Chhattisgarh Congress leader Ramdayal Uike joins BJP in Amit Shah's presence

Agencies
October 13, 2018

Bilaspur, Oct 13: In a major setback to the opposition Congress in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, its state working president and MLA Ramdayal Uike Saturday joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr. Uike, who represents Pali-Tanakhar constituency, joined the BJP in the presence of the party chief Amit Shah and Chief Minister Raman Singh in Bilaspur district headquarter.

Mr. Uike, considered a popular tribal leader in Bilaspur division, said he was feeling suffocated in the Congress as Scheduled Tribes (ST) leaders were being neglected by the party leadership.

In a press conference held in Bilaspur in the presence of the Chief Minister as well BJP state unit president Dharamlal Kaushik, he announced that he joined the BJP.

‘CD politics of Congress’

“I had been feeling suffocated in Congress for the last several years. Congress has diverted from its ideology and principles. The CD politics of Congress has tarnished its image. State Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel has maligned the image of the party by encouraging the obscene CD politics,” he said.

Mr. Uike was apparently referring to a case of circulation of a ‘sex CD’ purportedly featuring a State Minister, in which Mr. Baghel was named as one of the five accused.

He further said his party high command did not pay attention to his demand to remove Mr. Baghel from the post of state unit president.

“Congress has neglected the interests of tribals, backward and poor people and I was pained over it as I represent a tribal region.

“CM Raman Singh has been making efforts for overall development of tribals and backward people and his development oriented policies have impressed me to rejoin my home party,” he said.

“A ghar wapsi”

Mr. Uike, who had quit the BJP and joined the Congress in 2000, described his return to the ruling party as “ghar wapsi”.

When asked about contesting elections, he said he will follow the directions of the party leadership in this regard.

Reacting to the development, Congress dubbed Mr. Uike as an “opportunist” and said his decision will not harm the opposition party.

“Mr. Uike has gone back to BJP, which he had left earlier for opportunistic reasons. He has again proved that he is an opportunist,” Congress state communication wing chief Shailesh Nitin Trivedi said.

No harm to party, says Congress

“His decision is not going to harm Congress in any way as history is witness that the party in which Mr. Uike was there it had never won. In fact we are thankful to Mr. Uike that he has left our party and ensured victory to us,” Mr. Trivedi said.

After the formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000, Mr. Uike who was a BJP MLA from Marwahi seat had joined Congress and vacated his seat to facilitate the entry of Ajit Jogi into the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly after he was sworn-in as first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.

According to BJP sources, Mr. Uike was not happy after he was ousted from the Congress screening committee and since then he had been in touch with ruling party leadership.

The BJP may field Mr. Uike either from Marwahi or Pali Tanakhar — the ST reserved seats, both considered as his stronghold.

In the state, 18 naxal-affected constituencies will go to polls in the first phase on November 12, while the rest of the 72 constituencies would go to polls in the second phase on November 20.

Comments

Fairman
 - 
Saturday, 13 Oct 2018

Thanks God, dirty things are removed.

 

BJP is built with wrong, ideology and how can it longlast. It can last only until fools around them are in majaority.

Congress should do TIT for TAT.

Sharafat for Shareefs only. It wont work with dishonest people.

 

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News Network
February 9,2020

Feb 9: The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in Delhi Assembly polls are kept under tight security, in the 'Strong Room' located at Atal Adarsh Bengali Balika Vidyalaya in Gol Market.

Voting for Delhi Assembly elections took place on Saturday with voters turnout well short of the 2015 election mark.

Counting of the votes will be on February 11.

Earlier, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain had said the Delhi elections took place peacefully and smoothly.

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News Network
February 29,2020

Feb 29: The "Dadi of Shaheenbagh" on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not understand the pain of losing children, as speakers at an anti-CAA rally here called on protesters to maintain peace and not give in to any provocation.

Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said that the battle is not for a day or two, but the protesters will have to be prepared to continue it for years to come.

Asma Khatoon, who has earned fame as the "Dadi of Shaheenbagh" in Delhi, asked how can a person take care of the whole country when he cannot maintain his own family.

"He would have realised how it feels to lose a child if he had his own children," she told a gathering at the Park Circus Maidan, which is being termed as the Shaheenbagh of Kolkata with women holding a sit-in for the last 53 days to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, proposed nationwide NRC, and the NPR.

The death toll Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42.

She said it is not biryani that has attracted women to the protest at Shaheen bagh while holding that such vilification campaigns will have no effect on the agitation.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh has claimed that "uneducated men and women" are protesting at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Kolkata's Park Circus as they get money and biryani purchased with foreign funds.

"Home Minister Amit Shah has called 20 protesters to meet him, but I want to tell him that we are one lakh and I want him to mention the place where he wants us to go for the meeting," she said.

Tushar Gandhi said, "People should stay united and not give in to any provocation," he said.

Gandhi said that the people of West Bengal are lucky to have Mamata Banerjee as their chief minister.

"They will try to break her also and it is necessary that you continue to give her support," he said.

Gandhi claimed that no one can harm a country where its mothers and sisters come out to save it.

He claimed that the CAA is not about Hindus or Muslims, but will really affect the poor people, who will be made to run around to get their papers instead of earning for their basic and daily needs.

"It's a dichotomous government that we have at the Centre. On the one hand, they want us to provide documents to prove our citizenship, while on the other they refuse to accept the papers that one produces before it for the purpose," he said.

He claimed that the government is forcing its people to resort to lies and declare that they are political refugees from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Gandhi claimed that time and again documents with the government like electoral rolls and land documents have been used to identify people of certain communities during riots.

"So it is dangerous to give too much information to the government," he said.

He called on the people to have faith in non-violence and asked them to maintain peace and harmony.

B R Ambedkar's great-grandson Rajratna Ambedkar claimed that it is the Adivasis who will also be affected by the CAA.

"I want to tell Modi and Shah that the country runs on the Constitution by Ambedkar and not M S Golwalkar (of RSS)," he said, adding that because of the rights conferred on people by the Constitution, those backward people who did not have the right to sit on a bullock cart are now flying jet planes.

He said that Modi and Shah committed an error by enacting the CAA as it has turned the people of the country into Indians only, instead of Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs.

"Every machinery of the country has been taken control of by the RSS. If one Modi or one Shah goes, they will bring in several more Modi or Shah," he said.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

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