Vote split: Cong shocked as BJP’s ally JDU decides to field over 100 candidates in Guj

News Network
November 27, 2017

New Delhi, Nov 27: The unexpected decision of JD(U), which is an ally of BJP, to field more than 100 candidates in the Gujarat Assembly elections has left the Congress worried.

The Opposition believes that BJP supremo convinced JD(U) to take the poll plunge to spoil the chances of Congress and its allies in the state.

The Congress and its allies are also closely watching the whirlwind campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that kick-started on Monday with a rally in Bhuj. The party's leaders are already apprehensive about Modi's ability to swing the elections in favour of the BJP almost single-handedly.

"The JD (U), at the most can boast of support in 8-10 constituencies. By contesting 100 seats, the JD (U) is punching way above its weight," a senior Congress leader said.

Chhotubhai Vasava, a JD (U) rebel who supported Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the crucial Rajya Sabha election in the state in August has been given a free hand to put up candidates on eight seats.

Vasava is contesting the elections under the banner of the Bhartiya Tribal Party, but some of his candidates will be in the fray on a Congress ticket.

The Congress is leaning on JD (U) rebel Sharad Yadav for campaigning in the areas where Vasava has fielded or backed candidates.

Yadav said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki have been in touch with him on strategising for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

There are at least a million migrant voters- mostly from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar -in the industrial belt of Surat and Ankleshwar, who are also the target of Yadav's campaign.

Asked about the JD (U)'s decision to field 100 candidates in the Gujarat elections, Yadav said that he suspected that the BJP will have the final word in the selection of candidates for Nitish Kumar's outfit.

"I hear they are fielding some Chhotubhai from Jhagadia Assembly seat from where Bhartiya Tribal Party's Chhotubhai Vasava is in the fray. This is only to confuse voters and cut our votes," Yadav said.

Comments

shaji
 - 
Tuesday, 28 Nov 2017

BJP is tryig to win election by any means.  It will not mind to kill its own party supporters to get sympathy from voters.  Their leaders are licking foots of everyone to get votes.   However i am sure that voters are aware of the fraud and cheating of bjp leaders and they have decided to throw them out.

 

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News Network
February 10,2020

Hyderabad, Feb 10: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi continued his tirade against PM Modi and Amit Shah against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). "We are ready to take bullets in our chests but we will not show our papers.

We are ready to take bullets in our chests as we love our country," Owaisi said further.

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News Network
May 21,2020

London, May 21: Working mothers in Europe and the United States are taking on most of the extra housework and childcare created by lockdown - and many are struggling to cope, a survey showed on Thursday.

Women with children now spend an average 65 hours a week on the unpaid chores - nearly a third more than fathers - according to the Boston Consulting Group, which questioned parents in five countries.

"Women have been doing too much household work for too long, and this crisis is pushing them to a point that's simply unsustainable," Rachel Thomas, of U.S.-based women's rights group LeanIn.Org, said in response to the data.

"We need a major culture shift in our homes and in our companies ... We should use this moment to build a better way to work and live – one that's fair for everybody."

Researchers say fallout from the pandemic weighs on women in a host of ways, be it in rising domestic violence or in lower wages, as some women cut paid work to take on the new duties.

With lockdowns shutting schools and keeping citizens at home, creating a mountain of domestic work, public campaigns from Georgia to Mexico have urged men to do their fair share.

But women, who on average already do more at home than men, are now shouldering most of the new coronavirus burden, too, said the survey of more than 3,000 working parents in the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany and France.

Women's unpaid hours at home have nearly doubled to 65 hours a week, said the survey, against 50 logged by an average father.

British women are more likely to support others in the COVID-19 pandemic and are finding it harder to stay positive, according to separate analysis released this week by polling firm Ipsos MORI and feminist organisation The Fawcett Society.

It is "no surprise" to see women do more childcare and housekeeping on top of their day jobs, Jacqui Hunt of women's rights group Equality Now, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

However, there are "hopeful signs" that men in West Africa are sharing more childcare during the pandemic in a shift in social norms, found a small rapid analysis by humanitarian organisation CARE International released on Wednesday.

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News Network
March 18,2020

Washington, Mar 18: Hundreds of distressed Indian students, stuck in the Philippines, are seeking help through video messages as they are unable to fly back home due to the travel restrictions imposed by India to contain the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, according to friends and relatives of some of these students in the US.

The Indian government on Tuesday banned the entry of passengers from Afghanistan, Philippines and Malaysia to India with immediate effect amid stepped up efforts against the spread of COVID-19.

In a video message by one of these students Akhil Bala Nair, around 200 Indian students had booked their flight tickets for India in the next few days. But all of them have been cancelled due to the new policy.

Most of the students, she said, had booked their flights for March 17 and rest were schedule to travel to India on March 19 and 20. But the flights were cancelled and scores of Indian students are now stuck at the airport in Manila, Nair said in the video message sent to Prem Bhandari, head of the Jaipur Foot USA.

“It is need of the hour that the Indian government send a plane to bring these Indian students back home,” Bhandari, who in the past has worked for the cause of the Indian diaspora, and who was approached by these students told PTI.

According to these students, some 100 of them have been at the airport since Tuesday.

They all have confirmed tickets but the airport authorities are not allowing them to check in because of the new travel regulations.

While the airport authorities have asked them to go back to their respective place of residence, the students said they were unable to travel because of the absence of local taxi or shared ride services.

The students said that they are running out of time as the Philippines government has given them 72 hours time to exit the country, which started from March 16, after which the country will go into lockdown.

“This means we would not be able to travel anywhere outside Philippines after March 20,” Nair said in her message.

The students said that there are many of them who have applied for renewal of their visas and are unable to travel to India.

There are nearly 1,000 Indian students presently in Manila who are willing to travel back home, they said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Manila, in a tweet, said that they, along with the Ministry of External Affairs, are trying to work out a solution.

“It is requested to all to kindly have patience,” the embassy said.

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