Tag: Congress

New Congress working committee, the highest decision making body of the party, constituted

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday set up a 23-member Congress Working Committee (CWC), retaining many senior leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Mallikarjun Kharge while bringing in some new faces.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the senior members of the new CWC that will form the core team of the party for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

There are 18 permanent invitees and 10 special invitees.

This is the first CWC to be constituted by Rahul Gandhi after his elevation as party chief in December.

The CWC was announced four months after the AICC plenary session in March ratified the election of Gandhi as party chief and authorised him to set up the party’s highest decision making body.

Ahead of the plenary, Gandhi had turned the existing CWC into a steering committee.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Why is Rahul silent on his ‘Muslim party’ remark, asks BJP

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A combative BJP  questioned Rahul Gandhi’s “silence” over his reported remarks that the Congress is “a Muslim party”, saying it has no place for Muslim women. The BJP also hit back at the Congress for alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a “sick” mentality after he accused the opposition party of standing only for Muslim men.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The shameful allegations made by the Congress leader against the prime minister only showed their desperation.”

He said that Gandhi has not yet given his party’s support to the government’s initiatives on instant triple talaq, despite the Supreme Court banning the practice.

Taking on the Gandhi scion over his reported remarks in an Urdu daily that the Congress is a Muslims party, Prasad said he is now “patronising” the minority community.

“When Rahul Gandhi goes to Gujarat for elections, he becomes a janeudhari (one who wears the sacred thread) and flaunts his Brahmin lineage. He does the same in Karnataka. Now when the elections are over, he starts patronising the Muslims,” he said.

“The issue is why Rahul Gandhi is maintaining conspicuous silence. Why he is not speaking,? Prasad asked.

He said that Gandhi in the presence of then prime minister Manmohan Singh at a lunch hosted for Hillary Clinton had alleged that “saffron terrorism and extremism” is more dangerous than the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

This is a matter of record, he said.

“It is strange that whenever Rahul Gandhi is cornered, his party invokes his family legacy which is absolutely meaningless,” he said, adding that the Congress president has to explain his own conduct .

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Congress outfit drops plan to celebrate ‘Ramayana month’ in Kerala

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A Congress outfit has decided to drop its plan to hold programmes and seminars to mark the annual ‘Ramayana month,’ following protests and criticism from leaders of the parent organisation. Vichar Vibhag, the cultural wing of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, had planned a series of programmes, including ‘Ramayana Parayana’ (recitation of the epic) and seminars to the mark the annual month beginning on July 17.

‘Karkkitakam’, the last month in the Malayalam calendar beginning on July 17 this year, is generally observed as ‘Ramayana month’ in the southern state by the Hindu community. The KPCC outfit’s announcement came days after ‘Sanskrit Sangh’, which has a number of pro-Left scholars, academicians and Left sympathisers as members, had unveiled a state-wide seminar series to observe the month of rituals. Noting that it was not a programme planned by KPCC, the State Congress President M M Hassan said the celebrations have been shelved following criticism.

The programme was organised by the Vichar Vibhag, he added. Senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran and former KPCC Chief K Muraleedharan had come out openly against the plan to celebrate ‘Ramayana month’ by the party outfit. “Lord Rama was exploited for political purpose by the BJP and the stand of that party was not acceptable,” Sudheeran said adding no one should adopt any approach that would support even indirectly the stand of saffron party.

Terming the decision to celebrate Ramayana month as ‘ill-advised,’ Muraleedharan said it was not something that the Congress party needs to do. It was not the duty of political parties to organise religious functions, he said. The programme was scheduled to be inaugurated bySenior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and Former union minister Shashi Tharoor, MP was to deliver a lecture on ‘Ramayana is ours.’ ‘Karkitakam’ is the lean season ahead of the Malayalam month ‘Chingam’ that ushers in Malayalis’ most colourful festival of Onam.

