BJP, TDP officially ink alliance

April 6, 2014

TDPHyderabad, Apr 6: As per the deal, the saffron party would contest five Lok Sabha and 15 Assembly constituencies in Seemandhra and eight parliamentary and 47 Assembly seats in Telangana

A fortnight-long, alliance and seat-sharing exercise came to an end around noon on Sunday with the Telugu Desam conceding to give the Bharatiya Janata Party 47 Assembly and eight Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 15 and five to contest, respectively, in the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh in the general elections.

TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, flanked by BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javdekar and BJP treasurer Piyush Goyal and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) co-convenor and Shiromani Akali Dal MP, Naresh Gujral, announced the TDP’s re-entry into the NDA. Others present included Y. Ramakrishnudu of the TDP and while senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya was present, the absence of the BJP’s Telangana State President G. Kishan Reddy was conspicuous.

When asked about Mr. Reddy’s resentment over certain seats, specially in and around Hyderabad being taken by the TDP, Mr. Javdekar said there was nothing like that. “You will joint campaigns being rolled out soon. We are a democratic party and all of BJP is committed,” he quipped, appearing to dismiss the very idea that Mr. Reddy could be out.

Elections to 119 assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana are scheduled for April 30, while 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Seemandhra will go to the hustings on May 7. The breakthrough in alliance talks came on Saturday night at a city hotel after top leader of the TDP and BJP intervened, to smoothen things out.

The two parties reached the agreement as the delay was leading to rebellion in both the camps. Even as the formal announcement was being made, there was slogan-shouting by TDP cadres outside Mr. Naidu’s residence. Among constituencies from where cadres protested were those seeking the TDP ticket for Bonda Umamaheswara Rao from Vijayawada Central and from Malkajgiri, that sitting Medak MLA of the TDP, Mynampalli Hanumantha Rao.

Mr. Naidu, Mr. Javdekar and Goyal hailed the alliance as one that would usher in a ‘corruption-free, Congress-free India’ and put the great nation on the international map. “Any small problems posed by voices of dissent and disappointment will be smoothened out,” they chorused, adding that now was the time to prepare for the electoral battle to throw the Congress out.

Mr. Naidu said the agenda at the end of the day was corruption-free governance that would propel India forward, fast-enough to make up for the 10-year slag, thanks to the United Progressive Alliance rule. “Our aim is to provide a stable and efficient Government and honest administration. I am confident that the NDA will end up with 300-plus Lok Sabha seats,” he said, to applause.

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News Network
April 9,2020

New Delhi, Apr 9: With an increase of 540 positive COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 5,734, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

Out of the 5,734 cases; 5,095 are active COVID-19 cases and 472 cases have been recovered/discharged and one case migrated.
The death toll has also risen to 166 after 17 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra is the worst-hit state 1,135 positive cases so far and while Tamil Nadu is second with 738 positive cases. Delhi's tally has risen to 669 cases. 

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 25: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday asked the state's MPs to take up the matter of deaths of eight Keralites at a resort in Nepal early this week, with the Centre to pursue the matter with the neighbouring country's government.

He was speaking to the MPs at the customary meeting that the Chief Minister has with all MPs ahead of every session of the parliament.

"The demand has come from the families of the victims for a fair probe on what happened and adequate compensation. For this, you (MPs) should take it up with the Centre. A probe has to be done by the Nepal authorities and the Centre should pursue this with them," Pinarayi reportedly stated. 

"We (the state government) have already taken the issue with the Centre and will now send a detailed letter on the need for a fair probe by the Nepal authorities," he added.

The eight dead include Praveen Krishnan Nair, who worked in the UAE and was on a short vacation here, when the tragedy struck the family. His wife Saranya, a second year M.Pharma student, and their three children, were also killed.

On Friday morning, it was a goodbye that Thiruvananthapuram has perhaps not seen before, as hundreds of people, many of them strangers, came to pay last respects to the five members of the Nair family.

The family of Praveen Nair decided to bury the bodies of the three children and cremate the bodies of Praveen and Saranya. It was also decided to bury the ashes of the couple alongside their three children in the compound of their house.

The second family hailed from Kozhikode and the bodies of Ranjith, an IT professional, his wife, who works in a cooperative bank and their younger child, who slept in the same room as that of Praveen, arrived at the Kozhikode airport on Friday morning.

State Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran and many others were there to receive the bodies, which were first taken to Ranjith's new home that is almost complete.

From there it was taken to a hall for all to pay their last respects and then to the family home of Ranjith where the cremation took place.

Watching everything happening was Ranjith's elder son, seven-year-old Madhav, who escaped that night in Nepal as he was sleeping in another room.

Madhav had arrived from Delhi on Thursday and was unaware of the tragedy as he was busy moving around in a new bicycle, which his relatives had bought to keep him busy.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: Days after a gunman opened fire in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of anti-CAA movement, YouTuber Gunja Kapoor was detained at the protest site on Wednesday after she was caught covertly filming the protests in a burqa.

Kapoor runs the channel ‘Right Narrative’ on YouTube and her pinned tweet on Twitter says she is followed on the microblogging site by PM Narendra Modi.

According to police, the protesters turned suspicious after Kapoor asked them "too many questions". She was caught by some of the women protesters after they identified her as the popular YouTuber. The incident led to a commotion at Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a senior police official said.

She was taken to Sarita Vihar police station where her identity was ascertained, police said.

The incident sparked outrage on social media. Many took to Twitter to question why Kapoor was at the protest in disguise. Others expressed concern about her motives at secretly filming the protests.

Meanwhile, praises flew in for the women of Shaheen Bagh who can be seen defending Kapoor from angry protesters after she was caught.

This is not the first time that a right wing social media activist has landed in trouble in Shaheen Bagh where residents and other women and children have been sitting in protest for nearly two months since the passing of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in December last year.

In January, Deepa Sharma had posted videos online about the "traumatic" experience she had when she was allegedly heckled and harassed by Shaheen Bagh protesters. While the woman's claim could never be verified, other pieces of rampant fake news aimed at delegitimising and villainising protesters has taken social media by storm.

From doctored videos of women protesters allegedly accepting they were paid Rs 500 to attend protests to alleged fights over biriyani and anti-India sloganeering, trolls on social media seem to be working overtime to taint the ongoing protests.

The latter, however, show no signs of giving up. In fact, as Delhi nears elections on February 8, protesters have arranged for music performances by eminent artists, including pop celebrity Prateek Kuhad, till February 7.

Sit in protests take place 24x7 with women showing up in thousands to spend the night and sing songs of protest. And with polls around the corner, the protests have become an active part of political discourse with Aam Aadmi Party's Manish Sisodia expressing his support for the protesters at a recent press conference.

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