It could be cricketer Azharuddin vs Asaduddin Owaisi in Lok Sabha elections 2014

March 10, 2013

Asaduddin_in_Lok_Sabha

Hyderabad, Mar 10: In what may turn out to be one of the most interesting poll contests in 2014, the Congress might field former cricketer Md Azharuddin against MIM's Asaduddin Owaisi from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency.

The MIM and Congress have fallen apart of recent, and its president Asaduddin has taken on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy after dubbing him as communal. The move to pit Azhar against his friend Asaduddin is Kiran Kumar Reddy's move to get back at the MIM, said sources. Incidentally, the CM and Azhar too are good friends from their cricketing days.

Azhar met Kiran Kumar Reddy at the AP Bhavan in Delhi on Saturday. "I do have interest in AP politics," the former Hyderabadi cricketer told the media after the meeting. When asked if he would contest from Hyderabad on the Congress ticket, Azhar said: "It all depends on the Congress high command." Azhar was all praise for the chief minister's performance, but feigned ignorance about the falling out between the Congress and MIM. According to the sources, the CM took time out of his busy scheduled to meet Azhar, thus making it clear that it was a significant meeting.

Azharuddin, who was banned from playing cricket for India after his alleged involvement in the match-fixing cases, joined the Congress just before the 2009 elections and won with a thumping majority from Moradabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Recently, a city court had set aside the life ban imposed on Azhar by the Board of Control for Cricket in India .

The CM's game plan, according to the sources, is to cut the MIM to size in Old City, its bastion, by fielding the cricketer-turned-politician.

"Kiran wants to disprove Asaduddin's remark that it was the Congress that benefitted from associating with the MIM, and prove that it was other way round. In what appears to have become a personal war, Kiran wants to prove that minus the Congress, MIM would not get more than two seats in the Assembly," a close aide of Kiran Kumar told STOI.

If Azhar does end up as the Congress candidate from Hyderabad constituency, the going will not be easy for Asaduddin. "If the TDP again fields Zahid Ali Khan, the Muslim votes will get split and it will not be

easy for the MIM to retain the seat. And the BJP too can add to the MIM's discomfiture by fielding a Hindu candidate. Azhar's entry should be a wake up call for the MIM," said the sources. Analysts believe that it was Owaisi who ensured that Azhar did not contest Lok Sabha from Andhra Pradesh in 2009 and had him dispatched to UP.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Chennai, Jun 10: DMK MLA J Anbazhagan who had tested positive for coronavirus and was on ventilator support from June 3 passed away at a hospital in Chennai on Wednesday.

Coincidently, today is the 62nd birthday of the MLA.

"Anbazhagan J, who has been fighting for his life with severe COVID 19 pneumonia rapidly deteriorated early this morning. In spite of full medical support including mechanical ventilation at our COVID facility, he succumbed to his illness. He was declared dead at 08:05 hours on the 10th of June 2020," the hospital said in a statement.

In 2001, Anbazhagan was elected from T Nagar Assembly constituency. He served for five years.

Later in 2011, he was elected to Tamil Nadu Assembly from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni seat. The DMK leader was re-elected from the same constituency in 2016.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

Lucknow, Jan 12: The controversy over renowned Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's iconic poem 'Hum dekhenge' may have caused an upheaval in the literary world but it has also helped in resurrecting the famous poet for the young generations.

Students and young professionals are making a beeline for books on Faiz, his biography and his poems and book sellers are ordering supplies of Faiz books.

"Earlier, we sold hardly one book in a month or on Faiz but after the controversy, people are curious to know more about the poet and his poems. We have placed orders for the entire literary range on Faiz Ahmad Faiz," said a leading book seller in Hazratganj in Lucknow.

The bookseller said that the highest demand was for books written in Devnagri script.

"Not many in the young generation can read or write Urdu so they prefer Devnagri," the book seller said.

In Kanpur, most of the leading bookshops have already run out of stocks and book stalls in the ongoing Handloom Expo are drawing huge crowds for Faiz books.

Suchita Srivastava, B.Ed student in Kanpur said, "I have never been fond of Urdu poetry because I do not understand much of the language but after the controversy, I want to read poems of Faiz to understand what he wanted to say. I am taking help of Google to understand difficult words in Urdu."

Krishna Rao, another student at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, said that since books on Faiz had been sold out, he had ordered a Kindle edition and was reading them.

"Reading his poems actually widens one's perspective of things and becomes even more precious if you take into account the time and context in which they were written," he said.

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News Network
July 19,2020

New Delhi, Jul 19: With the highest single-day spike of 38,902 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's total COVID-19 tally on Sunday reached 10,77,618, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday.

The death toll has gone up to 26,816 with 543 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry said the total number of cases includes 3,73,379 active cases and 6,77,423 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 3,00,937 cases reported until Saturday.
Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,34,33,742 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 18, of these 3,61,024 samples were tested yesterday.

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