Temples and traditional houses across the state would reverberate with the chanting of verses from the Ramayana during the month. Elders chant verses from ‘Adhyatma Ramayana,’ authored by medieval devotional poet Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan for 30 days in front of lighted lamps. Temples and cultural outfits also arrange recital of the epic and special poojas during the season.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Right versus Left on Kashmir — a dramatic pivot is underway

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to topple the Kashmir government is just the beginning of what will likely be a new direction that New Delhi will take towards the restive state – one that will be marked by a significantly more hawkish posture than ever before. For Modi, there is an ideological divide between him and the Congress in how to “handle” Kashmir, but we cannot ignore the obvious political backdrop as the prime minister would not pursue this strategy if he did not feel that it would pay political dividends. One of the most fascinating aspects of India in recent years has been the evolution, and establishment, of a very clear right-to-left divide. For a country where the political spectrum started at center left, and ended at the far left, the creation of the center-right by the BJP helps establish a political arc that is seen in most democracies, providing a wide spectrum of views and ideologies.

But along the way, this also means that an increasing number of policies, issues, and debates become subsumed into one of the two camps, and we begin to see a divergence in how matters should be handled.

As I wrote recently, India’s foreign policy has rapidly changed under Modi – whether the policies are “good” or “bad” depends on the observer and their political bent.  But change it has, and Kashmir is another example.  Numerous commentators will point to how Modi’s approach to Kashmir is very different than Vajpayee’s, and how Vajpayee had it right (never mind that while Vajpayee pursued Kashmir the same commentators criticised him).  But these commentators are right in their current statements because there was not much change in New Delhi’s approach to Kashmir for numerous years. Despite being part of the center-right, Vajpayee did not drastically define a new approach to Kashmir.  his has now changed. Modi is staking out (and defining) a center-right approach to Kashmir, warranting a more hawkish stance, while Congress and others are pushing a more center-left view.

The point is that Kashmir, like most issues, will now have a right wing and left-wing approach or set of solutions. And this development has been made possible because the electorate in turn has evolving views on the subject. There will inevitably be a lot of hue and cry about Modi’s draconian approach, and my goal is not to refute or substantiate whether it’s the right method, but rather look at why his agenda is more likely to resonate with the rest of India, politically speaking.

There was a time when Kashmir was considered and viewed a separate entity in India. The idea of autonomous rule (or something close to it) was the status quo belief, even before militancy took center stage. Those who grew up during this period, and went on to become senior bureaucrats and public officials, formulated their policies vis a vis this general agreement.

However, today, half of Indians were born after terrorism swept the Valley, and Kashmir-militancy-Pakistan funding all blended into one. The idea that leaders of the Hurriyat Conference were allowed to meet Pakistani officials and diplomats in New Delhi sounds insane to many Indians today, even though this was a standard practice for many years.  A grouping of separatist leaders meeting with their offshore financiers is seen by many young Indians as akin to Israel allowing the Palestinian Liberation Organisation meet with its Iranian handlers in downtown Tel Aviv. Why on earth would India facilitate such a meeting between those who argue for separation from India, and those who finance the group’s endeavors.

Which is why when Modi prevented meetings between the Hurriyat and Pakistani officials, and Congress vocally protested, the electorate (outside of Kashmir) agreed with move. The status quo of how political parties handled Kashmir is no longer acceptable for many Indians.

And now, with Modi looking to aggressively clamp down on militancy, and choke of the financing of the Hurriyat, Congress is once again protesting the move and writing op-eds criticising Modi. That’s perfect fair to do so as their approach to Kashmir is again, ideologically different than Modi’s, as it should be, to ensure that India has a well rounded political arc with diverging opinions and thoughts.

It is not a matter of Modi being right or Congress being right, rather the demographic shifts in India have changed the perspective Indians hold towards Kashmir, and in turn have allowed for Modi to define a center-right approach towards Kashmir. While in the past such an approach would not have been accepted by the masses, again, due to demographic shifts, a new generation of Indians who have only known post-Kashmiri militant uprising India, are skeptical of the past policies.  And Modi is capitalising on these changing attitudes while Congress, once again, risks being seen as being out of touch, again, politically speaking.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

At meeting with panel of MPs, heads of banks blame RBI for woes

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel demanded more powers to oversee public sector banks (PSBs), 11 heads of the banks on Tuesday blamed central bank for banking sector woes amid mounting bad loans and increasing fraud cases.

