NDA's Prez pick: Nitish happy, Mayawati positive; Cong calls it 'unilateral decision'

TNN
June 19, 2017

New Delhi, Jun 19: The BJP's pick for Presidential nominee seems to have left the opposition divided with at least two prominent leaders welcoming decision to nominate Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as NDA's candidate for President's post.ram-nath

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday expressed happiness over Ram Nath Kovind's candidature for the President's post while BSP chief Mayawati making it clear that her party's stand will be positive provided opposition does not field any dalit for the top post.

"Kovind has discharged his duties in an unbiased manner as the Bihar Governor. He has worked as per the Constitution and upheld the dignity of the Governor's post. His was an ideal relation with the state government," Nitish Kumar said after meeting Kovind at Raj Bhavan.

Nitish congratulated Kovind, a dalit leader from the Bharatiya Janata Party, on his nomination as the National Democratic Alliance candidate, and added that "I am personally glad he is the presidential candidate".

However, Nitish did not commit on his party's support for the NDA nominee.

"It is difficult to say at this point of time. I had talks with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on this issue. We will discuss the issue later and decide," Nitish said.

The Congress, however, spurned the BJP's appeal for consensus on its choice for President and said the opposition would take a call on contesting the election after a meeting on June 22.

The BJP has taken a "unilateral decision", Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said soon after the announcement of Ram Nath Kovind as the NDA's candidate for President's post.

"Congress does not want to comment on this issue as we want to take a unanimous decision with all other opposition parties on the presidential elections. The final call will be taken in a meeting of all opposition parties on June 22," Azad told reporters here.

Terming the BJP's efforts to reach out to the opposition through its senior leaders as a "formality and a PR exercise", Azad said the ruling party should have built consensus before announcing the candidate.

"But they informed us after announcing this decision so there is no scope for consensus now... we were not expecting this from the ruling party. But it is their will, they are free to take a one-sided unilateral decision," Azad added.

No names were discussed when senior BJP leaders M Venkaiah Naidu and Rajnath Singh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week, the Congress leader said.

What the farmers want is best price for crop: Shivraj Chouhan
Asked to comment on the BJP fielding a Dalit candidate for the top constitutional post, Azad said, "...I don't want to comment on this...I don't want to comment on the merits and demerits of the candidate."

He added that minorities, backwards and dalits were not priorities for the BJP-led government. Atrocities on Dalits in Saharanpur were a clear example of this.

Discussing whether Nitish Kumar would attend the June 22 meeting, Azad said he had himself called the Bihar chief minister who had assured him that there would be somebody from his Janata Dal-United.

Comments

Shankar
 - 
Monday, 19 Jun 2017

This was a shakuni move by BJP.
Amidst all the anti-dalit atrocities, nominating a dalit candidate would have been an obvious strategy by the opposition. But the NDA foresaw it and played the move themselves.
The opposition is now left with either agreeing to this or nominating a muslim candidate (depending on support from others in the alliance).

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News Network
February 2,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 2: A woman from Bengaluru lost Rs 2.8 lakh to a 'foreign friend' who promised her gifts, including gold jewellery and foreign currency.

Priya, 37, of Banashankari III Stage, told police a man named Bright Wills from England befriended her on social media in December 2019.

On December 20, Wills said he would send gold ornaments and some British pounds as gifts to celebrate their friendship and took her postal address.

“A woman claiming to be an official from the customs office, Delhi, called me on December 21. She told me there was a courier from England in my name and I should pay Rs 75,000 tow ards customs clearance. I believed her and transferred Rs 75,000 to a bank account number provided by her. On December 23, another woman called and said gold ornaments had been sent to me by courier and I had to pay Rs 2.1 lakh towards the paperwork. I transferred the money to another account number mentioned by her," Priya told police.

"On December 25, I received an email which said I should make a surety deposit of Rs 4.3 lakh within 48 hours or else the courier would be sent back to its original destination. I realised I had been cheated by Wills and others. Till now, I have paid Rs 2.8 lakh to them," she claimed.

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News Network
March 15,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 15: All 21 Madhya Pradesh MLAs from Jyotiraditya Scindia's camp, who were lodged here at Prestige Golfshire Club, have been shifted to Ramada hotel in Yelahanka ahead of Monday's floor test in the state assembly.

In view of their arrival, the concerned authorities have strengthened security outside the hotel.

Following the exit of Scindia from Congress, these MLAs claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

On March 11, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Sajjan Singh Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of these rebel MLAs.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and were apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs, who arrived in Bhopal from Jaipur today morning ahead of the floor test in the Assembly on Monday, have been shifted to Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

These MLAs were accompanied by senior Congress leader Harish Rawat, who exuded confidence of Kamal-Nath led government winning floor test in the Assembly.

Both Congress and BJP have issued whips to all its MLAs for the legislative assembly session in Madhya Pradesh, which is scheduled to be held from March 16 to April 13.

On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon had directed that a floor test will be held in the assembly on Monday.

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News Network
May 8,2020

Bengaluru, May 8: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said his government is clear in its stand on extending every possible help to the farmers. The Chief Minister spoke to the farmer-leaders of the state, who wanted their concerns to be heard and addressed, with regard to the problems the agrarian community has been facing in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown.

"We will soon make our position clear on supporting the farmers. We will not allow any hindrance to come in the way of agriculture activities," Yediyurappa told the farmer- leaders.

The Chief Minister told the delegation that the pre-monsoon activities are in full swing in the state.

The government has also set up help centres and been providing agriculture equipment on rent, the Chief Minister said. In most of the places, at least 80 per cent of the standing crops have been harvested.

Arrangements have been made to bring equipment from neighbouring states to harvest the standing crop, he said.

Yediyurappa said fertilisers and seeds are available in abundance in the state.

He informed the farmer-leaders about the arrangements made to transport flowers, vegetables and fruits to other states.

Similarly, the market has been developed for the farmers to sell their products, said the Chief Minister.

He said the government is working out a compensation for farmers who lost their crops due to hailstorm in Raichur, Koppal and Ballari. Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Horticulture Minister Narayana Gowda, Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar and Development Commissioner Vandita Sharma were also present in the meeting.

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