Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi, Sonia from Rae Bareli in LS polls

Agencies
March 8, 2019

New Delhi, Mar 8: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from his traditional Amethi seat and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from her Rae Bareli, according to Congress's first list of candidates released on Thursday.

The list of 15 candidates includes four candidates from Gujarat and 11 from Uttar Pradesh. 

The list includes some young faces who have contested elections earlier as also from the old guard and reflects Rahul Gandhi's desire to field well-known names to brighten the party's prospects in the triangular fight. 

In Uttar Pradesh, the party has again fielded former Union ministers Salman Khurshid from Farrukhabad, Jitin Prasad from Dhaurahra and RPN Singh from Kushi Nagar. 

The three leaders have been fielded from their traditional seats which they lost in 2014 when the BJP swept the polls in the state. 

The party has fielded former MPs Annu Tandon from Unnao, Nirmal Khatri from Faizabad, Saleem Iqbal Shervani from Badaun, Rajaram Pal from Abkarpur and Brij Lal Khabri from Jalaun. The last two had joined the Congress after leaving Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. 

Imran Masood, who had made controversial remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has been fielded again from Saharanpur. He was censured by the Congress leadership for his "chop Narendra Modi into pieces" remark and was asked to issue a public clarification. 

Both Khurshid and Shervani are seen as the old guard while Prasad and Singh are among the generation next leaders in the Congress. 

In Gujarat, the party has fielded former Rajya Sabha MP, Raju Parmar from Ahmedabad West, former Union Minister and former state unit chief Bharatsinh M Solanki from Anand, Prashant Patel from Vadodara and Ranjit Mohansinh Rathwa from Chhota Udaipur. 

The first Congress list has come even as the schedule of Lok Sabha elections has not been declared. The party has taken a lead over the ruling BJP which is yet to declare its first list of candidates. 

With both Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi contesting, there is still speculation if Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is General Secretary of eastern Uttar Pradesh, will enter the poll fray too. There has been demand from sections in the party that she should be fielded from Varanasi against Modi. 

The Congress, which is not part of Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance in Uttar Pradesh, is fighting the elections on its own in all the 80 parliamentary seats though it has not ruled out possibility of alliance with smaller parties. Both the SP, the BSP and the RLD are yet to formally declare their candidates though the alliance has announced they will not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli. 

Congress leaders said the list shows that the party will contest the elections "on the front foot" and strongly. 

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: With the highest single-day spike of 15,968 cases and 465 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,56,183 on Wednesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,476 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The count includes 1,83,022 active cases, and 2,58,685 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,39,010 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 62,848 active, 69,631 cured, discharged patients while 6,531 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 66,602.

2,301 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 64,603 cases so far with the death toll reaching 833.

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News Network
May 20,2020

Kolkata, May 20: Cyclone 'Amphan' lay centred about 240 km south of Digha in West Bengal on Wednesday morning as an extremely severe cyclonic storm, the Met department said here.

The intensity near the centre of the storm was 170 to 180 kmph gusting to 200 kmph, the Met said.

'Amphan' is very likely to move north-northeastwards and cross West Bengal-Bangladesh coast between Digha and Hatiya, close to the Sunderbans during the afternoon to evening of Wednesday with a wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph as a 'very severe cyclonic storm', the Met department said.

West Bengal has evacuated more than three lakh people to safer places as the cyclonic storm 'Amphan' roared towards the coastal areas of the state, officials said.

The Met department, which has issued an "orange message" for West Bengal, warned of extensive damage in Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah, South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts.

The Met department has advised that all establishments and markets remain closed in Kolkata and adjoining areas and movement of people be restricted on May 20.

There is likely to be disruption of rail and road link at several places, uprooting of communication and power poles, extensive damage to all types of 'kutcha' houses and some damage to "old badly managed pucca" structures and potential threat from flying objects, the weatherman warned.

There is also likelihood of extensive damage to standing crops, plantations and orchards and blowing down of palm and coconut trees, the Met said.

The weatherman has advised diversion or suspension of rail and road traffic in the districts which are likely to be affected.

The Eastern Railway (ER) has cancelled the departure of Howrah-New Delhi AC Special Express for Wednesday.

The departure of 02301 Howrah-New Delhi AC Special Express on Wednesday and 02302 New Delhi-Howrah AC Special Express on May 21 would remain cancelled, the ER said.

Wind speed along and off the coastal areas of West Bengal will reach 75 to 85 kmph with gusts up to 95 kmph from Wednesday morning along and off districts of North and South 24 Parganas, East and West Midnapore, Kolkata, Howrah and Hooghly, Regional Met director G K Das said.

"It will gradually increase thereafter becoming 110 to 120 kmph gusting to 130 kmph over West Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata and wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph gusting to 185 kmph over the districts of North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore of West Bengal from the afternoon to night of May 20," he said.

Under its impact rainfall will occur in most places over the districts of Gangetic West Bengal on Wednesday, with heavy to very heavy downpour with extremely heavy rain at a few places in Kolkata, Howrah, East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts, he said.

"Storm surge of 4 to 5 metres above astronomical tide is likely to inundate low lying areas of South and North 24 Parganas and about 3 to 4 metres over low lying areas of East Midnapore district of West Bengal during the time of landfall," he said.

The Indian Navy has dispatched a diving team for providing assistance to the West Bengal government in relief operations, a Defence official said.

The diving team from Vishakhapatnam has brought specialised equipment along with them which can be used for rescue in case of flooding and have been positioned at the Naval Service Selection Board at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district, the official said.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
July 20,2020

Jaipur, Jul 20: In a startling revelation, Rajasthan Congress MLA Giriraj Singh Malinga has claimed that rebel leader Sachin Pilot offered him Rs 35 crore to switch to the BJP but he refused. 

Speaking to the media in Rajasthan capital Jaipur, Malinga, who represents Bari constituency, said he had informed Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot about Pilot’s “offer”.

“I, too, had offers but I refused. I had spoken to Sachin ji, he asked me to switch sides and I refused. This is a wrong thing, I will not do it for money,” Malinga said.

“I said that when we left Bahujan (BSP, in 2008), where one has to give money to get a ticket, whereas in Congress and BJP, that is not the system. I was offered a lot of money. Sachin Pilot had said money is not an issue, you ask what you want and you will get… Rs 35 crore or more, but I said it is wrong,” he added.

Malinga said he had had the conversation with Pilot 2-3 times, first in December during the panchayat delimitation, and later before the Rajya Sabha elections last month.

He added that the BJP had never reached out to him, and neither had he spoken to them. “I have no animosity with Pilot but I am speaking the truth,” he said.

The state plunged into a political crisis after former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot declared rebellion on 12 July, claiming to have the support of 30 MLAs. By the next day, however, he could not prove the support of more than 18 legislators.

On 14 July, 19 MLAs, including Pilot, were served notices by Speaker C.P. Joshi, who asked them to respond by Friday after a petition filed by the chief whip of Congress sought their disqualification from the state assembly. The party also sacked Pilot and two Rajasthan cabinet ministers from their respective posts the same day.

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