Vasundhara Raje reaches out to Sangh ahead of Rajasthan elections

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje reached out to RSS functionaries at the Sangh state headquarters in Jaipur on Diwali eve exactly one month before polling starts in the state on December 7. Her meeting with Sangh’s key functionaries including prant pracharak Nimbaram and co-pracharak Shailendra is likely to garner political gains for BJP in the upcoming elections.

The ruling party, grappling with massive anti-incumbency, would need RSS support to be voted back to power for a second term — a feat no incumbent government has been able to achieve in last 25 years.

This informal meeting is also significant in view of the proposed meeting of BJP’s parliamentary board on November 11, where the party is likely to finalise its first list of candidates for Rajasthan.
“The organisation of RSS is very strong in Rajasthan. BJP has been gaining from its cadre in all elections. Since anti-incumbency factor is very strong, Sangh support becomes even more vital,” said a BJP leader.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited Rajasthan several times in past few months to mobilise RSS leaders and cadre at ground level. BJP chief Amit Shah has also held meetings with RSS functionaries including Bhagwat, to draw strategies for victory in Rajasthan.

“Raje doesn’t enjoy a warm relationship with the Sangh. In the bypolls early this year, Raje fielded candidates in Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats without any consultation with RSS. The Sangh, then, distanced itself from the elections and BJP had to suffer severe defeat,” said a Sangh functionary.

In the upcoming elections, BJP is said to have consulted RSS over candidates in a large number of seats. Sangh is also said to have started canvassing in BJP’s favour.

“The canvassing will intensify once tickets are announced. BJP is likely to give more than 50% tickets to leaders with RSS background. This will help BJP synchronise its campaign with Sangh,” said a senior BJP leader.

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Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan victories needed to cement alliance with NCP : Congress

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have made substantial progress in their discussions about seat-sharing in Maharashtra for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, reaching an agreement on 40 out of 48 seats in the state, but Congress leaders said the prospective alliance would depend to a great extent on the outcome of the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

“At least Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan should go our way. Only then we can be sure that the NCP will shed its ambiguous position towards the BJP. If the results don’t go in our favour, then the NCP can be unpredictable,” said a Congress leader, who did not wish to be identified.

Congress leaders said that they had reason to be apprehensive about the NCP’s stance given NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s recent comments in an interview seemingly absolving prime minister Narendra Modi in the controversy over the Rafale aircraft deal by claiming that “people did not doubt Modi’s intentions”. BJP chief Amit Shah, they said, had seized on the remark and asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a lesson from it.
“The NCP being unpredictable is public knowledge. They unanimously called off an alliance with us for the Maharashtra assembly polls after coming to know that Modi had come to power,” said the Congress leader. “Then they announced support for a BJP government in Maharashtra even when the latter had not asked for support. They claimed that they were doing so because they didn’t want the government to fall quickly as the state could not afford elections.” The president of the NCP’s Maharashtra unit, Jayant Patil, remained unavailable for comments despite several calls and a message sent to his phone.

Congress leaders said that the NCP had a pattern of switching sides on flimsy grounds or for reasons that made little political sense. For instance, in the 2007 Mumbai civic polls, the NCP had helped the Shiv Sena-BJP combine by deciding to break the alliance with the Congress over one seat, said a Congress leader.

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BSP hopes to play kingmaker in Chhattisgarh

Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) hopes to win more than a dozen out of the 35 seats it is contesting in Chhattisgarh assembly election in alliance with the former chief minister Ajit Jogi-headed Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and play a role in formation of the next government.

The party has deputed several senior leaders to supervise its campaign for the election which will be held for 90 seats in two phases on November 12 and 20, said BSP functionaries.

“Apart from Rajya Sabha member Ashok Siddarth, the party has deputed several leaders such as former Uttar Pradesh ministers Ambika Chaudhary and Lalji Verma, Ajay Bharti and Bhim Rajbhar to personally monitor the election campaign in this small state,” said a BSP functionary, who is camping in Chhattisgarh.

