BJP president Amit Shah on Chhattisgarh visit on October 5

BJP president Amit Shah will be on a day-long visit of poll-bound Chhattisgarh Friday during which he will take part in several programmes including a tribal convention in naxal-affected Kanker district.

BJP president Amit Shah will be on a day-long visit of poll-bound Chhattisgarh Friday during which he will take part in several programmes including a tribal convention in naxal-affected Kanker district. Shah will arrive at Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur at 10.30 am, a party spokesperson said.

The BJP chief will soon leave for Sihawa Ashram in Dhamtari district where he will meet seers to seek their blessings, he said. Shah will then participate in a programme for distribution of bonus to collectors of tendu-patta (tendu leaves) at Narharpur in Kanker district at 12 noon, the leader said, adding the BJP chief will also address a tribal convention there.

Later, Shah will travel to Charoda in Durg district at 3 pm and address a women’s convention, he said. He will meet members of the Gujarati community in Bhilai at 4.40 PM. Assembly polls are slated to be held in Chhattisgarh later this year.

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Rajasthan election 2018: BJP eyes votes of schemes’ beneficiaries

The ruling BJP plans to reach out to beneficiaries of various welfare schemes to seek votes in the upcoming assembly election.

BJP state chief Madan Lal Saini told ET that the party has identified 51 lakh people across Rajasthan who have benefited from the schemes of the state government.

“Party workers will light up kamal diya (lotus lamps) at their houses simultaneously on October 21. This will spread good word for the government in the vicinity of the beneficiaries. We will form teams at booth level to carry out this activity,” he said.

The exercise is being seen as a counter to the Congress party’s mass contact programme which began on October 2. The Congress has told its workers to carry out a doorto-door campaign and raise donations besides apprising people about the government’s “failure”.

According to people aware of the matter, BJP national president Amit Shah has asked the party’s state unit to establish direct connect with the electorate and propagate the good work done by the government.

“District-level workers will be asked to target beneficiaries of various schemes such as loan waiver, crop insurance, concession in educational fee and also those who got government jobs during this regime,” said a BJP leader, who did not wish to be identified.

Last month, the state government had organised public dialogue programmes where Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje interacted with beneficiaries among Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and newly recruited teachers.

“The state government has given 3.5 lakh government jobs, waived loans of over 30 lakh farmers and covered 1.6 crore people under the Bhamashah Swasthya Bima Yojana (health insurance). It’s payback time for them,” said the BJP leader.

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MP election 2018: Congress gave false electoral rolls to mislead court, says EC

The Election Commission and Congress leaders traded accusations in the Supreme Court over the veracity of documents produced by the party to claim that electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh were full of errors, prompting the top court to ask both sides to file affidavits to back their stands.

The EC, through Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Vikas Singh, accused the Congress of producing in court portions of electoral lists in MP which were not true.

“They are trying to prejudice the court with wrong documents and get relief,” Singh charged. Singh also refused to hand over the entire electoral rolls in MP to the party leaders, saying that it cannot “hand over data which can be mined”.

Instead, he insisted, that the EC was doing all it can, including using software analysis, to check facts and figures.

He contested some names which the Congress leaders had charged were duplicates to claim that they had produced wrong facts with intent to get relief from the court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal vehemently contested this version. He said that the data had been collected from public sources and that they were only trying to establish its authenticity. He denied the allegation that the party was trying to mislead the court.

The EC had in Rajasthan conceded the Congress demand to give them word files of the electoral rolls for verification. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has since accused the EC of going back on its stand and denying the party the list for Madhya Pradesh.

The EC has, so far, resisted handing over the requisite data ahead of the impending polls.

The standoff forced the bench led by Justice AK Sikri to ask both sides to file affidavits in support of their case. He was sitting alongside Justice Ashok Bhushan. Affidavits are sworn statements made to the court.

Sibal also demanded to know why the EC hadn’t taken any action so far against websites which were unauthorisedly reproducing the electoral rolls.

