Politics

We saw how EC can be misused: Sharad Pawar

Published

1 month ago

February 22, 2023

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the Election Commission is supposed to treat everyone equally, but the way the dispute between two rival factions of the Shiv Sena was handled showed how it can be misused.Pawar, who has been campaigning for Congress and NCP candidates for Kasba and Chinchwad Assembly bypolls in Pune region, was addressing a congregation of minority communities in the Kasba Peth area. The Election Commission of India last week recognized the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotted it the party’s bow and arrow symbol.

“Pune is a city that believes in maintaining unity. When there are elections, be it Congress, NCP, or Samajwadi Party, all these parties take everyone along. But we have been seeing for a long time that there is one political outfit that attacks brotherhood in society, and it is our duty to fight the election together against such people and ideology,” he said.

Parties which do not accept the BJP‘s leadership are subjected to harassment, he alleged. “Differences and conflicts do take place between political parties. But there are some institutions that are supposed to treat everyone the same way. Some days ago, the election commission gave some decision. The EC organizes elections in the country and protects all sections. We have now seen an example of how this institution can be misused,” he said.

Never before the poll body had taken away the control of a political party from someone and handed it over to someone else, the former Union minister said. “Balasaheb Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, in his last days gave the reins of the party to Uddhav Thackeray. But some people complained to the EC, and the EC gave this decision (to hand over the party’s control to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde),” he said.

“It has happened because those who have power want a favourable situation, and these are the kind of decisions we are seeing coming from the Election Commission or other institutions,” he said. “Today, organizations and people working under the leadership of (prime minister Narendra) Modi ji think that the country’s power should be vested in their hands and everything should take place as per their will and it is the minority sections who have to pay the heavy price,” the NCP chief said.

Referring to the MCD elections in Delhi, Pawar said the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Admi Party won the majority but the mayoral election was not allowed to take place for three months. “Today the Supreme Court ordered the government to hold the mayoral election, and the BJP had to face defeat in that election,” he said.

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Politics

AAP posters against PM Modi; raises slogan like “Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao”

Published

8 hours ago

March 31, 2023

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched a nationwide poster campaign with slogans like “Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao” in 22 states, said AAP’s state convener Gopal Rai on Thursday.Gopal Rai also alleged at a press conference that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is engaged in ending the country’s democratic systems instead of fixing the education-health system and removing unemployment.

Posters in Hindi, English and all other regional languages are being put up in 22 states across the country. Rai said that from April 10, similar posters would be put up at universities across the nation to make students aware about the campaign.

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Politics

HC disqualifies JDS D C Gowrishankar Swamy legislator

Published

8 hours ago

March 31, 2023

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JDS MLA from Tumakuru Rural constituency in Karnataka D C Gowrishankar Swamy was disqualified by the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday in a case relating to alleged electoral malpractice. The Court, however, kept the disqualification in suspension for one month, allowing Swamy to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. A single-judge bench of the high court was delivering its verdict on a petition filed by defeated BJP candidate B Suresh Gowda, which alleged electoral malpractice by Swamy for distributing fake insurance bonds to voters during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election.

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Politics

BJP steps up OBC outreach to sway Nitish Kumar’s Luv-Kush base

Published

8 hours ago

March 31, 2023

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The BJP has upped its game in Bihar by stepping up its OBC outreach, especially among Kushwahas, one of the two castes of Nitish Kumar‘s Luv-Kush vote base, and has appointed PM Modi’s key aides to look after its work in the state.The BJP is going to celebrate Emperor Ashok’s birth anniversary on April 2 in Sasaram, which will be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. This comes days after BJP appointed Samrat Choudhary as its Bihar unit president, who is also a Khushwaha. The community sees Ashoka as their ancestor.

Luv-Kush is the alliance between the Kurmi and Koeri castes, which together constitute approximately 15 % of the state population. Nitish Kumar a Kurmi himself, had garnered the support of this caste alliance, to take on the Muslim-Yadav alliance of his once staunch rival Lalu Prasad Yadav.

“The BJP is organising a big public programme to mark the birth anniversary of Samrat Ashoka, whom Khushwahas see as their ancestor. Now, the Luv-Kush alliance whom Kumar treated as his bonded labourers, will now go with BJP, worshippers of Lord Ram,” Choudhary told ET.He said the genesis of Luv-kush alliance was to counter Yadav’s politics of appeasement.

Meanwhile, the BJP has appointed a new co-incharge for Bihar, Sunil Ojha from Gujarat who worked closely with the prime minister and was looking after the party’s work in eastern Uttar Pradesh, a region comprising Modi’s constituency Varanasi.

With Ojha’s appointment, there will be two key BJP functionaries — he and Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya, organisational secretary for BJP’s state unit — both from Gujarat and have worked with Modi for many years since his days as Gujarat chief minister. Ojha was relocated to Varanasi from Gujarat and registered as a voter from Modi’s constituency in 2018.”I was handling the party’s work in eastern Uttar Pradesh, which borders Bihar. So, the demography and social structure in both regions is the same,” Ojha told ET. Ojha’s appointment also came days after the appointment of the new state unit chief.

Bihar has always been an uphill task for the BJP dispensation, and has constantly been posing challenges for the party.

Now, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has redrawn its strategy with new state unit chief and incharges. The coming together of the JD(U) with RJD after parting ways with the BJP, poses a serious challenge for the BJP, as these two parties make caste equations unfavourable for the BJP.

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