The top officials of IDBI Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Maharashtra, United Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank, which appeared before the parliamentary standing committee of finance, told that they were unable to give loans because of tougher RBI norms.

The PSB chiefs told the panel headed by veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily that they will come out of RBI’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) scheme in two years.

Under the PCA, banks face restrictions on distributing dividends and remitting profits. The owner may be asked to infuse capital into the lender. Besides, the lenders are stopped from expanding their branch networks and need to maintain higher provisions. Management compensation and directors fees are also capped.

Many Members of Parliament (MP) were not satisfied with the replies of PSB heads as rising number of frauds has become a serious cause of concern for the entire banking industry.

The next meeting of parliamentary panel, which is looking into ‘Banking Sector in India- Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward, including Non- Performing Assets/ Stressed Assets in Banks/Financial Institutions,’ will be held on July 3.

The banking sector is grappling with rising non-performing assets (NPAs), which touched Rs 8.99 lakh crore or 10.11 percent of total advances at December-end 2017. Of the total gross NPAs, the public sector banks accounted for Rs 7.77 lakh crore.

The number of frauds reported by banks increased from 4,693 in fiscal 2015-16 to 5,904 in 2017-18. The fraud amount at end-March 2018 was Rs 32,361.27 crore, up from Rs 18,698.8 crore at the end of 2015-16.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India has overcome Congress legacy, can no more use it as excuse, says NITI Aayog Vice Chairman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Even as the ruling BJP and its senior leaders have repeatedly attacked the Congress for leaving behind a legacy of “governance failure”, “policy paralysis” and “economy in shambles”, the Central government can no more use this as an excuse and will have to take ownership of not only its accomplishments but also its failures from now on, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said.

He said while it was necessary to look at the last four years of the Narendra Modi government in the context of the legacy it inherited from the UPA regime in 2014, the economy has now overcome those issues and henceforth, the government should be judged on its own merit.

“Now the economy has come out of those inheritance issues. No more should they be used as an excuse for anything. Whatever happens now is the government’s own (doing) completely,” Kumar told IANS in an interview.

“After all the government has done so much despite all of it (legacy issues). It took huge structural reforms like demonetisation, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Benami Act, RERA and recapitalisation of banks to overcome those legacy issues. I think we have finally overcome those and henceforth, the government should be judged on its own merit,” he added.

Kumar’s remarks hold significance since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Arun Jaitley have repeatedly ripped into the Congress for leaving behind an “economy in a shambles” which the government was still bringing on track.

Be it the crisis relating to non-performing assets, the Nirav Modi-linked PNB scam, the sorry state of the banking sector, the slow GDP growth rate, the fiscal deficit situation and even the rising oil prices, the BJP leaders have used every opportunity to blame it all on the legacy it inherited from the erstwhile UPA government.

Even the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman has often talked about the legacy inherited by the current government and how it has affected its performance.

“For a government which had inherited the most terrible economic situation and inherited a situation where there was a complete paralysis in governance and decision making, and also a situation where world economy was also not very good… given the legacy, given the world economy and given the breakdown of governance, I think this government has done very well,” Kumar said.

He added that when the BJP took over in 2014, the inflation had crossed the 9 per cent mark and growth rate had slumped to below six per cent.

“What (then Finance Miniser P.) Chidambaram had done was to allow the fiscal deficit to run from 2.8 at one time to as far as 6.4 per cent. From there to come to a situation where we have now achieved a growth rate of 6.7 per cent last year and 7.7 percent in the last quarter with inflation at 3.8 per cent, I think that’s just remarkable,” he said.

The fiscal deficit for 2017-18 was 3.5 percent and the government has set the target of bringing it down to 3.3 per cent in the current fiscal.

The noted economist added the economy was much more balanced than it was before and had been pulled out of a crisis — a “crisis of complete private sector investment having been stopped because of the NPAs and the twin-balance sheet” problem.

