Trinamool Congress (TMC)

TMC Buries Cong Alliance Hopes, Names Candidates For All 42 Seats In Bengal

Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday announced 42 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding expelled Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, announced the TMC candidates at a show of strength in the heart of Kolkata on Sunday.

As expected, Abhishek Banerjee is on the TMC ticket from Diamond Harbour while former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan has been fielded from Behrampore. He will be pitted against Congress heavyweight Adhir Chowdhury.

Mahua was expelled as a Lok Sabha MP on December 8 following the report by the Parliamentary Ethics Panel in connection with the alleged ‘cash-for-query’ case.

The announcement of candidates also put rest all lingering hopes of a seat-sharing pact with the Congress in the state. However, despite not allying with the Congress, the TMC continues to be an ally of the grand old party in the INDIA bloc.

Earlier on Sunday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress will announce the candidates for all 42 seats in West Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“Today, I will bring before you candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal,” West Bengal CM said at the rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds of Kolkata

The Trinamool Congress kicked off the campaign for the upcoming elections through its show of strength.

In the previous Lok Sabha polls, the TMC won 22 seats while the BJP sprung a major surprise, winning 18 seats. The Congress won the remaining two seats.

In 2019, the BJP-led National Democratic (NDA) won a total of 303 seats, leaving the grand-old party behind at 52 seats.

The Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May this year. (ANI)

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Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) LS TN Kamal Haasan

Actor Kamal Haasan Joins DMK-Led Alliance in Tamil Nadu

Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), the political party founded by actor-politician Kamal Haasan, has decided not to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha (LS) election and instead support the DMK, a prominent political force in Tamil Nadu.

Kamal Haasan announced his unwavering support and campaign efforts for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The DMK, however, has been offered one seat for the 2025 Rajya Sabha polls to MNM in exchange of campaigning for the party.

“Me and my party are not contesting in this election. But we will give all cooperation to this alliance. We have joined hands as this is not just for position, this is for the Nation,” said Kamal Haasan.

Actor turned politician Kamal Haasan made his political debut in 2018, by launching his own party Makkal Needhi Maiam.

His party contested in 37 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and lost. Makkal Needhi Maiam’s vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha election was 3.72%.

Haasan unsuccessfully contested the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election from Coimbatore South and lost to BJP Mahila Morcha President Vanathi Srinivasan by a narrow margin of 1728 votes.

Meanwhile the DMK has almost sealed off all it alliances for the Lok Sabha Polls. The party has allotted two seats each to the Communist Party of India and CPIM, as well as one each to the Indian Union Muslim League and the Kongu Desa Makkal Katchi. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi has also been allotted two seats. It is expected that the seat sharing arrangement with the Congress will be sealed by Saturday evening.

In 2019 the DMK alliance won 38 of the 39 seats and the INDIA bloc will be hoping for a repeat performance this rime as well. (ANI)

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Congress 39 Lok Sabha constituencies

Cong Releases First List Of 39 Candidates, Rahul To Contest From Wayanad

Congress on Friday released its first list of candidates for 39 Lok Sabha constituencies.

The names have been announced for Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshwadeep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana and Tripura.

Of the total 39 candidates announced, 16 are from Kerala, seven from Karnataka and six from Chhattisgarh, four from Telangana. Two from Meghalaya and one each from Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Lakshwadeep.

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal informed that senior party leader Rahul Gandhi will again contest from the Wayanad constituency, the seat won by him in 2019.

The list of 39 candidates was released after the party held its Central Election Committee meeting on Thursday.

A total of six seats were announced from Chhattisgarh, Shivkumar Dahariya has been fielded from Jangir-Champa, Jyotsana Mahant will contest from Korba, Bhupesh Baghel has been fielded from Rajnandgaon, Rajendra Sahu from Durg, Vikas Upadhay from Raipur, Tamradhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund.

Also, Congress announced names for seven seats in Karnataka, including DK Suresh contesting from Bengaluru Rural.