“As per our assessment, there are high chances of formation of a coalition government in the state. So, if we win at least 15 seats, none can ignore our role in the formation of the next state government,” he said.

BSP members said the party has fielded seven candidates in Janjgir-Champa area. “Janjgir, a Lok Sabha constituency which accommodates eight assembly seats, is the most important destination of the BSP in this election in view of its old association with the BSP founder Kanshi Ram who had contested his first general election from here,” said a party member, who did not wish to be identified.

The assembly segments under Janjgir are Akalatara, Janjgeer-Champa, Sakti, Chandrapur, Jaijepur, Pamgarh, Bilaigarh and Kasdol.

In the first phase, the BSP expects to put up a good show in constituencies such as Dongargarh, Donargaon, Keshkal , Kanker and Kondagaon. “We will put up a good show in these constituencies which will go to polls in the first phase of elections,” said the party functionary cited earlier.

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PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi to Hold Rival Rallies in Chhattisgarh Today as Red Terror Looms Over Polls

PM Modi will address a rally in Bastar district’s headquarters Jagdalpur, while Rahul Gandhi will address five rallies in two days.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be in Chhattisgarh on Friday to campaign for the first phase of the Assembly elections in the state, a day after five people died in a bomb detonated by Naxals in Dantewada district.

Modi will address a rally in Bastar district’s headquarters, Jagdalpur, while Gandhi will tour the state for two days during which he will address five rallies and hold a road show in Chief Minister Raman Singh’s constituency, Rajnandgaon.

The prime minister is scheduled to arrive at Raipur airport at 11:20 am and then take a helicopter to Jagdalpur. Following the rally, he will leave for Raipur at 2 pm and then return to Delhi, a state BJP spokesperson said.

“This will be the PM’s first election rally for the state Assembly polls. It will add power to the party’s campaign,” the spokesperson added.

Gandhi will address his first rally in Pakhanjore town of Kanker district at noon, followed by public meetings in Rajnandgaon district’s Khairgarh and Dongargarh towns, and a road show in Rajnandgaon, said head of Congress state communication wing Shailesh Nitin Trivedi.

He will put up at Rajnandgaon for the night and on Saturday, will address rallies in Charama (Kanker district) and Kondagaon, Trivedi said, adding that the Congress chief would also chair a meeting of party workers in Jagdalpur.

Raman Singh is also scheduled to hold a road show in Rajnandgaon on Friday evening. He is pitted against the Congress’s Karuna Shukla, niece of late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The campaigning for the first phase will end Saturday.

The first phase on November 12 will see 18 seats of eight Naxal-affected districts go to polls. Of these, 12 are Scheduled Tribe seats while one is a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat.

The ruling BJP had lost 12 of the 18 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls.

The remaining 72 constituencies will witness polling on November 20 and counting of votes will be held on December 11.

A total of1,291 candidates are in the fray for the two phased state polls.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 49 seats, Congress 39, BSP 1 and Independent 1 in the 90-member House.

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MP Assembly Polls 2018: Vajpayee’s nephew in BJP’s second list of 17 candidates

The second list was released in New Delhi by Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also secretary of the BJP’s Central Election Committee.

The BJP on November 5 declared its second list of 17 candidates for the November 28 assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, fielding Lok Sabha member Anoop Mishra, who is the nephew of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and two women nominees.

With this, the ruling party has so far announced 194 candidates in the state, which has a total of 230 assembly seats. The first list was released last November 2.

The second list was released in New Delhi by Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also secretary of the BJP’s Central Election Committee.

Mishra, the Lok Sabha MP from Morena, will contest from Bhitarwar in Gwalior district. He had unsuccessfully fought the 2013 assembly polls from the same constituency.

