68 percent polling in Gujarat first phase elections

Agencies
December 9, 2017

Ahmedabad, Dec 10: A little over 68% of 2.12 crore electorate in 19 districts of Saurashtra-Kutch and South Gujarat on Saturday peacefully voted to decide the fate of 977 candidates for 89 Assembly seats in the first phase of the election.

The low turnout compared 70.7% in 2012, has kept everyone clueless about the way voters would have swung.

Both the BJP and Congress have claimed an upper hand. “BJP is slated for a big win. This will be a landslide victory,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

“I think the people have voted to free Gujarat from fear, hunger and the corrupt rule of BJP,” Paresh Dhanani, Congress leader and candidate from Amreli constituency in Saurashtra region said.

Of the 89 seats, Saurashtra-Kutch account for 54 seats and South Gujarat 35. Of these, the BJP won 63, Congress 24, NCP one and JD(U) one in the 2012 Assembly polls.

The lower polling percentage across many parts, observers feel, traditionally suggests a pro-incumbency tilt.

However, they say results could now depend on local issues, equations and candidates compared to generic issues like Patel quota stir, unemployment, GST and demonetisation.

Kutch, with six Assembly seats, was rocked by a sex racket by BJP members. It recorded the lowest turnout at 63% among all big districts that went to polls on Saturday, down from 68.25% in 2012. In Rajkot, from where chief minister Vijay Rupani too is fighting Indranil Rajyaguru of Congress, the voting percentage stood at 69, lower by a mere couple of percentage points.

Key contestants

Besides Rupani, other key candidates in the fray were Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani from Bhavnagar (West), senior Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil from Mandvi (Kutch) , Arjun Modhvadia from Porbandar and Paresh Dhanani from Amreli.

Similarly, Junagadh district, that in 2012 had elected three Congress legislators and two BJP legislators, this time has seen almost a 5% drop in voting percentage. It was here that the issue of Dalit beating had assumed national significance in 2016.

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News Network
July 11,2020

New Delhi, Jul 11: India's COVID-19 case count crossed the eight lakh-mark on Saturday with yet another highest single-day spike of 27,114 new cases in the last 24 hours.

As many as 519 deaths were reported during this period.

The total number of positive cases in the country stands at 8,20,916, including 2,83,407 active cases, 5,15,386 cured/discharged/migrated and 22,123 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With as many as 2,38,461 COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,30,261) and Delhi (1,09,140).

Meanwhile, 1,13,07,002 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 10. Out of these 2,82,511 samples were tested yesterday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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Agencies
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: On the New Year's eve, the railways announced fare hike across its network effective from January 1, 2020, according to an order issued on Tuesday.

While suburban fares remain unchanged, ordinary non-AC, non-suburban fares were increased by 1 paise per km of journey.

The railways also announced a two paise/km hike in fares of mail/express non-AC trains and four paise/km hike in the fares of AC classes.

The fare hike is also applicable to premium trains such as Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto, according to the order.

In the Delhi-Kolkata Rajdhani, which covers a distance of 1,447 km, the hike at the rate of 4 paise per km will be around Rs 58.

According to the order, there will not be any change in the reservation fee and superfast charge and the hike in fares will not be applicable to tickets already booked.

The last such hike was announced in 2014-2015 when fares of all classes of trains were raised by 14.2 per cent and freight charges by 6.5 per cent. However, since then, the railways introduced the flexi-fare scheme which significantly raised fares on select trains and launched trains like Vande Bharat Express and Tejas Express which have relatively higher fares. Trains with dynamic pricing like Suvidha Express were also introduced.

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News Network
March 13,2020

Bhopal, Mar 13: The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday decided to verify facts afresh in a complaint against former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his family, in which they are accused of falsifying a property document while selling land.

The development came after Mr Scindia quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Wednesday. 22 MLAs who belong to his camp also resigned, threatening the survival of the Kamal Nath government in the state.

"Yes, an order has been given for re-verification of facts in the complaint filed by Surendra Shrivastava," an Economic Offences Wing official told PTI.

An EOW release said Mr Shrivastava on Thursday filed a new complaint against Mr Scindia and his family, alleging that by falsifying a registry document, they sold him a piece of land at Mahalgaon which was smaller by 6,000 sq feet than the original agreement in 2009.

He had lodged the complaint first on March 26, 2014. But it was investigated and closed in 2018, the EOW official said. "As he again petitioned us today, we will re-verify the facts," the officer said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia's close aide Pankaj Chaturvedi alleged that it was political vendetta.

"The case had been closed for want of evidence. Now for vengeance, it is being reopened. We have full faith in the Constitution and law. We will get justice and Kamal Nath government a befitting reply," Mr Chaturvedi said.

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