In Karnataka, Anandaswamy Gaddadevara Mat will contest from Haveri, Geetha Shivarajkumar has been fielded from Shimoga, Shreyal Patel from Hassan, SP Muddahanumegowda from Tumkur and Vekanataramegowda (Star Chandru) from Mandya.

A total of 16 candidates have been announced from Kerala, including Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram.

Addressing the press conference, KC Venugopal said,” Out of these 39 candidates, 15 are from General category and 24 are from SC, ST, OBC, and minorities.”

Congress party’s second Election Committee meeting will be held on March 11 in Delhi to discuss the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, the BJP has already released its first list of 195 candidates.

The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April-May this year. (ANI)

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High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay

Abhijit Joins BJP Ahead Of LS Polls

With Lok Sabha elections months away, former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Thursday joined Bharatiya Janata Party.

After joining the BJP, Gangopadhyay told ANI, “Today’s joining is nice. The way they have welcomed me is overwhelming…Everybody knows corruption is to be fought.”

On Sandeshkhali, he said, “It is a very bad incident. The state leaders have gone there. They have been prevented from reaching there. Despite that, they have reached and stood beside the women there and BJP is taking up the cause of oppressed people in Sandeskhali”.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay was formally inducted into the party in presence of state party chief Sukanta Majumdar, Leader of Oppostion Suvendu Adhikari and others in Kolkata.

Welcoming him in the party fold, Sukanta Majumdar said, “As a State President of BJP I welcome former Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay to our party, to the family of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I believe the way he has worked as a Justice for deprived, exploited victims of Bengal, he will carry forward that work with the leadership of the BJP”.

“In the coming future, Bengal’s politics will take a turn. This is the right time for the educated youth of Bengal to come forward and contribute to turning the politics of the state for good,” the BJP leader said.

Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who stepped down as a Judge of the Calcutta High Court earlier in the month had announced that he would join the BJP.

There has been speculation that Gangopadhyay will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from Bengal’s Tamluk constituency on a BJP ticket. The Tamluk seat has been a bastion of the ruling Trinamool Congress in recent elections; the party has held it since the 2009 election.

Former Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay has however not indicated anything leaving the decision of his contesting the elections to the BJP. (ANI)

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INDIA Bloc Seat Sharing

INDIA Bloc Seat-Sharing: AAP Offers One Seat To Cong In Delhi

The INDIA bloc has been virtually confined to the history books, after the RLD walked out of the alliance in UP it was turn of the AAP to snub the Congress in Delhi. On Tuesday the Aam Aadmi Party offered the Congress Party a single Lok Sabha seat in Delhi. This is contrary to earlier reports that had suggested a 3-4 formula between Congress and AAP in Delhi.

Further, AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said that even though the Congress party does not merit even a single seat in Delhi, in the spirit of alliance, the AAP party is willing to offer one seat.

The AAP plans to field candidates in the remaining six seats in Delhi, Pathak added.

“You must have seen in the Delhi elections that the Congress party has zero seats in the Lok Sabha, zero seats in the Vidhan Sabha, and in the MCD elections, out of 250, only 9 seats have come to the Congress party. If you look at this data on a merit basis, the Congress party does not get a single seat, according to this data. But data is not important; keeping in mind the dharma of the alliance and the respect of the Congress party, we offer them one seat. So we propose that the Congress party fights on one seat and the Aam Aadmi Party fights on six seats,” he said.

The AAP MP added that the candidate’s announcement is not being made today. He expressed hope that a meeting will soon commence in Delhi, and the conclusion of this meeting will determine the next steps.

“Today, we are not announcing the candidate. I hope that the meeting will start in the context of Delhi soon, the conclusion of the meeting will come out, we will all get on with our work and if the conclusion does not come out, then in the next few days we will announce the candidate on the six seats we are saying and we will start our preparation and our work, AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said,” he said.