In 2014, he won from the Morena Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP has fielded Nirmala Bhuriya, daughter of former MP and tribal leader Dilip Singh Bhuriya, from Petlawad (ST) in Jhabua district.

In 2015, she had lost the bypoll from Jhabua-Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency, which fell vacant following the death of her father.

The second woman in the list, Leena Jain, has been nominated from Basoda in Vidisha district.

The list also contains the names of some sitting MLAs, including Sharad Jain (Jabalpur North), who is also a minister.

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It’s ‘one family, one ticket’ as BJP fields kin of senior leaders in MP

Faced with anti-incumbency and pressure from its leaders, BJP has done a tight-rope walk between changing sitting MLAs in its candidates’ list and accommodating the kin of those who have the potential to defeat the official nominee in case their wishes are not fulfilled.

Two such names figured in the third list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections released on Thursday, a day before the last date of nominations. The ego tussles between its top leaders in the state has led to the delay in declaration of names. BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya’s son Akash will be the BJP candidate from Indore-3 seat. His name was finalised after some bad blood within the party.

Vijayvargiya had issued a statement a day before the announcement that Akash will win from whichever seat he contests the election, thus throwing a virtual challenge to the party leadership. The candidature of Akash was held up as Lok Sabha speaker and Indore MP Sumitra Mahajan wanted her son Mandaar also to be fielded from one of the Indore seats but this was not acceptable to the party. Since she was away on an official visit to Argentina, senior party leaders met Mahajan when she returned on November 5 to discuss the issue. She has, however, denied that she ever wanted a ticket for her son.

Former chief minister Babulal Gaur’s daughter-in-law Krishna will contest from Govindpura seat. Gaur had quit the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet some years ago after he crossed the 75-year age cut-off.

Congress leader Prem Chandra Guddu, who has switched over to the BJP, is also said to be in talks for a ticket for his son Ajit.

In most cases where BJP has denied tickets to sitting MLAs, it has accommodated a kin of the outgoing legislator. Lakshminarayan Yadav’s son Sudhir Yadav has been fielded from Surkhi seat.
Similarly, sons of ministers Gauri Shankar Sejwal and Harsh Singh are in the fray in their place.

Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar reportedly wants his son Devendra to be fielded from one of the seats in Gwalior which he represents in the Lok Sabha.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been asked by the central leadership to pander to the wishes of some of the leaders he is not on good terms as not doing so may cost the BJP these seats. Chouhan’s brother-in-law Sanjay Singh Mesani joined the Congress and has been given the ticket from Wara Seoni seat.
Mahajan has also taken a backseat as Vijayvargiya has managed to get the ticket to his followers in Indore. Similarly, some of the candidates in Tomar’s area are not from his camp though he has been entrusted with the task of ensuring BJP candidates in the region win their seats. Meanwhile, BJP leader Sartaj Singh joined Congress on Thursday as he was not fielded by his party. Congress has given him the ticket from Hoshangabad.

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Telangana Polls : TRS cadre wants KCR as CM for 15 more years, says KTR

In an informal chat with reporters here on Tuesday, Rama Rao blamed Congress leaders Vanteru Pratap Reddy and T Narsa Reddy for levelling baseless allegations against Harish Rao.

The entire TRS rank and file want K Chandrasekhar Rao to remain as Chief Minister for 15 more years, TRS leader KT Rama Rao said, adding that as party workers, both he and Harish Rao also wish the same.

In an informal chat with reporters here on Tuesday, Rama Rao blamed Congress leaders Vanteru Pratap Reddy and T Narsa Reddy for levelling baseless allegations against Harish Rao. “Harish Rao has already clarified that he was born in TRS and will die in the same party. We work together and family is above politics,” Rama Rao said. He also clarified that Chandrasekhar Rao would not change his Gajwel Assembly seat.

