Sena announces 21 candidates, drops MP who slapped Air India employee
The Shiv Sena has declared its first list of 21 candidates in Maharashtra, retaining 17 MPs and denying ticket to the lawmaker who allegedly slapped an Air India employee in 2017. Ravindra Gaikwad, the 59-year-old MP from Osmanabad constituency, had hit an Air India staffer with a slipper at the IGI Airport in New Delhi and then openly boasted about it.
But, the Sena has renominated Rajan Vichare, who was accused of force-feeding a canteen employee on fast during Ramzan in 2014. He has been fielded again from Thane.
The Sena is yet to announce names for Palghar and Satara.
Currently, the Palghar seat adjoining Mumbai has a BJP MP, but the Sena has staked its claim to the constituency.
“We will announce the names of remaining candidates by Sunday,” senior Sena leader and Maharashtra Minister Subhash Desai has told reporters.
The constituency-wise list of Sena candidates: South Mumbai-Arvind Sawant; South Central Mumbai-Rahul Shewale; Mumbai North West-Gajanan Kirtikar; Kalyan-Shrikant Shinde; Raigad-Anant Gite; Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat-Vinayak Raut; Kolhapur-Sanjay Mandlik; Hatkanangle-Dhairyasheel Mane; Nashik-Hemant Godse; Shirdi-Sadashiv Lokhande; Shirur-Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil; Aurangabad-Chandrakant Khaire; Yavatmal Washim-Bhawana Gawli; Buldana-Prataprao Jadhav; Ramtek-Kripal Tumane; Amravati-Anandrao Adsul; Parbhani-Sanjay Jadhav; Maval-Shrirang Barne; Hingoli-Hemant Patil, Osmanabad-Omraje Nimbalkar and Thane-Rajan Vichare.
In 2014, the Sena contested in 20 Lok Sabha seats in the State and won 18. — PTI
'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar announces seat-sharing deal
The RJD-led 'mahagathbandhan' in Bihar announced seat-sharing deal. As per the agreement, the RJD will contest in 20 seats, while the Congress will fight in nine constituencies.
The Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP gets five seats and the Jitan Ram Manjhi-led Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and the Mukesh Sahni-led Vikasheel Insaan Party get three seats each. The CPI-ML gets one seat under the RJD's quota.
In Assam, BJP denies ticket to 3 MPs
The BJP has denied ticket to three parliamentarians in Assam and included four new faces, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and a State Minister in its first list of candidates.
The list of 184 candidates across the country included eight names from Assam. While no candidates were announced for the Tezpur and Nagaon constituencies, The party offered Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Kaliabor seats to its allies, the AGP and the BPF. Former Rajya Sabha member, three-time Lok Sabha MP and former Union Minister Bijoya Chakravarty has been denied ticket from the Gauhati constituency. He is replaced by new face Queen Ojha in the Gauhati seat.
Likewise, Dilip Saikia will contest from the Mangaldoi constituency instead of Ramen Deka. Mr. Deka is the founding member of the party’s State unit. He has been a Lok Sabha member for two consecutive terms since 2009. He was also the president of Assam BJP and held various posts at the party’s national level.
MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa has been dropped from the list for the Jorhat constituency and Assam Power Minister Topon Kumar Gogoi will replace him.
While Assam Deputy Speaker Kripanath Mallah has been nominated to contest from the Karimganj (SC) seat, debutant Rajdeep Roy will fight the election from the neighbouring Silchar in the Barak Valley.
- PTI
NCP’s Bharati Pawar, Congress’s Pravin Chheda join BJP
Vice president of the NCP's Maharashtra unit Bharati Pawar and Congress leader Pravin Chheda joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Ms. Pawar unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general election from the Dindori constituency against the BJP’s Harishchandra Chavan.
Mr. Chheda, a three-term corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), quit the BJP to join the Congress seven years ago.
BSP releases first list of candidates
The BSP released its first list of 11 candidates for the general election in Uttar Pradesh. The nominees include three Muslims.
Prakash Raj files nomination as independent
Actor Prakash Raj filed his nomination for the election from the Bangalore Central constituency as an independent.
“National parties like the BJP and the Congress have failed the people. I would like to be the voice of people,” he told journalists after filing his nomination.
Actor Prakash Raj, taking out a procession from Austin town to BBMP head office, before filing his nomination from Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, in Bengaluru on Friday.
Mr. Raj faces BJP MP P.C. Mohan, who too filed his nomination on Friday. The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the seat.
Transgender files nomination
Bharathi Kannamma, who is contesting as an independent candidate, files her nomination papers for the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency before District Returning Officer S. Natarajan in Madurai on Friday.
Independent candidate Bharathi Kannamma, a transgender, filed the nomination papers for the Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency.
Opposition habitat of terror apologists: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of insulting the defence forces and being the “natural habitat of terror apologists and questioners” of the country’s armed forces.
His statement came in response to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s chief advisor Sam Pitroda’s remarks referring to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack that such incidents “happen all the time” and that the UPA government also could have sent planes across the border after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack but “that is not the right approach” to deal with the world.
Gautam Gambhir joins BJP
Cricketer Gautam Gambhir joined the BJP in the presence of senior leaders and ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravishankar Prasad.
Mr. Gambhir is likely to contest the election from a constituency in Delhi.
“I’ve done whatever I could for cricket, and this is a fabulous platform for me to do something more for the country,” he said.