AAP also threw the gauntlet at the Congress by announcing Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas’ name as the candidate to contest LS poll from South Goa seat. This is a seat that is currently held by Congress MP Francisco Sardinha. AAP has also named Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch and Umesh Bhai Makwana from Bhavnagar as candidates from Gujarat. It was reported that Congress was considering late Ahmed Patel’s daughte Mumtaz Patel for Bahruch.

Pathak also expressed his disappointment over the lack of progress in seat-sharing discussions with the Congress party; he added that despite two official meetings, no concrete outcomes have been achieved.

“We had two official meetings with the Congress party regarding seat sharing but there was no result of these meetings. Other than these two official meetings, no other meeting has taken place in the last month. We have been waiting for the next meeting; even the leaders of Congress are not aware of the next meeting. Today, I am sitting here with a heavy heart. We announced three candidates from Assam and I hope the INDIA alliance will accept them,” he said.

As the Lok Sabha elections approach, political parties across the spectrum are ramping up their efforts to connect with voters. With the BJP bringing on new partners like the RLD on its platform the INDIA bloc is sinking in its efforts to put up a united front. (ANI)

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Gram Parikrama Yatra

BJP Issues Whip To All Its MPs To Be Present In Parliament Tomorrow

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday issued a three-line whip to all its MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, asking them to be present in the Parliament on Saturday as some important legislative business is to be discussed in both Houses.

“All BJP Members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are hereby informed that some very important Legislative Business will be taken up for discussion and passing in the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha on Saturday, February 10, 2024. All members of BJP in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are therefore requested to be positively present in the House throughout the day on Saturday, 10 February and support the Government stand,” the whips said, which is issued for Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha separately.

The nearly 60-page White Paper was tabled in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by Sitharaman on Thursday.

The White Paper said that the UPA government abandoned reforms after coming to power in 2004 and that it failed to build on the strong foundation laid by the previous BJP-led NDA government.

The White Paper said that there were scandals in defence that compromised defence preparedness and the government delayed the acquisition of weapons.

“In the UPA government, decision-making came to a standstill due to corruption and scandals in defence, compromising defence preparedness. The government delayed the acquisition of artillery and anti-aircraft guns, fighters, submarines, night fighting gear and a host of equipment upgrades,” the report said.

The White Paper also referred to the “coal scam”, saying the allocation of coal blocks was done on an “arbitrary basis”. (ANI)

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Jammu and Kashmir Scheduled Castes Order 1956

LS Takes Up Bills To Include ‘Valmiki’ In List Of SCs In J-K, Expand List Of ST

Lok Sabha on Tuesday took up a bill to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Scheduled Castes Order, 1956 for including ‘Valmiki’ in the list of SCs in the union territory.

The Lok Sabha also took up a bill to include the communities of “Gadda Brahmin”, “Koli”, “Paddari Tribe” and “Pahari Ethnic Group” in the list of Scheduled Tribes in respect of Jammu and Kashmir.

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar moved the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order Bill 2023 bill for consideration and passage in the House. Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda moved the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill 2023 in the House.

Officials said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has recommended for inclusion of the Valmiki community as a synonym of Chura, Bhangi, Balmiki, Mehtar at serial number 5 in the list of Scheduled Castes of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 proposes to amend the Schedule of the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order, 1956 for inclusion of ‘Valmiki’.

The officials said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has requested for inclusion of the “Gadda Brahmin”, “Koli”, “Paddari Tribe” communities and “Pahari Ethnic Group” in the list of Scheduled Tribes.

The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 proposes to amend the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order, 1989. (ANI)

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Priyanka Chaturvedi BJP AAP

Tactics Are Being Used To Harass AAP Leaders: Priyanka

Stating that every possible tactic is being adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to harass the Aam Admi Party leaders, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Sunday said that BJP makes big claims about winning more than 400 seats in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls but on the contrary BJP knows the ground reality that it will be a tough task for them to cross the simple majority in the polls.

