Assembly elections: Counting begins in four states

December 8, 2013

New Delhi, Dec 8: The results of the Assembly elections to four key heartland States — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi — to be announced on Sunday will set the stage for the 2014 general election.

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BJP leaders, cheered by exit polls predicting the party winning three of the four States and emerging as the single largest party in Delhi, are nevertheless keeping their fingers crossed. A senior leader said on Friday: “I would like to wait till Sunday to accept congratulations.” BJP president Rajnath Singh held a “strategy session” at the party headquarters with senior functionaries.

If the BJP, out of power at the Centre for nine years, has much at stake in these polls, so has Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, now the prime ministerial candidate, who addressed a number of election rallies in all four States. The BJP’s much-publicised “Modi Magic” will face the first litmus test in the verdict in the four States, the polls being dubbed “semi-finals” to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Not surprisingly, a day ahead of the results, the mood in the Congress was downbeat, with its leaders hoping the party would fare better than what the exit polls had suggested.

Congress leaders said if the party failed to win at least one of these four States (counting for Mizoram will take place on Monday), it would not just set the tone for next year’s Lok Sabha elections, it would also make it very difficult for it to persuade the Opposition to cooperate with it in the ongoing Parliament session, in which it has a heavy legislative agenda.

The government is keen on pushing through not just a slew of anti-corruption laws, including the Lokpal Bill and the Whistle-blowers’ Bill but also the key Bill on Telangana. Indeed, if Telangana is created before next year’s elections, the Congress believes, it will give the party an electoral boost in the region. On the other hand, if the new State does not become a ground reality, the party will face the prospect of getting wiped out in both Telangana, and Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.

Publicly, the Congress maintains that the Assembly elections are fought on local issues and the results will have no impact on the general election. “The BJP should be cautious in celebrations, even if opinion and exit polls are true. We won all these 4 States in 1998, 1999. The Lok Sabha results were an eye opener for us,” Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said on Twitter.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: India on Wednesday reported 47,704 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's count of coronavirus cases to 14,83,157, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the total cases, there are 4,96,988 active cases in the country while the number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 9,52,744.

With 654 deaths due to COVID-19 in the country reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 33,425.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has increased to 64.23 per cent. The recoveries to deaths ratio is 96.6 per cent:3.4 per cent, informed the Centre.

As per the data provided by the Ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state from the infection with 1,48,905 active cases and 13,656 deaths due to COVID-19. Tamil Nadu has a total of 53,703 active cases and 3,494 deaths.

Delhi has a total of 11,904 active cases and 3,827 deaths.

The Health Ministry further informed that more than 5 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted in a single day over two consecutive days. On 26th July, India tested a total of 5,15,000 samples and on 27th July, a total of 5,28,000 samples were tested.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 27 is 1,73,34,885 including 5,28,082 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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News Network
March 19,2020

Mar 19: Amidst spiralling cases of COVID-19 in the country, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Thursday advocated "absorbing sunlight" as a possible precaution against coronavirus that has claimed over 8,000 lives globally.

Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Choubey said 10-15 minutes in the sun would build immunity as sunlight provides Vitamin D.

"From 11 am to 2 pm the sun is shining brightly. We should spend at least 10-15 minutes to absorb sunlight so that we get vitamin D which improves the immunity of our body and also kills such viruses. All should be aware of (this fact)," he said when asked about the spread of coronavirus.

COVID-19 cases in India climbed to 169 on Thursday after 18 fresh cases were reported from various parts of the country, according to the Union health ministry.

The cases include 25 foreign nationals -- 17 from Italy, 3 from the Philippines, two from the UK, one each belonging to Canada, Indonesia and Singapore.

The figure also includes three deaths reported from Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra so far.

According to the World Health Organisation, the novel coronavirus has killed over 8,000 people globally and infected more than two lakh.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Noida, Jan 6: A fire broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and firefighting was underway, officials said.

The blaze broke out in the basement of the seven-storey hospital building located in Sector 24, a police official said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the Fire Department was alerted about it around 8 am, the official said.

After that, a search was done to see if anyone was trapped in the building, he said.

The cooling process is now underway.

He said the fire had engulfed the ground, first and second floors of the building, except the basement.

Police said they received information about fire at Kaveri printing press at 2:45 am, when the manager Yogesh called them. The press owners have been identified as Atul and Anuj Goyal, residents of Sukhdev Vihar, they said.

The man who died in the fire has been identified as Phool Dev, from Bihar, who used to work as a help there. Dev went inside the building in the night to sleep before the fire started and died due to suffocation, the fire department official said.

The body has been kept at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and the post-mortem will be done once the family reaches here, police said.

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