“Not only has this government maintained the macro-economic balance and brought back growth on its track but along with it, it has made the economy far more cleaner and much more formalised, while also doing a lot to improve inclusion,” he said.

Asked if there are any areas where the government could have performed better, Kumar responded: “One clear role which the government has recognised is farmer’s income. I think this focus has now been brought into the budget. The agriculture sector remains a backward sector and it requires a lot of reforms.”

He added that performance in export sector was a cause of concern while the water sector, which was turning into a crisis situation, was another area which needed attention along with the quality of education.

“These are chronic issues. They take time to be figured out. But the credit should be given to the government that they have recognised these problems and is not trying to hide them or brush them under the carpet. Also they are trying new approaches to improve the performance like ranking states on education quality, water conservation, health,” Kumar said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Chidambaram launches blistering attack on “state of economy”

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the BJP government’s “administrative incompetence” and “policy blunders” were responsible for the rising farm distress, unemployment and failure of economy.

“Farmers’ despondency has turned into anger and they have come to streets to protest,” the senior Congress leader told reporters.

“The principal reasons are uneconomic price for farm produce and stagnant wages of farm labour. MSP (Minimum Support Price) is not adequate. Every farmer knows that the promise of MSP = Cost + 50 percent is a ‘jumla’,” he said.

Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank of India’s confidence survey stated that 48 percent felt that the economic situation of the country had worsened in the last 12 months.

He said unemployment was rampant in the country, which was “far cry” from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s promised two crore jobs a year.

Chidambaram questioned why the Labour Bureau Survey for October-December 2017 not yet released.

Chidambaram said demonetisation had caused the growth rate to decline from 8.2 percent in 2015-16 to 6.7 percent in 2017-18.

“The Tamil Nadu government has officially acknowledged that 50,000 MSME units were shut down in the state in 2017-18; 5,00,000 jobs were lost; and capital investment in the MSME sector declined by Rs 11,000 crore,” he said.

A flawed Goods and Services Tax continues to haunt trade and business, he added.

Chidambaram said the social security laws and programmes have been neglected by the BJP-led central government.

“The Food Security Act has not been implemented. MGNREGA is no longer demand-driven, wage arrears have mounted. Crop Insurance covers barely 30 per cent of farmers, it is a windfall for insurers. Health Protection Scheme is another ‘jumla’,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Insight: As election looms, Modi’s popularity wanes in rural India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian farmers voted overwhelmingly for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 general election that swept him to power. He cannot count on them doing so again, as a crash in commodity prices and surging fuel costs stoke anger in the countryside.

Four years ago, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, winning 73 of 80 seats, as the rural poor – swayed by promises of higher crop prices – deserted the rival Congress party.

Now, facing criticism for not improving living standards in the countryside, where 70 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people live, analysts and farm economists said Modi would find it hard to repeat the feat in a general election due by May 2019.

While it is risky to predict election outcomes in India, where religion and caste remain important issues – not to mention the influence of fickle regional parties – interviews with some of the state’s millions of farmers suggest rural angst could cost the government dearly.

“No doubt, there was a wave for Modi in 2014, but farmers are disenchanted with him now,” said sugar cane grower Uday Vir Singh, 53, plonking down on a wicker chair and smoking his hookah. “Modi promised to double farmers’ income but our earning has halved because of his apathy and anti-farmer policies.”

Nearly half a dozen farmers sitting with Singh on a hand-woven rope cot, and many of others in Kairana – which elected a joint opposition candidate from a small regional party in a key by-election this week – accused Modi and the Uttar Pradesh administration, also run by the BJP, of failing to live up to their promises and overlooking the concerns of villagers.

“Modi is a very good salesman but we are not going to fall prey to his glib talk again,” said 55-year-old Narendra Kalhande, who grows cane on his 2.5 acre farm.

Farm Minister Radha Mohan Singh defended the government’s record, citing initiatives on irrigation, crop insurance and electronic trading platforms for farmers to sell produce.

