24% voting in Kerala's Pala Assembly bypoll till 11 am

Agencies
September 23, 2019

Kottayam, Sept 23:  Voting in the by-election to the Pala Assembly constituency here began on Monday with nearly 24 per cent votes being cast by 11 a.m.

As many as 13 candidates are in the fray in the constituency having a total of 1,79,107 voters.

"At 11 a.m, 24.14 per cent votes have been cast. Till now, there are no untoward incidents in the constituency. Polling is going on smoothly," an Election Commission official from Kottayam district told PTI.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of former Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani, who had held the constituency for more than five decades.

While the ruling LDF has fielded its ally, NCP's leader, Mani C Kappan as its candidate in the constituency, Jose Tom Pulikunnel of Kerala Congress (M) is the candidate of the Congress-led UDF.

The BJP's Kottayam district president N Hari is the NDA candidate.

Among those who voted in the first couple of hours include the UDF candidate Pulikkunnel, LDF candidate Kappen and the family members of Mani, including his wife and son Jose K Mani, a Rajya Sabha member.

Kappen and Pulikunnel cast their votes at the Government Polytechnic School, Kanattupara, and Government LP School, Poovathode, respectively.

The results are expected to have a bearing on the future course of three major political fronts -- the LDF, the UDF and the BJP-led NDA -- in the southern state.

The Pala Assembly bypoll is seen as an acid test for the parties as victory would give a big boost to their prospects in the by-elections to five constituencies scheduled for October 21 in the state.

The bypoll which started at 7 a.m will conclude at 6 p.m.

During the bitter poll campaign, various issues including corruption, economic slowdown, the crisis in the farm sector and the Sabarimala temple women entry issue were raised by the parties.

While the LDF leaders raised the irregularities in construction of the flyover in Palarivattom in Kochi during the UDF rule, the UDF leaders alleged corruption in setting up infrastructure in the state using funds from Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).

Both the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF were confident of winning the bypoll.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, Jun 13: Petrol price on Saturday was hiked by 59 paise per litre and diesel by 58 paise as oil companies for the seventh day in a row adjusted retail rates in line with costs since ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 75.16 per litre from Rs 74.57, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 73.39 a litre from Rs 72.81, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

This is the seventh daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on Sunday restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus.

In seven hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 3.9 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.

The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.

Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers, adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of a decline in international oil prices.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11 Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.

Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.

The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.

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News Network
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said everyone is unhappy in the society and constantly agitating notwithstanding a "many-fold rise" in materialistic comforts and pleasures.

Addressing a gathering of Sangh workers and intellectuals here in Gujarat, Mr Bhagwat also said that even political parties who are not in power are also agitating.

"Inspite of increase in comforts and materialistic pleasures, everyone is unhappy and is staging agitations. Be it owner or servant, a party in opposition, the common man students, teachers, everyone is unhappy and dissatisfied," the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief said.

He was speaking on the topic "India's Role in the Present World Context".

Mr Bhagwat further said that bigotry, violence and terrorism are on the rise in the present world.

"India has to give 'dharma'  (wisdom) to the world so that knowledge spreads but humans do not become robotic. We have always talked about the concept of global family but not global market," he said.

The lecture was organised by "Madhav Smruti Nyas", an organisation backed by the RSS.

"To think that we are living in a better world is a half truth. Facilities are not evenly distributed. Rule of Jungle is prevailing. A capable person is crushing the weak to climb up. Knowledge is used more for the destruction of the world," the Sangh chief said.

Mr Bhagwat said people are also misusing social media by spreading "false information" to create controversies.

He also stated that trying to put "everyone into one uniform" is also a form of bigotry.

"US and Russia are super powers. China would become a super power too. Now, what super power nations did to others? They just took control of other countries for their own selfish agenda. These super powers gave it back only when they were asked to do so. Otherwise, they never gave anything to others," said Mr Bhagwat.

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