Rahul Gandhi not to be PM candidate, to lead Congress campaign for L S polls

January 16, 2014

New Delhi, Jan 16: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will lead the party's campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but will not be declared prime ministerial candidate, the party said Thursday.

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A meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) Thursday evening decided the agenda for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting Friday, in which a resolution will be moved about the role of Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters after the CWC meeting that there was a demand from several leaders to declare Rahul Gandhi the prime ministerial candidate but party president Sonia Gandhi intervened to say that the Congress did not have the tradition of declaring a prime ministerial candidate.

He said the CWC decided that the resolution be moved at the AICC meeting.

"This meeting of CWC declares that the 2014 election campaign will be led by Rahul Gandhi," Dwivedi said reading out the resolution.

Dwivedi said Sonia Gandhi told the meeting that it was not necessary for the Congress to declare a prime ministerial candidate even if some other party had done so.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate.

Dwivedi said it was always known in the Congress who will lead the poll campaign.Answering queries, he said the resolution means that the 2014 elections will be contested under "one leadership".

He said the party has been consistently saying that Rahul Gandhi was the party leader next to Sonia Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the future," he said.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi said he was always ready to discharge any responsibility given to him by the party.

He also said there were attempts to strike at the Congress ideology and there was a need to strengthen it.

Dwivedi said the party's election leaders were known from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru even if there was no announcement of the prime ministerial candidate.

He said an announcement was made about Manmohan Singh's candidature as prime minister ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as he was already holding the position.

Manmohan Singh had announced earlier this month that he will not be seeking another term as prime minister.

Sources said several CWC members at the meeting asked the party-led United Progressive Alliance government to take immediate steps to check price rise.

They demanded an increase in subsidised cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12 for each household.

They said the concerns were targeted at Petroleum Minister M. Veerapa Moily, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who were all present at the meeting.

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News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: Activist Sharjeel Imam's mobile phone and laptop along with some anti-CAA posters have been seized from his house in Bihar's Jehanabad and rented flat in Vasant Kunj, police said on Friday.

Imam was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch from Jehanabad in a sedition case and he is being questioned by police for his alleged inflammatory speeches in Aligarh and at the Jamia Millia Islamia University here.

During investigation, a laptop and a desktop belonging to Imam were recovered from his rented flat at Vasant Kunj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajesh Deo said.

His mobile phone was recovered from his house at his native place in Jehanabad's Kako area on the instance of his brother, he said.

Imam had prepared anti-CAA and anti-NRC pamphlets with "misleading and intimidating facts" and then distributed them in various mosques, the copy of which have been recovered, police said.

The shop from where he made photocopies of the pamphlets has also been identified, they added.

Imam was arrested on Tuesday. He was brought to Delhi on Wednesday and produced at the residence of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak in the evening amid tight security after which police were granted his five-day custody.

The PhD scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies has been booked for sedition and other charges in several states after videos of his alleged inflammatory speeches, made during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), were circulated on the social media.

An FIR was registered against Imam by the Delhi Police on January 25 under IPC sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal was on Sunday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row at Ramlila Maidan here, after his party registered a massive victory in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls.

Kejriwal was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

The sprawling Ramlila Maidan reverberated with sounds of thousands of people cheering for the AAP leader.

Kejriwal who received a hero's welcome here had extended an invitation to the people of Delhi urging them to attend the swearing-in ceremony to witness "the son of Delhi" taking oath today.

The AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance in the elections, sweeping the Assembly polls winning 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah. 

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News Network
May 12,2020

New Delhi, May 12: Stranded for over 50 days due to the lockdown and suspension of passenger train services, many people in the national capital will finally be able to reach their destinations in different parts of the country after the railways resumed services on Tuesday.

Three special AC trains will leave the New Delhi railway station for Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur.

The train to Dibrugarh in Assam will leave at 4.45 p.m, while the one leaving for Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and Bengaluru in Karnataka will leave the New Delhi station at 5.30 p.m and 9.15 p.m respectively.

Entry to the station has been facilitated from the Paharganj side for all confirmed ticket holders. No entry for passengers holding such tickets will be permitted from the Ajmeri Gate side, the railways said.

Railway authorities have put barricades outside the station premises and only those with confirmed tickets are being allowed to enter.

All passengers are undergoing thermal screening before entering the station premises. For this purpose, they have also been asked to reach the station 90 minutes prior to the departure of the train.

A senior Railway Police Force officer said every passenger is being subjected to thermal screening. Hand sanitiser machines have also been placed at the entrance and the passengers are being advised to sanitise their hands before entering the station premises.

Syed Yasir, a private retail sector executive, said due to the resumption of services he will now be able to go to Nagpur to be with his family on Eid. 

Surendra, an engineer with a PSU, was on an assignment in Agra when the lockdown was announced. After the Railways decided to resume passenger train services, he came to Delhi in a private vehicle to board the train to Bengaluru.

"I was on an assignment in Agra where I was stuck. I have come from Agra in a private vehicle and now going to board the train to Bengaluru," Surendra, who identified himself with his first name, said.

Five more trains bound for Delhi will leave from Patna, Bengaluru, Howrah, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the railways said.

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