Excerpts of KT Rama Rao’s interaction with media

Disputes within Grand Alliance

The Grand Alliance is not picking up and there are disputes within them over sharing of seats. Once, they announce their candidates, the position of the TRS will further improve. There will be no time for them to pacify the dissidents after announcing the candidates. Though, the Congress and the TDP joined hands their votes will not be transferred.

All settlers will support TRS: KTR

In 2014, TJS Kodandaram’s followers were given Congress tickets. The CPI and Congress forged an alliance then. TDP and Congress jointly fought Paleru and other elections but people supported TRS.

TRS will get 100 seats
The differences within the TRS have almost subsided in the last one month. Going for early polls is a daring step and TRS will definitely win not less than 100 seats. .

On settlers issue
In 2014 Assembly elections, people in Hyderabad were angry with Congress and TRS for bifurcation of the state. Later, they changed their views on seeing law and order in the city.
They supported TRS in the GHMC elections. The same trend will continue in this Assembly elections too.
BJP will forfeit deposits in 100 seats
BJP candidates will forfeit their deposits in 100 seats. TRS will win in the five segments, which were represented by BJP in the dissolved Assembly. We will field strong candidates in Musheerabad and Amberpet. I used to watch a serial “mungerilal ke haseen sapne” in which the hero always dreamt of becoming Sachin Tendulkar one day and a filmy hero another day. The BJP leaders are like that. They cannot find out 70 candidates and they are dreaming of winning 70 Assembly seats.

Federal front
Congress and TDP are like birds of same feather. The Federal Front will be given focus after the Assembly elections. We believe that the growth of regional parties will strengthen the country and it will lead to real federal spirit. Stronger the States, strong the country. No party will be able to form government at the Centre after 2019 elections. Our aim is not to see Federal Front in power, but true implementation of federal structure. Coalition government failed in the Centre in the past but trying for it is not wrong.

‘Naidu is adopted Son of Congress’
AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has criticised Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the past but now he has become an adopted son of the Congress, KTR said. Congress could not face TRS and hence joined hands with Naidu, he added. Naidu is paranoid leader and whatever is happening in AP, he is making Prime Minister Modi responsible and then linking TRS with BJP, KTR said On the other hand, Naidu is behaving as if only he can face Modi in the country.

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Ahead Of Rajasthan Elections, 42 BJP Workers Eye One Party Ticket

A total of 42 workers of Bharatiya Janata Party are in the fray to seek a party ticket from the Sri Dungargarh assembly constituency of Bikaner district.

With Rajasthan assembly elections around the corner, the political battle in the state has intensified — not just between the political parties but within the parties as well.

A total of 42 workers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in the fray to seek a party ticket from the Sri Dungargarh assembly constituency of Bikaner district.

All of them reached the party office in Jaipur on Wednesday to claim their candidature for the assembly seat. All of them travelled together to the state capital and are even staying at the same place.

However, the candidates said that there is no internal conflict among them.

One of the contenders, Krishna Ram, “As many as 42 of our party workers have applied for the ticket from Sri Dungargarh assembly constituency. We have conveyed it to our party leaders that all will support whosoever is given a ticket. We are all dedicated workers of the party.”

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Rajasthan election: Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey predicts win for Congress

The Indian National Congress is likely to come to power in Rajasthan with a comfortable majority after the state assembly elections to be held in December, a Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey has predicted.

The opinion survey predicts 110-120 seats for the Congress in a bipolar contest to the 200 Assembly seats, 70-80 seats for the ruling BJP, 1-3 seats for Mayawati’s BSP 1-3 seats, and 7 for the rest, including Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and Ghanshyam Tiwari‘s Bharat Vahini Party (BVP).

In the previous elections in 2013, BJP had coasted to power with 163 seats leaving the Congress a distant second with 21. Rajasthan has been alternatingly voting the two parties to power over the last 25 years.

The Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey predicted a 43.5 vote share for the Congress with an upswing of 10.4% from last time and 40.37 for BJP with s loss of 4,8%.

More than 65% participants expressed dissatisfaction over how her government handled the Padmavati film controversy, while 55.7% were unhappy at the encounter killing of Anandpal Singh, the gangster who had a Robin Hood image among the poor.

Despite the disappointment with Raje’s government, a majority of respondents expressed support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were happy with his government’s performance.

Rajasthan goes to poll in a single phase on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11.

The survey expected the Congress to lead the BJP in all the four regions – Harouti, Marwad, Mewar and Shekawati.

Agency CNX Media said it used its exclusive ‘Super 30’ methodology, interviewing 8040 people across randomly selected 67 constituencies.

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Rajasthan Assembly 2018: Hate crimes against Dalits and Muslims a major concern in the state

Last year, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan was lynched on a national highway in Alwar district by a furious mob on the suspicion of cow smuggling. The Rajasthan police acquitted six of the accused of Khan’s murder, while the victims were charged for cow smuggling.

Hate crimes have stained the map of Rajasthan through the sands of time. In the last couple of years, however, hate crimes have been on the rise in the state.

In July this year, Amnesty International, a human rights advocacy group, ranked Rajasthan at number three for the largest number of heinous crimes against minority communities. According to the list, the largest number of hate crimes happened in Uttar Pradesh followed by Gujarat.

This came in the wake of the brutal lynching of Rakbar Khan on the suspicion of cow smuggling. Khan, a resident of Mewat in Rajasthan, was transporting bovines when they were stopped by locals in Lalawandi village near Alwar, and brutally beaten. The case has been deputed to DSP Jaipur range and the investigation is on.

However, this is not a one-off case. This is one gruesome deed in a series of others, several of which might not have even been reported. Amnesty’s Halt the Hate website lists such cases and marked eight hate crimes in 2018 until July. These include a Dalit groom who was attacked by upper caste men for riding a horse, and a Muslim man who was beaten to death for not chanting “Jai Shree Ram”.

Rajasthan has seen at least 39 such incidents from September 2015 until present day. In fact, it was in 1992 that the state witnessed its first incident of violence against minorities – the Kumher Massacre – where 15 Dalits were killed in Bharatpur district.

Then, in September 2010, Hindu activists mainly belonging to the Meena tribe attacked Muslims, destroyed their property – their farmland, equipment, standing crop and granaries, were plundered, damaged or burnt. Muslims had to flee Udaipur in the aftermath of the incident.

To cite more recent examples, last year, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan was lynched on a national highway in Alwar district by a furious mob on the suspicion of cow smuggling. The Rajasthan police acquitted six of the accused of Khan’s murder, and the victims were charged for cow smuggling.

In yet another horrendous hate crime, Mohammed Afrazul, a migrant labourer from Malda in West Bengal, was hacked and burnt alive by one Shambhu Lal in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. Shambhu Lal’s minor nephew caught the entire incident on tape and video footage of the ghastly crime went viral. Lal confessed to committing the crime in an attempt to prevent jihad and surrendered the next day. He was charged with murder.

In fact, in an incident, the Rajasthan police gunned down Talim Hussain in Alwar on the December of 2017 on the suspicion of cow smuggling. Although the state police claim it to be an encounter, activists say they didn’t find any evidence of counter-firing from the alleged cow-smugglers.

These incidents paint a grim picture of lawlessness in Rajasthan. Activists and minority leaders have accused the government of apathy and even shielding the perpetrators of such crimes.

Pinning the blame on “population explosion and frustration due to joblessness” Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said, “It happens all over the world, that’s not something happening in Rajasthan alone and if somebody is trying to say that why wasn’t she listening and why wasn’t she doing anything… it is very difficult because if at 12’o clock in the night in some remote part of Rajasthan, something like this happens, I would have to be god to know exactly what is really happening.”

The ruling BJP government will have to tread a tightrope in order to woo the minorities who clearly seem disenchanted with the ruling dispensation. Otherwise, they might hand a point to the Opposition in the state.

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