Kamal Nath had on August 10 filed a petition seeking a direction to the EC to ensure proper verification of electoral rolls to weed out duplicate voters in the interest of free and fair polls to the state Assembly.

His petition had also demanded compulsory cross-verification of EVM vote counts with the Voter Veri fiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the forthcoming polls.

Rahul forms 9 Panels to manage Rajasthan polls

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot will head the coordination panel and state party chief Sachin Pilot will chair the state election committee.

A day after Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati ruled out an alliance with the Congress for Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, it seems to be business as usual for the grand old party. Gearing up for the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday set up as many as nine committees to manage its campaign in the poll-bound state.

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot will be heading the coordination panel and state party chief Sachin Pilot will chair the state election committee. This seems to be an effort to strike a balance between the two chief ministerial aspirants in the state.

The need to accommodate all the sections in the party seems to be a major priority for Mr Gandhi as most senior leaders have been given charge of specific committees. For instance, All India Congress Committee secretary Harish Chaudhary will head the party’s manifesto committee, while Member of Parliament from Alwar, Raghu Sharma, will chair the campaign committee.

Raghu Meena, who is deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, will be the convenor of the state election committee.

All senior leaders from the state are part of the state election committee, including, Girija Vyas, Mohan Prakash and CP Joshi.

Dr Joshi, a former union minister, will also head the publication and publicity committee.

Lachhmangarh legislator Govind Singh Dotasra will head the media and coordination committee, while former Lalsot legislator Parsadilal Meena will take care of the transport and accommodation committee. Rajasthan Mahila Congress chief Rehana Riaz has been appointed as head of the protocol committee. The disciplinary committee will be headed by former Rajasthan education minister Bhanwarlal Meghwal.

The assembly elections in Rajasthan are due later this year. The state assembly has 200 members of which only 26 are from the Congress. However, the party’s fortunes appear to be improving as was evident in its huge victory in the by-elections to the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha constituencies and the Mandalgarh assembly seat in February this year.

The Congress is reportedly confident of winning Rajasthan and sources say it is for this reason the party did not actively try to woo Mayawati for an alliance in the state.

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TRS Nalgonda meeting: KCR showcases four years of TRS rule

TRS party chief and caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao began the public meeting in Nalgonda with the introduction of the party candidates who are contesting for the upcoming elections.

KCR recalled the Nalgonda people participation in Rythu agitation and Telangana movement saying that he shares a special bond with them. He also added that the people strength had given him to achieve statehood.

TRS has come to power when the state is having a tough time with the suicides of farmers and power crisis.

KCR also took the names of the schemes which are benefitting to the people like Mission Bhagiratha, 24-hour power supply for farmers, hike in salaries of Anganwadi and municipal workers.

He also said that the government has waived the loans of the poor farmers.

KCR also said that the government has increased the capacity of food processing units to 23 lakh metric tonnes from 18 lakh adding that the state had only 4 lakh metric tonnes.

The Sheep scheme proposed in the state has become a drastic hit with the distribution of 65 lakh sheep, KCR said. Earlier, the state used to import sheep, he added.

Modi-Putin Summit UPDATES: PM Modi meets President Putin, sit down for ‘delegation level talks’

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Hyderabad House where he met PM Narendra Modi. New Delhi and Moscow are expected to sign 20 agreements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Thursday for the annual India-Russia bilateral summit that he will hold with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. President Putin was received at the airport by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. “Welcome to India, President Putin. Looking forward to our deliberations, which will further enhance India-Russia friendship,” PM Narendra Modi tweeted.

Later, Modi welcomed Putin with his trademark ‘bear hug’ at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. India and Russia are expected to sign 20 agreements following the 19th India-Russia Bilateral Summit to be held here today. This includes India’s purchase of four S-400 air defence missile systems from Russia at a cost of more than Rs 40,000 crore.

India is also planning to purchase 4 Krivak-class frigates from Russia. The Indian Defence Ministry had cleared $2.5 billion deal that was signed during President Putin’s visit to the country in October 2016. The first two ships will be built at the Goa shipyard and the remaining two will be acquired directly from Russia. India already operates six Talwar-class guided missile frigates which are the improved versions of the Krivak III-class (Project 1135) frigates deployed by the Russian Coast Guard.

This is the third meeting between Modi and Putin this year after the informal meeting in the Russian resort city of Sochi in May and a bilateral on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in South Africa.

The India-Russia bilateral relationship was elevated to Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in 2010.

After Japan, Russia is the only country with which India holds annual bilateral summits.

Modi-Putin Summit LIVE:

11:30 am: After the delegation level talks, President Putin and PM Modi will participate in a Russian-Indian business forum and meet with students of Russia’s Sirius educational center and a group of talented Indian children, reported TASS.

11:15 am: Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a United States federal law which aims to punish Russia for its involvement in the wars in Ukraine, Syria and its alleged interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. According to this law, countries that purchase Russian weapons or do business with Kremlin will face sanctions as well.

11:00 am: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets PM Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House. India risks US sanctions for buying Russian weaponry. Last month, the US had imposed financial sanctions on China for buying Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 air defence system.

10:45 am: According to Kremlin, both the countries are all set to sign a deal worth more than five billion dollars for the delivery of Russian S-400 missile systems to India.

10:30 am: Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House today at 11 am. President Putin is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov.

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TRS an extremely secular party, will not join hands with BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls: KTR

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) will not join hands with the BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. KT Rama Rao, Telangana caretaker minister, and son of TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao made this statement during an online public interactive session on Twitter. KTR regularly uses Twitter to reach out to his 1.42 million followers. During the session, he also claimed that his party would win over 100 seats out of the total 119 in the upcoming polls likely to be held around November-December, reported the News Minute.

KTR also took a dig at TDP-Congress alliance and said, “Their’s is not a mahagathbandhan but a maha-ghatiya–bandhan”. The manifesto of the TRS for the coming assembly elections in Telangana would be unveiled this month, KTR said.

Our manifesto will come out later this month. Our manifesto will be a combination of all the welfare activities which were promoted in the past, he said.

He also answered questions related to infrastructure, industries development.

In his one-and-a-half-hour long live session, KTR also talked about his government’s achievement and answered questions related to the creation of jobs, sanitation, urban development and development of Telangana as a tech hub.

Meanwhile, his father, K Chandrasekhar Rao continued his attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, accusing him of plotting to halt development of Telangana, PTI reported.

Addressing a public meeting in Nalgonda, he also slammed Naidu over the proposed alliance between TDP and Congress and called him a ‘betrayer’.

Nothing will happen. If your (people) blessings are there, Naidu and Congress cannot harm Telangana. I have come to seek your blessings and want you to extend your support, he said.

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TRS manifesto for Telangana elections 2018 to be unveiled later this month, says IT minister KT Rama Rao

The manifesto of the TRS for the coming Assembly elections in Telangana would be unveiled this month, IT Minister KT Rama Rao said Thursday.

Making the announcement during an interaction on Twitter, Rao, son of caretaker chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also answered questions related to infrastructure, industries development.

Our manifesto will come out later this month. Our manifesto will be a combination of all the welfare activities which were promoted in the past, he said.

Meanwhile, his father, on a campaign trail, continued his attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, accusing him of plotting to halt the development of Telangana. Addressing a public meeting in Nalgonda, Chandrasekhar Rao also slammed Naidu over the proposed alliance between TDP and Congress, describing him as a ‘betrayer’.

He also hit out at the Congress leaders.”Today, Chandrababu Naidu wants to defeat Telangana by bringing in wrong forces… nothing will happen. If your (people) blessings are there, Naidu and Congress cannot harm Telangana. I have come to seek your blessings and want you to extend the your support..,” he said

KCR, as he his popularly known, also came down heavily on Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy and former minister K Jana Reddy, accusing them of failure to ensure development of Nalgonda district and its people.

Citizens in Nalgonda suffered due to drinking water contaminated with fluoride and ‘Mission Bhagiratha’ of his government would address this problem by supplying purified drinking water, he said.

Quoting a recent survey, the caretaker chief minister claimed TRS would win 110 seats out of 119 Assembly seats in Telangana.

Rama Rao, in his about an hour-long live Twitter session, said urban and rural infrastructure, healthcare and education will also be given due importance (in the manifesto).

Netizens asked several questions related to principal Opposition Congress and its proposed alliance with TDP.

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Attack on Congress workers in Chhattisgarh is political persecution: Rahul Gandhi

Declaring that “dictatorship has become a vocation” in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said people in Chhattisgarh will remember the attack on his party’s workers in Bilaspur as an act of “political persecution”.

Taking to Twitter a day after police beat up protesting Congress workers in the Chhattisgarh town, leaving several injured, the Congress president trained his guns on the BJP-led Raman Singh government in the state and also tagged a video of the incident.

“In Narendra Modi’s regime, dictatorship has become a vocation. The cowardly manner in which the fundamental rights of Congress workers in Bilaspur were attacked by the Raman Singh government will be remembered by the people there as political persecution,” he said on Twitter in Hindi.

At least seven Congress workers were injured on Tuesday when police beat them with sticks in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur city after they allegedly threw garbage inside a minister’s house. The opposition party claimed its workers were carrying out a peaceful protest against Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal but were brutally beaten up by police.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Neeraj Chandrakar claimed Congress workers threw garbage inside the minister’s house and also roughed up a policewoman and some male constables, following which a case was registered against them.

The protesters then went to the district Congress office and staged a sit-in, the police officer said.

When police tried to arrest them, Congress workers again got into a scuffle with police so “mild force” was used to arrest the workers against whom the case had been lodged, Chandrakar said.

At least 52 Congress workers were arrested and seven of them sustained injuries in the process

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Modi in Rajasthan on October 6, Rahul Gandhi on 10th

Election-bound Rajasthan is all set to see intensification of campaigning in the coming days as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to visit the state.

Modi will address a rally in Ajmer on Saturday, two days after Shah addresses party workers and ex-servicemen in Sikar followed by a meeting with party workers in Bikaner.

The Congress will seek to counter these high-profile rallies through Gandhi’s rally in Bikaner on October 10, marking his third visit to the state in two months.

Prime Minister Modi would be visiting the state for the second time in a week. He had come to Jodhpur on September 28 to attend the Combined Commanders’ Conference and to inaugurate Prakram Parv on the occasion of the second anniversary of the surgical strikes carried out by India in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir in 2016. This time, the PM’s visit will mark the culmination of CM Vasundhara Raje’s Gaurav Yatra, which began on August 4.

“In the last 15 days, Amit Shah has visited Rajasthan five times to chalk out the poll strategy,” said a senior BJP leader, who did not wish to be identified.

“Rajasthan is important for us not only for retaining power in the state but also for getting maximum seats in the Lok Sabha election, which looks to be poised for a tight finish.

Last time, Rajasthan gave us 25 out of 25 seats.”

Both the parties are looking to step up the momentum with the visits of their main central leaders.

“While the BJP banks on the charisma of Modi-Shah duo, Congress has a lone acceptable face in Rajasthan among its central leaders – Rahul Gandhi. The party will therefore have to depend more on its state leaders – Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and CP Joshi,” said a Congress functionary.
The BJP, on the other hand, is depending more on its central leadership.

“Central ministers like Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and CR Chaudhary have a larger role to play.

Besides, the central leadership is likely to field more central ministers and leaders in Rajasthan polls parallel to the state leadership,” said a BJP leader.

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