“All tactics are being used to harass the AAP leaders. On one hand, they (BJP) show confidence in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections that they will register victory on more than 400 seats however even they know the ground reality that won’t be able to cross 272 seats. INDIA bloc will put a strong fight. Earlier they sent ED, now they are using Delhi Police which comes under the Home Ministry. Actions of these agencies are influenced by sheer politics,” Priyanka Chaturvedi told ANI.

Earlier today, the Delhi Police Crime Branch served a fresh notice on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, asking him to respond to his charges of poaching attempts by the BJP with evidence by Monday.

The Crime Branch also served a notice on AAP leader and minister Atishi in the poaching claim case, asking her to respond within three days.

The sleuths from the Crime Branch were at Atishi’s residence to serve a notice on the Delhi Education Minister in connection with the Aam Aadmi Party’s allegation that the BJP was trying to poach its MLAs through hefty monetary inducements as part of ‘Operation Lotus 2.0’.

Atishi, earlier, claimed that the BJP approached several AAP MLAs with bribes and threats in a bid to get them on their side.

“BJP has launched ‘Operation Lotus 2.0’ and is trying to topple the democratically elected AAP government in Delhi. As many as 7 MLAs of the AAP have been contacted by the BJP and have been told that Arvind Kejriwal will be arrested soon after which rift and disunity will consume the party. They are in touch with 21 of our MLAs and they are planning to use them to topple our government. Those 7 MLAs have been offered Rs 25 crore each. They unleashed ‘Operation Lotus’ to come to power through the back door in states where they were not democratically elected. Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh are examples,” the AAP leader said.

Meanwhile, after being served a summons by the Delhi Crime Branch on Saturday in connection with the poaching charge against the BJP, Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal accused the city police of resorting to a ‘drama’ at the behest of their ‘political masters’ instead of curbing the rising crime wave in the Capital. (ANI)

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Parliament's Budget Session To Begin On Wednesday

Parliament’s Budget Session To Begin On Wednesday

The budget session of Parliament, the last session before Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May this year, will commence on Wednesday with President Droupadi Murmu addressing a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the new Parliament building.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim budget on February 1.

The government convened an all-party meeting ahead of the session and struck a conciliatory note with the opposition, stating that it had urged the presiding officers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to revoke the suspension of MPs, who had been suspended during the winter session of Parliament.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters after the all-party meeting that it was held in a conducive atmosphere.

“All (suspensions) will be revoked. I have spoken with the (Lok Sabha) Speaker and (Rajya Sabha) Chairman, I have also requested them on behalf of the government…This is the jurisdiction of the Speaker and the Chairman. So, we have requested both of them to speak with the concerned privileged committees, revoke the suspension and give them the opportunity to come to the House. Both of them agreed,” Joshi said.

Asked if the suspended MPs will come to the House from tomorrow, Joshi said “yes”.

An unprecedented 146 opposition MPs were suspended from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the winter session of Parliament for “violating rules”.

Joshi said that 45 leaders from 30 parties, including the ruling BJP, attended the meeting. “The meeting was held in a conducive atmosphere. This is a short session and the last one of the 17th Lok Sabha. We have requested the MPs to not come with placards,” Joshi said.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said that inflation and unemployment are two important issues that the party would raise in the budget session.

“Inflation and unemployment are two important issues which we will raise in the upcoming session. Investigative agencies are being misused. The latest example of the way ED is working is that of Jharkhand’s CM Hemant Soren. Apart from this, atrocities continue in Manipur. I specifically want to say that the debt burden on the country is increasing,” he said.

“I have raised issues regarding economic situation, federal structure, violent attacks on Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra in Assam, doubling the income of farmers, ED-CBI raids, caste census among others,” he added.

Asked about Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks that there will be “no more polls if PM Modi wins,” Tiwari alleged that the government doesn’t believe in democracy.

“What if they change the election process? The public should use its rights and root out the Modi government,” he said.