“For farmers, Prime Minister Modi’s 48 months have been much better than the Congress’s rule of 48 years,” Singh told Reuters, referring to the main opposition party that dominated Indian politics for most of the years since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Crisis In Countryside

Higher inflation and sluggish growth helped Modi trounce Congress, which had long counted the rural poor as its core constituency, in the 2014 election. Small farmers had been hit by rising living costs but benefited little from rising food prices because of the web of middlemen in India’s agricultural markets.

Since then the economy has picked up, recording its quickest pace of expansion in nearly two years in the first three months of 2018, helped by higher growth in the farm sector.

But lower food prices, weaker farm wages and modest crop procurement rates – the result of a shift in focus from the subsidies favoured by Congress to investment under the pro-business BJP – have hurt most of India’s 263 million farmers, who typically own less than 2 hectares of land.

In the past year, Modi’s popularity has fallen by 12 percentage points among farmers, according to a “Mood of the Nation” survey published last week by the Lokniti, part of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), a research institute.

Next year’s election would be fought on farmers’ issues, said Yogendra Yadav, a leading academic-turned-politician.

Farmer organisations in some states began a 10-strike on Friday, in which they have said they will stop selling produce to protest a steep drop in the prices of an array of farm goods.

Farm Minister Singh said his government had yet to hear from farm leaders but was ready to listen.

Commodities Crash

Prices of pulses, a key crop for Indian farmers, have fallen 25-30 percent below state-set support prices, as higher imports and bumper local crops bumped up supplies. While the government announces support prices for more than 20 crops each year to set a benchmark, state agencies actually buy only rice and wheat at the support level.

Vegetable prices, especially onions, cabbage and tomatoes have fallen 25 percent from last year, largely because of the lack of refrigerated trucks that could take the perishables to the consuming big cities.

Milk prices have also dived by more than 25 percent in the past year as a global glut has brought exports to a near halt.

Farmers in Charkhi Dadri, three hours’ drive west of the capital New Delhi, recently dumped tomatoes onto the road in protest after buyers offered a quarter of a rupee per kilogram for a crop that costs at least 6 rupees ($0.09) a kg to produce.

Jai Bhagwan, 54, borrowed 12,000 rupees to grow onions on a plot of about half acre in Jhajjar, an area otherwise famed for pottery. When his crop was ready, Jai Bhagwan could get only 1,200 rupees.

“I could not even recover my labour cost,” said Jai Bhagwan, who was in New Delhi recently to participate in a farmers’ meet.

Prakash Singh, also from Jhajjar, spent 6,000 rupees to grow green chilli, but the crop fetched him barely 200 rupees.

“I’m in debt up to my eyeballs. But I can’t sit idle, so I’ll have to borrow more to grow something else,” Singh said.

Ashok Gulati, a farm economist who advised India’s last government, said there were three policy options to support farmers: building state buffer stocks to soak up excess supply, acting to boost exports or building capacity for processing farm commodities into end products such as milled, dehusked pulses or vegetable oils.

Most of those measures would require long-term structural changes, however, and analysts predict in the run-up to the election Modi is likely to announce more populist, short-term fixes such as higher guaranteed prices for crops and farm loan waivers.

Many farmers complained they are still reeling from disruptions caused by the launch of a new nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2017 and a ban on high denomination bank notes in November 2016.

Blaming the shock move for exacerbating farmers’ financial woes, Gulati said: “Expectations were high from the government, but the fact is that the plight of farmers is far worse now than what it was four years ago.”

Modi’s drive to purge “black money” from the economy by removing, at a stroke, 86 percent of the cash in circulation, made it difficult for farmers, who survive on cash, to buy inputs like seeds and receive payments for their crops.

In Kairana, all 35 farmers Reuters spoke to agreed that abolishing 500 and 1,000 rupee bank notes had made things worse.

Power Surge

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, home to 220 million people, are also angry over a sharp rise in the pump price of diesel and a steep hike in electricity tariffs.

Many farmers in the state use diesel to run tractors for ploughing and trolleys for moving their produce to wholesale markets. They depend on electricity to operate irrigation pumps.

