Page 15 - Politics

Federalism for development

Federalism in development planning is necessary for maintaining more vigorous growth and a higher degree of political harmony

Victory of voters: Sharad Pawar on SC ruling on his faction's name, symbol

Sharad Pawar on Monday described as a victory of voters the Supreme Court ruling that his faction can use the name 'NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar' till further orders. It is a win for the voters as the court observed that the voters of the country should not be undermined and questioned what about the fact that candidates have fought on the ticket of the original party, Pawar said in a statement. The apex court on Monday directed that Election Commission's order of February 6 allotting 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' as the party name for the Sharad Pawar faction will continue till further orders. On the auspicious day of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti, the Supreme Court has granted us interim relief against the order of the Election Commission of India. We bow down to the Supreme Court for recognising us as Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' in the interim, and having directed the Election Commission of India to consider our application for a symbol to

Congress dismisses speculation of former MP CM Kamal Nath switching to BJP

The Congress on Monday dismissed as "misinformation" the speculation over party leader Kamal Nath's possible switch to the BJP and asserted that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister will participate in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state. The assertion by Congress general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh came amid speculation that Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath, a Lok Sabha MP, may cross over to the ruling BJP. "Kamal Nath ji is a senior leader of our party. All these speculations have been made by the BJP and the media. I spoke to him yesterday and the day before yesterday also and we discussed the preparations of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra," Singh told reporters at the Congress headquarters here. "I am going to Bhopal tomorrow and meetings are taking place with MLAs, various committees and MPs. Kamal Nath ji will also join those meetings and his suggestions for the yatra's passage will be taken note of. Kamal Nath will prominently .

Pak's major parties struggle to form coalition after inconclusive election

Monday's talks will be the fifth such round after former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was named by his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party to lead the country again

Govt holds talks with Ladakh's 14-member delegation on key demands

A delegation of leaders from Ladakh held a meeting with the government's representatives here on Monday to press for their demands, including statehood for the high-altitude region, two Lok Sabha seats and bringing the area under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The 14-member delegation of the Apex Body Leh (ABL) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) met the High Powered Committee (HPC) for Ladakh headed by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai. "The meeting discussed the Ladakh delegation's demands," a source privy to the deliberations said, without elaborating further. The demands of the delegation are statehood for Ladakh, two Lok Sabha seats (one for Kargil and one for Leh), job opportunities for the residents of the Union Territory and constitutional protection under the Sixth Schedule. Ladakh currently has one Lok Sabha constituency. Ladakh, which no longer has any Assembly constituency, was earlier part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The ...

Farmers' protests: Why are Tikaits, many big guns missing in action?

A protracted agitation may force other farmer leaders, and political parties to join forces with protesters: Experts

Delhi's Cong unit holds protest against freezing of party's bank accounts

Delhi unit of Congress on Saturday held a demonstration against the freezing of party bank accounts by the Income Tax department a day ago. The Congress' main bank accounts were frozen on Friday over an income tax demand of Rs 210 crore but an I-T appellate tribunal later allowed it to operate them pending a further hearing next week, a huge relief for the party which said the move had impacted all political activity. The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee's (DPCC) protest was led by its president Arvinder Singh Lovely with demonstrator carrying placards and raising slogans. Adequate security was deployed near the DPCC office where the protestors were stopped and not allowed to move towards the ITO office.

AAP govt wins trust vote in Delhi Assembly, CM says no party MLA defected

The Aam Aadmi Party government on Saturday won a trust vote in the 70-member Delhi Assembly with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claiming that his party has emerged as the biggest challenger to the BJP, which "wants to crush it by any means". Kejriwal, who is also the national convener of the AAP, won the confidence motion with the support of 54 MLAs and said no legislator of his party defected. Out of 62 AAP MLAs in the Delhi Assembly, 54 were present in the House during the trust vote, two were in jail, two others were unwell, three were out of station and one was not present due to a wedding in his family, the AAP national convener said. Kejriwal had moved the motion of confidence in the Assembly on Friday and accused the BJP of trying to poach his party's MLAs. Since seven of the eight BJP legislators were suspended for the remainder of the session for allegedly interfering during the Lieutenant Governor's address on Thursday, Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was the on

If BJP does not lose LS polls, will make India BJP free in 2029: Kejriwal

He said AAP became a national party in a short span of time and now the party has governments in Delhi and Punjab. AAP won the trust vote in the Assembly

Several cabinet ministers in Champai Soren's Jharkhand govt assume office

A number of newly inducted ministers in Jharkhand's Champai Soren-led alliance government assumed office on Saturday. The CM had allocated portfolios to the ministers on Friday. With the exception of a few, most ministers retained the portfolios they were assigned during the previous Hemant Soren government. Senior Congress leader and minister Alamgir Alam, who has been given the portfolio of rural development, panchayati raj, and rural works department, assumed office at the state secretariat. Jamshedpur (west) Congress MLA Banna Gupta took office as the minister of the health and disaster management department at Nepal House, while another Congress minister, Badal Patralekh, assumed charge of the agriculture and animal husbandry department. Patralekh directed the department officers to ensure proper spending of the budget allocation for 2023-24, as it is set to end next month. Gupta said his intention to strengthen the state's health infrastructure. "The budget expenditure for

If there's any such thing, will inform you: Nath to media on switch to BJP

Amid speculation that he could cross over to the BJP, senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath arrived in the national capital Saturday afternoon and said if there would be any such thing, he would inform the media first. In his brief interaction with reporters, he asked them not to get excited. Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first." When a reporter asked if he was not denying a possible switch, Nath said, "It is not about denying, you are saying this, you people are getting excited. I am not getting excited, this side or that side, but if there would be any such thing, I would inform you first." Over the past few days, Nath had been on a tour of his bastion Chhindwara, from where he had been an MP for nine terms. His son Nakul Nath won the seat in the 2019 polls, even as the BJP swept the remaining 28 seats in the state. Asked about the speculation that Nath could cross over to the

Cong's Kamal Nath arrives in Delhi amid speculation over switch to BJP

Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath arrived in the national capital Saturday afternoon amid speculation that he could cross over to the BJP. Over the past few days, Nath had been on a tour of his bastion Chhindwara, from where he had been an MP for nine terms. His son Nakul Nath won the seat in the 2019 polls, even as the BJP swept the remaining 28 seats in the state. Asked about the speculation that Nath could cross over to the BJP, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said in Jabalpur earlier in the day, "I spoke to Kamal Nath at 10.30 pm yesterday, he is in Chhindwara." "A person who started his political journey and stood with the Nehru-Gandhi family when Indira Gandhi was sent to jail by the Janata party, do you think such a person will ever leave Congress and the Gandhi family?" Singh said. Kamal Nath is said to be disgruntled over not getting a Rajya Sabha berth and also Rahul Gandhi being opposed to him since the party lost the assem

CM Arvind Kejriwal moves a motion of confidence in Delhi Assembly

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he will seek vote of confidence in the Assembly on Friday. The announcement came days after he alleged that the BJP tried to poach AAP MLAs and topple his government. "I will bring the vote of confidence in Delhi Assembly today," Kejriwal said in a post on X in Hindi. However, he did not specify the reason behind the move.

Alexei Navalny, Putin critic and Russian Oppn leader, dies in Arctic jail

Navalny's wife, Yulia, said she could not be sure her husband was dead because "Putin and his government... lie incessantly"

BJP national council meet: More than 1,200 delegates from MP to attend

More than 1,200 delegates from Madhya Pradesh will take part in the Bharatiya Janata Party's two-day national council meeting set to start from Saturday in New Delhi, state unit chief VD Sharma said. The meeting will discuss Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "mantra" of getting 370 extra votes in every booth when compared to the 2019 general elections to ensure the BJP crosses the 370 seat mark, Sharma told reporters on Friday. "A total of 1,226 delegates from MP will take part in the two-day national council meeting. Party president JP Nadda will address the opening session while PM Modi will speak to delegates in the concluding session," Sharma said. "The BJP has resolved to win 370 seats and cross the 400 mark along with (NDA) allies," he said. Candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be decided by the party's parliamentary board under the leadership of the PM, he added. Brushing aside Congress allegations that the BJP was using Central probe agencies to target the opposit

