams at the bullion market today on easing demand from local jewellers along with subdued global cues, extending its fall for the third straight day.
However, silver recovered by 100 rupees to 40,300 rupees per kg on scattered enquiries from industrial units. Traders said, besides the fall in demand from local jewellers and retailers at the domestic spot market, a weak trend overseas on a firmer dollar, while investors focused on the US jobs data due later in the day for fresh catalysts, kept pressure on gold prices.
Gold prices fell 0.12 percent to 1,310 US dollar an ounce, and silver by 0.15 percent to 16.37 US dollar an ounce in Singapore.
Thursday, May 03, 2018
Data leak: India to Continue Probe Despite Cambridge Analytica Closure
The government will continue with its enquiry into the Cambridge Analytica data leak issue despite the firm announcing closure of business.
Sources said, the ongoing probe will continue as the liability of the company existed prior to the closure announcement.
The UK based data analytics and political consulting firm has been under fire in various countries for allegedly harvesting data from almost 87 million Facebook users and leveraging them for political campaigns.
The government had issued notices to both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, confronting them with questions on data breach issue. The last date for the two companies to respond is 10th of this month.
Yesterday, the British firm announced that it was immediately ceasing all its operations and filing for insolvency in Britain and the United States.
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Congress Allowed Loot of Banks : PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today accused the successive Congress governments at the Centre of allowing a handful of people to loot banks while denying loans to poor.
Begining his election campaign in Karnataka, Modi addressed several public rallies. He said, despite the nationalisation of banks poor remained out of the banking system until his government started helming the country.
Modi said, there was a time when the poor had no bank accounts, they could not even think of going to a bank. He said, the poor were out of economic mainstream and banking system.
Modi said, his government started the Jan Dhan scheme for them.
The Prime Minister told the gathering that 28th April got a momentous day in the history of the country when all un-electrified villages were connected with power lines.
He said, the NDA government will embark on a task of connecting 4 crore households which do not have electricity even after 70 years of independence.
The Prime Minister dared Congress President Rahul Gandhi to speak in any language for 15 minutes about the achievements of Karnataka's Siddaramaiah government without referring to a piece of paper.
Mr. Modi said, he is a person from the working class and any criticism by Naamdhar, a person from famous family, will not deter him from taking up the development work.
He assured people of Karnataka that all the pending projects in the state will be speeded up when BJP comes to power. Mr. Modi claimed over two dozen BJP workers were killed under the Congress government in Karnataka in political violence.
He also spoke about his government promulgating an ordinance to pave the way for providing stringent punishment, including the death penalty, for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Karnataka Election : Amit Shah Ups the Ante
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah has established himself as a fearsome strategist not for nothing. He comes with newer moves and counter moves with every poll. It is as if he especially relishes the electoral battles that bring to forth his unfathomable mastery in the poll strategies.
The newest salvo comes as he slough it out in the scorching sun of Karnataka. Shah has said that his party will give account for the money spent during the 2019 election to the Lok Sabha.
"NDA Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give account for the money spent during its five year term in office," he said addressing a public meeting at Hungund.
In the same breath, he challenged Congress President Rahul Gandhib as well.
"Since it is a Assembly election, he (Rahul) should give details of Siddaramaiah government's performance during the last five years in office," he said.
Asserting that the BJP will form the next government in Karnataka, Mr Shah said that Congress has already lost Assembly elections in 12 States and in May 12 election also same thing will happen and Congress will lose power.
The move is a smart one as it allows BJP to project itself as a transparent party. At the same time, it puts Congress in a tight spot as the latter is married by corruption scandals.
With this announcement, Amit Shah has upped the ante and now one waits for the response from Congress camp.
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Baseless : Says SC on Plea to Probe Judge Loya's death
A bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said there is no reason to doubt the statements of judges accompanying Justice Loya that the death was due to a natural cause.
Holding that there was absolutely no merit in the petitions, the bench said, attempts were made to scandalize the judiciary by leveling serious allegations against judicial officers and judges of the Bombay High Court.
The court said, with these petitions, it is clear that a real attempt and a frontal attack was made on the independence of the judiciary.
It said, frivolous and motivated litigation has been filed to settle political rivalry. Justice Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on 1st December 2014 when he had gone to attend a wedding.