Do we need a 'chowkidar' not bothered about Rafale files: Mayawati
BSP supremo Mayawati.
BSP supremo Mayawati attacked the BJP using the ‘chowkidar’ jibe and alleged that while its leaders did not care about the Rafale files, they were shielding crucial data on unemployment and farmers’ plight.
In a series of tweets, she took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his colleagues for calling themselves ‘chowkidars’ (watchmen).
“They (the data) are to be hidden for vote/image. Does the country need such a chowkidar?” she wrote in a tweet.
Mr. Modi and his partymen have launched “Main bhi chowkidar [I too am a watchman] campaign to blunt Opposition’s, especially the Congress’, ‘chowkidar chor hai’ (watchman is thief) slogan.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that while several BJP leaders and ministers declared themselves as ‘chowkidars’ following the Prime Minister, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was not sure whether to announce himself as one or remain a public servant or a ''yogi'' (sanyasi).
“BJP leaders may adopt whatever fashion they want”, but they should work as the ‘watchman’ of the law and Constitution, she said. “People want just this much,” she added.
Dhinakaran releases final list of 14 AMMK candidates
The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran on Friday announced its second and final list of 14 candidates for the April 18 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu.
The list included three disqualified AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Mr. Dhinakaran, who floated the AMMK after being sidelined in the ruling party.
The AMMK is contesting 38 of the 39 seats in the state and Mr. Dhinakaran had earlier announced candidates for 24 seats.
It has alloted Chennai Central constituency to its ally Social Democratic Party of India.
BJP fields two former Congress leaders
Former Karnataka Congress leader Umesh Jadhav joined BJP during Prime Minister Narendra Modi rally.
Two former Congress leaders in Karnataka, who recently joined the BJP, figured in the party's list of candidates announced on Thursday for 21 of 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
Umesh Jadhav will contest from Gulbarga and A. Manju from Hassan.
Among the key candidates named in the BJP’s first list are MPs Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), Anantkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada), Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi- Chikkamagaluru), Nalin Kumar Kateel (Dakshina Kannada), Pratap Simha (Mysuru), P.C. Mohan (Bangalore Central) and D.V. Sadananda Gowda (Bangalore North).
State unit BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Raghavendra will contest from Shimoga.
The seat from the mining district of Ballari will be contested by Devendrappa. B. Sriramulu won the seat in 2014, but the party lost the seat to Congress’s V.S. Ugrappa in the 2018 by-election.
The candidates for Mandya and Bangalore Rural were among the seven yet to be announced.
Hema Malini to contest again from Mathura
Actor and Mathura MP Hema Malini, who has been busy participating in Holi celebrations in Lord Krishna’s land, will again be contesting as BJP candidate in the same constituency now.
However, in the BJP's first list, there were surprises in store as both the MPs from Agra have been replaced. In Agra city, Minister S.P. Singh Baghael replaces Ram Shankar Katheria, Chairman of the SC/ST Commission, while in Fatehpur Sikri, Raj Kumar Chahar will contest instead of Choudhary Babu Lal.
Both the sitting MPs were facing a lot of flak and criticism for non-performance.
Ticket hopefuls flock to astrologers
With the first phase of the Lok Sabha to begin on April 11 and the names of candidates expected to be announced shortly, many ticket hopefuls are said to be contacting pundits, astrologers and fortune-tellers. Some of them are even privately performing special puja s (rituals).
“When the election approaches, politicians from Bihar as well as other States start approaching people like us either to know their poll prospects or to perform special puja s to better their chances,” Noida-based astrologer Swami Sarvabhoot Sharanam told The Hindu over phone. “Every day, I get phone calls from some politicians from Bihar, and even Ahmedabad, to know their electoral fortunes but I perform puja s only for those who actually believe in [the] divinity [of the puja s],” he added.
It's a 'prestige battle' for Congress in Haryana
Randeep Surjewala
The humiliating defeat of Congress’s high-profile candidate Randeep Singh Surjewala in an Assembly byelection in Haryana has prompted the party to ask its senior leaders to take up the Lok Sabha challenge.
At the first meeting of the Haryana coordination committee on Tuesday, headed by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, it was decided that the party should field its “most experienced leaders” in what is increasingly being pitched as a “prestige battle”.
Now, it's Mamata posters on highway to Darjeeling Hills
Prior to September 2017, flags of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the dominant political force in the Darjeeling Hills, fluttered on almost every household in the region. Not any more.
Much has changed since the violent agitation and the 104-day strike in the hills between July and September that year. As the constituency goes to the polls on April 18, not only have the GJM flags disappeared but large posters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have emerged on the highway leading to the hills.
Federal front will become a reality after the election: K.T. Rama Rao
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao is confident that the proposal made by his father and party founder K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the formation of a federal gront as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress-led coalitions will become a reality after the Lok Sabha election. Emphasising that “politics is the art of the possible”, Mr. Rao spoke on the prospects of the TRS and other regional parties and the BJP and the Congress.
New Delhi
Political parties yet to comply with RTI Act
In a time of deep political polarisation, refusing to comply with the RTI Act seems to be one of the few issues that has united national parties across the ideological spectrum.
Despite a June 2013 ruling from the Central Information Commission (CIC) that they fall within the ambit of the transparency law, parties insist that they cannot be considered public authorities under the Act.
Six years later, on the verge of another Lok Sabha election, the Supreme Court is set to adjudicate on the issue, with a petition filed jointly by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal coming up for a hearing on March 26.