Looking forward to first LS battle; party will decide seat: Mos IT

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is among the ministers not renominated to the Rajya Sabha, on Friday said he is raring to contest his first Lok Sabha polls and looking forward to "an even more exciting phase" in his political career. One needs to be extremely responsible and a very grassroots politician to be a Lok Sabha member and "I am deeply fortunate" that the prime minister and the BJP leadership considered him worth of it, the technology entrepreneur-turned-politician said. He said the constituency or the state from where he will fight the elections, due in April-May, will be decided by the party. "...I'm certainly looking forward to what I believe will be an even more exciting phase in my political career," the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship told PTI in an interview. "I'm deeply fortunate that our prime minister and my home minister and my party president have said that they think me worthy enough or qualified enough

Jailed ex-PM Imran Khan's party claims his wife Bushra's life is in danger

Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party has expressed concern about the health of his wife Bushra Biwi and claimed that there was a "serious threat" to her life and the fascist regime in Pakistan was denying her medical aid. Bushra Biwi, 49, is imprisoned at Khan's Bani Gala residence here after an accountability court sentenced the couple to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana corruption case last month. Khan, 71, is lodged at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Both of them have been convicted with multiple years' sentences in the Toshakhana expensive gift case and the iddat case which declared their marriage as un-Islamic. Bushra has already petitioned Islamabad High Court on February 6 against authorities' move to declare her residence as sub-jail and requested to move her to the Adiala Jail citing potential security issues.

BJP's return will cause existential crisis to regional parties: Chidambaram

Veteran Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday said he cannot predict the future of the INDIA bloc as he is not part of the negotiating committee of the national alliance, but said that the return of Narendra Modi and the BJP to power would cause an existential crisis to state-specific regional parties. He said the Ram temple in Ayodhya could be a factor in the upcoming elections but "whether it will be a decisive one, only time will say". "I cannot say anything about the future of the bloc because I'm not part of the national alliance's negotiating committee and also not part of INDIA bloc meetings. My information is only secondhand or even thirdhand. But I sincerely hope that all the remaining parties understand that the return of Mr Modi and the BJP to the Centre will cause an existential crisis to the state-specific regional parties," Chidambaram told PTI in an exclusive interview here. The veteran Congressman was recently in the city for a ...

EC on tour of states to review preparations for Lok Sabha elections

The Election Commission (EC) will resume its review of states' preparedness for the Lok Sabha polls with a visit to Odisha later on Thursday and complete the process in Jammu and Kashmir on March 13, sources said. In January, the Commission reviewed the preparations in Andhra Pradesh, where Lok Sabha and assembly polls will be held together. The Commission led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and comprising Election Commissioner Arun Goel will be in Odisha Thursday night, the sources said. Besides Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will see simultaneous parliamentary and assembly polls. The panel will also be touring West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, besides other states. It will visit Jammu and Kashmir on March 13, the sources said. The Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has a provision for a legislative assembly but is under central rule. The Supreme Court had last year asked the EC to hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir by Septem

Trump's hush-money trial will begin in 39 days with jury selection: Judge

Donald Trump's hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a judge ruled on Thursday, turning aside requests for a delay from the former president's defense lawyers. In leaving the trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan took advantage of a delay in a separate prosecution in Washington charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case has been effectively on hold pending the outcome of an appeal from Trump. The decision means that a case centered on years-old accusations that Trump sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 presidential campaign will be the first of the four criminal prosecutions against Trump to proceed to trial. Other cases charge him seeking to undo the election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate. Trump's attorneys blasted the decision to keep the March date, complaining that Trump will have to stand tria