Lalu offers 11 seats to Cong, 1 to NCP

March 1, 2014
Patna, Mar 1: Putting pressure on Congress, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today offered 11 seats to Congress and asked the party to give its acceptance by tomorrow when his party's Parliamentary Board will meet here. lalu

RJD has also offered one out of the 40 seats in the state to another Congress ally NCP.

The development comes after an old ally LJP walked over to the BJP camp.

Prasad, who returned here from Delhi last night, said he had told Congress general secretary and in-charge of Bihar C P Joshi of the offer.

"I have asked him to communicate acceptance before RJD Parliamentary Board meeting in Patna tomorrow at 3 PM," Prasad told reporters.

Asked to comment why the alliance between RJD and Congress was stuck, he said the offer did not mean that "everything is over" between the two parties on the issue."I have also told Joshi that if his party stakes claim for any other seat than he should tell me and also convince me of the winning potential of his expected candidate," he said.

To questions on whether RJD could decide to go it alone, he said, "Why are you presuming things ? ... The party's Parliamentary board will take some decisions tomorrow."

Prasad said that for him and RJD the biggest challenge was to stop communal forces. "For this we want to take all secular parties, including Congress with us."

The RJD chief had said last night, "Now there will be lathbandhan (alliance of bamboo)", conveying that RJD would be taking on Congress in the poll fight.

He clarified today that he had not meant a fight with Congress, which he said, was a media interpretation.

Prasad, however, did not identify the 11 seats he has offered to Congress or the one to NCP of Sharad Pawar.

He also refused to comment on reports that RJD-Congress alliance was stuck due to conflicting claims between the two parties on Madhubani and a few other seats.

"In general the claim shall be staked on seats only on the basis of performance of the respective parties in the last general elections as per Election Commissions results."

While Congress appears to be adamant about getting the Madhubani seat for its general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, RJD is in no mood to relent and claims it for its legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.

Congress and RJD had fought separately in the 2009 polls and Siddiqui had secured second position after BJP's Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, while Ahmad was at third position in the seat.

Congress is reportedly asking for seats like Patliputra, Nawada and Bhagalpur which are RJD favourites. Prasad is expected to field his eldest daughter Misa Bharti from Patliputra constituency in Patna district against his friend-turned-enemy Ranjan Yadav.

Prasad said his erstwhile ally Ramvilas Paswan, who had now joined hands with BJP, had committed 'holika dahan' of his ideology much before Holi.

"It is beyond imagination to think how Paswan can go with BJP, which with Nitish Kumar had kept his caste out of the list of Mahadalits (poorer among poor in the weaker section)," he said.

Prasad also made a scathing attack on his bete noire Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had commented that there was fire in RJD's house (13 MLAs quitting RJD and 9 of them returning latter) due to "short circuit".

"His (Kumar's) transformer itself has blasted as is seen in the expulsion of 5 MPs by JD(U)," Prasad said.

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News Network
June 4,2020

New Delhi, Jun 4: India's Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, following which the defence ministry carried out a massive contact-tracing exercise, official sources said.

Kumar's condition is stable and he is currently under home-quarantine, they said.

At least 35 officials working at the ministry's headquarters in South Block in the Raisina Hills have been sent on home quarantine after reports of Kumar testing positive for the infection emerged on Wednesday morning.

There was no official comment on Kumar's health condition. The defence ministry spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.

It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not attend office as part of a precautionary measure.

The offices of the defence minister, the defence secretary, the Army Chief and the Navy Chief are on the first floor of the South Block.

The sources said all laid down protocols on contact-tracing and quarantining of people are being scrupulously followed.

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News Network
June 16,2020

New Delhi, Jun 16: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday demanded a rollback of hike in fuel prices, saying the government's decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel during the coronavirus crisis is "wholly insensitive" and "ill-advised".

The government is doing nothing short of "profiteering off its people" when they are down and out, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the 10th day in a row on Tuesday.

"I am deeply distressed that in these exceedingly difficult times since the beginning of March, the government has taken the wholly insensitive decision to increase petrol and diesel prices on no less than ten separate occasions," Gandhi said in her letter.

She accused the government of earning an additional revenue of nearly Rs 2.6 lakh crore through these "ill-advised" hikes in excise duty and increase in prices of petrol and diesel.

"I urge you to roll back these increases and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of this country.

"If you wish for them to be 'self-reliant' then do not place financial fetters on their ability to move forward," the Congress president said.

Gandhi also urged the government to use its resources to put money directly into the hands of those in need in these times of severe hardship.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: With the highest single-day increase of 12,881 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus count has reached 3,66,946 on Thursday.

This includes 1,60,384 active cases and 1,94,325 cured, discharged and migrated patients, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

Meanwhile, with 334 deaths being reported due to the infection, the toll due to the virus stands at 12,237 in the country.

There is a big increase in the number of confirmed cases in the country today as compared to the recent days when the spike had been limited to under 11,000 cases.

Maharashtra with 1,16,752 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 51,935 active cases while 59,166 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 stands at 5,651 in the state.

The number of confirmed cases in Tamil Nadu also crossed the 50 thousand mark on Thursday and reached 50,193. The national capital is the third-worst affected by the infection in the country with the count reaching 47,102 today.

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