Congress MP K Suresh accused the BJP government of using central agencies as weapons against the opposition. “They want to destabilise the opposition as they are scared of opposition unity.”

TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay alleged that the government is not willing to answer questions.

“We also raised the issue of suspension of 150 MPs but the attitude of the government is not to reply to any question.”

The budget session will conclude on February 9.

The Committee of Privilege of Rajya Sabha held 11 suspended members guilty of breach of Privilege and contempt of the council but Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar invoked his authority and revoked the suspension of all 11 members.

The decision was taken to enable the members to attend the historic Special address by the President in the New Parliament Building, sources said.

The committee of Privileges of Rajya Sabha held 11 members – Jebi Mather Hisham, L Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, GC Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Sandosh Kumar, M Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas, and AA

Rahim – guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council.

It had further recommended that the period of suspension already suffered by the members be treated as sufficient punishment for the transgression.

Taking note of the situation that the suspended Members would not be able to attend the Special Address of the President to both the Houses of Parliament assembled together, the Committee presented the report to the Chairman Rajya Sabha.

The Chairman invoked the authority vested in him to revoke their suspension enabling the members to attend the Special address by the President. (ANI)

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AAP Will Win All 13 Seats In Punjab: Bhagwant Mann

AAP Will Win All 13 Seats In Punjab: Mann

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party will win all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.

“In the 2024 Lok Sabha election…AAP will get 13 seats (in Punjab),” Mann said at a media briefing.

Mann’s remarks came amid seat-sharing talks between AAP and Congress for the Lok Sabha polls, expected in April-May this year. The two parties have reportedly paused seat-sharing talks in the border state.

Mann’s remarks are being seen as a setback to the seat-sharing talks between the two parties. Punjab has 13 Lok Sabha seats. Both AAP and Trinamool Congress are part of the INDIA bloc.

The AAP leader was asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that her party Trinamool Congress would fight the Lok Sabha polls alone.

Mamata Banerjee said earlier in the day that the made by the party had not been accepted and Trinamool Congress would fight it alone in West Bengal.

“I had no discussions with the Congress party. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I am not concerned about what will be done in the country but we are a secular party and in Bengal, we will alone will defeat BJP. I gave many proposals but they rejected them from the beginning. From then, we have decided to fight the elections in Bengal alone” the TMC supremo said.

The Bengal Chief Minister also claimed she had not been informed of Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra passing through Bengal.

“They did not even bother to inform me that they will be coming to West Bengal as a matter of courtesy even though I am a part of the INDIA bloc. So there is no with relation with me as far as Bengal is concerned” Mamata Banerjee said

“We will decide on what to do at the all-India level. We are a secular party. We will do whatever we can to defeat the BJP. The alliance does not comprise any one party. We have said that they should fight in some states and the regional parties should be left to fight alone in the other states. They should not interfere” she added.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has continued to attack the Bengal Chief Minister.

In a news conference on Tuesday Adhir Chowdhury claimed that in the 2011 elections, Mamata Banerjee came to power with the mercy of Congress.

“This time, the elections will not be fought at the mercy of Mamata Banerjee. The Congress defeated the BJP and TMC in the two seats that Mamata Banerjee is leaving. The Congress party knows how to contest the elections. Mamta Banerjee is an opportunist; she came to power in 2011, with the mercy of Congress,” the Congress MP said.

Rahul Gandhi who is in Assam as part of his Nyay Yatra tried to contain the damage by insisting that he had a good relationship with the TMC supremo.

“The negotiations on seat-sharing is underway, I don’t want to comment here. But Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party. Sometimes our leaders say something, their leaders say something, and it goes on. It’s a natural thing. Such comments won’t matter and these are not things that are going to disrupt things,” Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday.

The Trinamool Congress reportedly was willing to offer the Congress two to three Lok Sabha seats of the 42 seats in Bengal. In the 2019 elections, the Congress had won two Lok Sabha seats while the TMC had won 22 seats. (ANI)

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