NDA's Harivansh defeats Cong’s Hariprasad to become Rajya Sabha deputy chairman

Agencies
August 9, 2018

New Delhi, Aug 9: The NDA candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh on Thursday trounced joint Opposition candidate B K Hariprasad of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman elections.

While the JD(U)'s Harivansh got 125 votes, Hariprasad got 105. Two YSR Congress MPs, who had said on Wednesday that they will vote for Hariprasad, abstained while three AAP MPs did not come for voting in protest against Congress president Rahul Gandhi who did not call their leader Arvind Kejriwal as demanded by them.

The NDA, which had the support of 109 MPs, got the support of six TRS, nine BJD and one INLD MP. Union minister Arun Jaitley, who is recuperating from a kidney replacement surgery, came to Parliament for the first time to vote in the election.

The Opposition plans to upset the NDA went for a toss on Wednesday night after the BJD announced its support to Harivansh. The BJP's decision to field the JD(U) leader gave Patnaik room for pledging support of his nine MPs, nullifying the Congress' plea to abstain from voting.

If it was a BJP candidate, it would have been difficult for Patnaik to offer support and the saffron party quickly tweaked its strategy to field the JD(U) leader by bypassing claims of a long-standing ally Akali Dal, which was upset over the decision. However, the Akali Dal did not up the ante and voted for Harivansh.

Socialist history helps

Harivansh's socialist history also helped the BJP to garner support from the INLD and the BJD, which are at loggerheads with the saffron party in Haryana and Odisha. The TRS, which initially showed an inclination for a Federal Front mooted by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, also quickly joined the ruling side.

For the NDA and the BJP, the results and the BJD's support gave an opportunity to display its political manoeuvring capabilities ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of smaller parties who could join the Opposition bandwagon.

However, the Opposition said the results were expected after the BJD's decision and claimed it exposed Patnaik more than their vulnerabilities. "We know there are CBI, ED and other agencies. We know it has been misused. So people will support," a senior Opposition leader said.

The NDA sources said the top BJP leadership did the spadework much before the election schedule was announced on Monday. An Opposition leader claimed the opponent ensured numbers and only then it came up with the date.

The Opposition also got a jolt when the AAP played the hardball saying they will vote for Hariprasad only if Rahul calls Kejriwal. The AAP did not come for voting. The YSR Congress, which said it will vote for Hariprasad, also made a U-turn on Thursday morning by abstaining.

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News Network
January 29,2020

Mumbai, Jan 29: Unfazed by his suspension from flying on Tuesday, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Wednesday claimed that he once again approached television journalist Arnab Goswami, who he said was his co-passenger on a flight from Lucknow, for an "honest discussion" but was turned away.

Kamra tweeted in the morning that "Arnab Goswami was again travelling in his flight while returning from Lucknow". "I again asked him politely if he wants to have a honest discussion he with his verbal arrogant hand jester he asked me to move away & I did that (sic)," he tweeted.

The comedian was suspended from flying by IndiGo and Air India on Tuesday after he allegedly heckled Goswami aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow plane and posted a video clip on his Twitter handle.

While IndiGo suspended Kamra from flying with it for a period of six months, Air India banned him until further notice.

In a statement released on Twitter after he posted the video, Kamra said he did "exactly what Republic TV journalists do to people in their private/public spaces". Kamra stated he had not done anything criminal by allegedly heckling Goswami.

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News Network
January 1,2020

New Delhi, Jan 1: Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai has allowed banks that lent money to embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya to utilize seized assets, news agency reported today quoting sources from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The court also said all parties affected by the order can appeal at the Bombay High Court till January 18.

Last month, a consortium of Indian banks petitioned a London court for ex-billionaire Vijay Mallya to be declared bankrupt over ₹9,000 crore in unpaid debts. It comes as Mallya, who founded the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, faces extradition to his home country of India.

Mallya had fled India in March 2016 and has been living in the United Kingdom since then. The 64-year-old former Kingfisher Airlines is fighting extradition to India in relation of fraud and money laundering allegations arising out of the debt acquired from the banks.

Mallya remains on bail pending the UK High Court appeal hearing in the extradition proceedings brought by India in relation to fraud and money laundering charges amounting to ₹9,000 crores. He had been arrested on an extradition warrant back in April 2017 and has been fighting his extradition in the UK courts since then.

He was granted permission to appeal against his extradition order, which is scheduled in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for February.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Hyderabad, Mar 31: Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin died due to the novel coronavirus, the state government said on Monday.

"Coronavirus has spread among some of those who attended a religious prayer meeting from March 13 to 15 at Markaz in Nizamuddin area in Delhi," according to an official release. "Among those who attended were some persons from Telangana."

Two of the six died at the Gandhi Hospital, one each in two private hospitals, and one each in Nizamabad and Gadwal towns, the statement said, without mentioning the time of their deaths.

The special teams under the collectors have identified the persons who came in contact with the deceased and they are shifted to the hospitals, it said.

Police and paramilitary personnel cordoned off a major area in Nizamuddin West in south Delhi on Monday and over 200 people have been kept in isolation in hospitals after several people who took part in a religious congregation there showed symptoms of coronavirus.

The Telagana government asked those who participated in the prayers to inform the authorities. It will conduct tests and offer treatment to them free of cost, according to the release.

The government also requested the people to alert if they come to know about those who participated in the prayers.

Earlier a separate government release said a person died of COVID-19 in Telangana, taking the toll to two and the total number touched 77 after six fresh cases were reported on Monday.

As many as 13 patients who underwent treatment for the virus were discharged on Monday, a media bulletin on COVID-19 issued by the state government said.

A techie, the first COVID-19 case in Telangana, has been discharged recently. The state now has 61 active cases, the bulletin said.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had on Sunday said barring a 76-year-old person, who had other ailments, the other patients were doing well.

Rao had said 25,937 people were under surveillance and being watched by 5,746 teams and they would be out of watch after completing their mandated 14-day quarantine period. He had said all those who are under observation would be out of vigil by April 7 if there are no fresh suspected cases.

"From March 30, their time is nearing completion. After that, they do not need to be under any surveillance. By April 7, we will have a situation of zero... We pray God that we should not get new cases,"

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