Elections 2012 results: Modi scores hat-trick in Gujarat, Congress wins Himachal

December 20, 2012

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Ahmedabad, December 20: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi won a third consecutive victory in the assembly elections and is likely to lead the race for prime ministerial candidate in BJP in 2014 while the Congress wrested power from the saffron party in Himachal Pradesh.

The BJP was leading in 118 of the 182 seats in Gujarat while Congress was ahead in 59. Former chief minister Keshubhai Patel's GPP on which the Congress hoped to defeat Modi fared very badly. The NCP and JDU were leading in one seat each.

Chief minister Narendra Modi won comfortably from the Maninagar constituency by about 86,000 votes against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's wife Shweta Bhatt. In 2007, Modi had won the elections by more than 87,000 votes.

His aide & former minister Amit Shah, who was arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case won from the Naranpura constituency.

Gujarat Parivartan Party president and former CM Keshubhai Patel won by around 20,000 votes in Visavadar seat.

In the last elections in 2007, the BJP had won 117 seats and Congress 59.

However, the party was set for a debacle in Himachal Pradesh, a state which has stuck to its habit of voting out an incumbent government.

The Congress, which put up a spirited campaign under former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, is all set to return to power in the hill state.

As trends showed reverses for BJP, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal appeared prepared for defeat.

"Whatever people decide is good. It would be good if they support us, and good even if they don't. I will welcome the decision of people," he said when asked to react on the trends going against his party.

Dhumal himself won from the Hamirpur defeating his nearest Congress rival Narinder Thakur by a margin of over 9,500 votes. He had won from Bamsan in 2007 by about 30,000 votes but after delimitation his constituency was scrapped and he had to shift to adjoining constituency of Hamirpur.

His rival and Congress veteran Virbhadra Singh said that he had put in his "best efforts" in the polls and it was for Sonia Gandhi to decide the party's chief minister.

"I had been given the brief to bring the party back to power and for that I had put in my best efforts. It is for our national leader Sonia Gandhi to decide who will become the chief minister," Singh said.

The party has already won two seats and was leading in 35 seats in the 68-member Assembly. BJP was leading in 23 seats and has won two seats. 'Others' led in four seats having won in one. Congress had won 23 seats and BJP 41 in the 2007 polls.

The BJP's hat-trick in retaining power in Gujarat added grist to political mill speculating on Modi becoming the party's PM candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections.

BJP MP Smriti Irani openly declared that Modi is her prime ministerial candidate. However, the party was cautious to comment on the issue. Suspended MP Ram Jethmalani said that the victory has "definitely" strengthened Modi's contention for being the PM candidate.

Jethmalani said the third straight victory in Gujarat Assembly Polls has defined Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"Definitely," Jethmalani said when asked if the victory has strengthened Modi's contention for the Prime Minister's chair.

Chief spokesperson of BJP Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, parried questions on the issue saying Modi has always been an important leader in the party.

"We are not a dynastic party, which is led by a Yuavaraj. We function in a pure democratic fashion," he said without committing on Modi.

In a significant comment, Modi tweeted that it was time to move "forward".

"No need of looking behind...FORWARD...we want infinite energy, infinite courage, infinite patience..." Modi said on the microblogging site Twitter as trends indicated a clear victory for him.

Congress leaders sought to downplay their defeat and also the possible emergence of Modi as a PM candidate. Finance minister P Chidambaram said Congress is the "clear winner" in Gujarat having "contained" Modi and BJP.

They sad that victory in Assembly polls does not guarantee Modi's acceptability in national politics.

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News Network
April 11,2020

New Delhi, Apr 11: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with chief ministers, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday urged CMs of states where the party is in power to unanimously demand for transfer of cash to every poor family.

He said the poor have lost their jobs and have exhausted their savings. They are now standing in lines to get free food, the former Union finance minister said.

Chidambaram said remonetising the poor would cost only Rs 65,000 crore, which is economically viable.

"Chief ministers Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, V Narayanasami, Uddhav Thackeray and E Palaniswani should tell the prime minister today that just as LIVES are important LIVELIHOOD of the poor is important, he tweeted.

"The poor have lost their jobs or self-employment in the last 18 days. They have exhausted their meagre savings. Many are standing in line for food," Chidambaram said.

Can the state stand by and watch them go hungry," he asked, adding that chief ministers should demand that cash be transferred to every poor family immediately.

"Remonetise the poor should be their unanimous demand," Chidambaram said.

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News Network
January 31,2020

New Delhi, Jan 31: The Supreme Court Friday dismissed the plea filed by one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, Pawan Gupta, seeking review of its order rejecting his juvenility claim.

The review plea filed earlier in the day was taken up for consideration in-chamber by a bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna. 

On January 20, the apex court had rejected the plea by Pawan who had challenged the Delhi High Court's order dismissing his juvenility claim.

Advocate A P Singh, who is representing Pawan in the case, said he filed a petition on his behalf seeking review of the top court's January 20 order on Friday.

While dismissing the plea, the top court had said there was no ground to interfere with the high court order that rejected Pawan's plea and his claim was rightly rejected by the trial court as also the high court.

It had said the matter was raised earlier in the review petition before the apex court which rejected plea of juvenility taken by Pawan and another co-accused Vinay Kumar Sharma and that order has attained finality.

Singh had argued that as per his school leaving certificate, he was a minor at the time of the offence and none of the courts, including trial court and high court, ever considered his documents.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi Police, had said Pawan's claim of juvenility was considered at each and every judicial forum and it will be a travesty of justice if the convict is allowed to raise the claim of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.

The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31) -- in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1. Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

As of now, only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29.

Convict Akshay's curative petition was dismissed by the top court on January 30. Another death row convict Vinay moved mercy plea before President on January 29, which is pending.

Singh has also approached the trial court seeking stay on the execution scheduled on February 1, saying the legal remedies of some of the convicts are yet to be availed.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road.

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News Network
June 21,2020

New Delhi, June 21: India today recorded the highest single-day spike in infections so far with 15,413 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of positive cases in India touched 4.11 lakh on Sunday.

As per the Ministry of Health data, the total number of coronavirus cases stands at 4,10,461 cases which include 1,69,451 active cases, 2,27,756 recovered/migrated cases, and 13,254 deaths as per the Ministry of Health data.

With 1,28,205 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu with 56,845 and Delhi 56,746. 

Delhi reported its highest single-day increase of 3,630 new coronavirus cases. With this, the state’s tally rose to 56,746. The toll rose to 2,112 with 77 deaths. As many as 7,725 people recovered, taking the total recoveries to 31,294.

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