Diesel prices have shot up by more than 40 percent to record highs and electricity tariffs have surged by more 20 percent in the past two years, said Shri Pal, a farmer from Shamli.

“Villages account for most of India’s diesel consumption and that’s why higher prices pinch farmers the most, but diesel in India is much more expensive than Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” said Hannan Mollah, a former lawmaker and a senior official of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Kairana and Shamli lie in the sugar cane belt of Uttar Pradesh, the top sugar state of India, the world’s biggest producer after Brazil.

Soaring global output has caused a collapse in sugar prices, leading to losses for mills who now owe nearly 23 billion rupees to cane growers.

A BJP spokesman, G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, said the government has streamlined timely payments to cane growers.

That has not been enough to satisfy farmers such as Ram Lakhan Singh, a cane grower from Shamli.

“Most sugar mills have not paid us a single rupee since December and the government has connived with them to deprive us of our rightful dues. Trust me, cane farmers will think twice before voting for the BJP.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Setback for BJP in by-polls as united opposition garner more seats

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As the by-polls to four Lok Sabha seats and ten assembly constituencies across 10 states wind up today, the ruling party, BJP, has suffered a setback.

Out of the four Lok Sabha constituencies, BJP only won Palghar seat. BJP’s Gavit Rajendra Dhedya defeated Shiv Sena’s Shrinivas Wanaga by 29,572 votes.

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan defeated BJP’s Mriganka Singh by over 55,000 votes to win Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll.

In Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha seat, National Congress Party (NCP) candidate Madhukar Kukde defeated BJP’s Hemant Patel.

Naga People’s Front (NPF) candidate C Apok Jamir defeated ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) nominee Tokheho Yepthomi in the Nagaland Lok Sabha bypoll.

Coming to assembly by-polls, the ruling Trinamool Congress candidate Dulal Das won the Maheshtala seat in West Bengal, by defeating the BJP candidate Sujit Ghosh by a margin of 62,831 votes.

Seema Devi of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) defeated Sudesh Mahto of All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) for Silli assembly seat in Jharkhand by 13,510 votes.

Babita Mahto of JMM also managed to defeat AJSU candidate Lambodar Mahto in Gomia, with a margin of 1,344 votes.

In Tharali assembly seat in Uttarakhand, BJP candidate won by over 1,900 votes.

Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won Jokihat assembly seat in Bihar defeating JD (U) by a huge margin of 41,000 votes.

Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi wrested Shahkot assembly seat from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) by defeating Naib Singh Kohar with a margin of 38,802 votes.

The Congress retained the Rajarjeswari Nagar assembly seat in Bengaluru with N Muniratna winning the by-poll by a margin of 25,492 votes against his nearest BJP rival, P Muniraju Gowda.

Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Naimul Hasan won Noorpur assembly by-poll in Uttar Pradesh by trouncing his nearest rival Avni Singh of BJP with a margin of over 5,678 votes.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Saji Cherian won a landslide victory with a margin of 20,956 votes, by defeating D Vijayakumar of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Chengannur, Kerala.

Congress candidate, Miani D Shira, won the Ampati assembly seat in Meghalaya by defeating C G Momin of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), with a margin of 3,191 votes.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Karnataka portfolios: JD(S) to get Finance, Congress to get Home department

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After days of hectic negotiations, the JD-S will get the Finance portfolio in Karnataka and the Congress the Home department, highly placed sources in the parties said.

The power-sharing arrangement between the two alliance partners is being finalized and is in the final stages, the sources added.

The leaders of the two parties have held five rounds of talks here since Wednesday to finalise the portfolio sharing arrangement between the two alliance partners.

Sources said Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is on board on the issue and has spoken to leaders on phone from the United States, where he travelling with his mother, who has gone for a medical check-up.

We have held five rounds of talks with each other and have decided that the JD-S will get the Finance portfolio. I will be now travelling to Bengaluru to hold further talks within our party,? JD-S leader Danish Ali told PTI.

He said he would meet both Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow