Kejriwal concedes 'complete shift of Muslim votes to Cong at last moment' may hurt AAP in Delhi

Agencies
May 18, 2019

New Delhi, May 18: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, who was claiming to be winning all seven seats in Delhi, seems to be less hopeful after the polling on May 12. The Delhi Chief Minister who was riding on the hope that his party would get a big chunk of Muslim votes, which is more than 12% in the national capital, has said that the minority community's votes shifted to the Congress at the last minute before polling.

"Let us see what happens. Until 48 hours before polling, it seemed like all seven seats will come to AAP. But at the last moment, the complete Muslim vote got shifted to Congress. We are trying to figure out what happened," Kejriwal told the Indian Express when asked how many seats would the AAP get in the Delhi.

Conceding that it may hurt the AAP, Kejriwal said Muslims are "12-13 per cent" in Delhi.

Voting for seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi was held on May 12 with the capital recording a voter turnout of 60%, down from 65 per cent in 2014, in a three-cornered Lok Sabha contest among BJP, AAP and Congress.

All seven seats were won by the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

According to a Times of India report, the constituencies with a sizeable population of Muslims saw impressive turnout with higher voter percentage than other areas. Ballimaran, Matia Mahal and Seelampur recorded highest turnouts with 68.3%, 66.9% and 66.5%, respectively. Voting in Trilokpuri, Mustafabad and Babarpur constituencies was also higher than the state average with 65.4%, 65.2% and 62.1% respectively. Only Chandni Chowk, 59.4%, and Okhla, 54.8%, recorded lower turnout than the average.

The voting percentage in 3 out of 7 seats in Delhi got more women to vote than men. The East Delhi constituency, which is seeing a triangular contest between BJP's Gautam Gambhir, Congress's Arvinder Singh Lovely and AAP's Atishi Marlena, saw 61.80 per cent women exercising their right to vote as compared to 61.50 per cent of male voters.

The New Delhi constituency, which has many VVIP voters, recorded the lowest voter turnout among all seven constituencies in Delhi at 56.86 per cent, but saw a better turnout of women than men. According to the data, 57.21 per cent of women voters cast their votes while 56.58 per cent men exercised their franchise in the seat.

South Delhi, which had the second lowest turnout of voters, saw 58.89 per cent of women voters as compared to 58.60 per cent of male voters.

The Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, where former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and AAP'S Dilip Pandey are contesting, recorded the highest voter turnout at 63.67 per cent.

While 64.46 per cent of men cast their votes, 62.72 per cent women turned out to vote.

According to official data, 60.82 per cent male voters and 60.15 per cent female voters exercised their right this time.

The East Delhi constituency saw 61.80 per cent women exercising their right to vote as compared to 61.50 per cent of male voters.

The New Delhi constituency recorded the lowest voter turnout among all seven constituencies in Delhi at 56.86 per cent, but saw a better turnout of women than men. According to the data, 57.21 per cent of women voters cast their votes while 56.58 per cent men exercised their franchise in the seat.

South Delhi, which had the second lowest turnout of voters, saw 58.89 per cent of women voters as compared to 58.60 per cent of male voters.

The Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, where former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and AAP'S Dilip Pandey are contesting, recorded the highest voter turnout at 63.67 per cent.

While 64.46 per cent of men cast their votes, 62.72 per cent women turned out to vote.

Counting for votes will take place on May 23.

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News Network
February 6,2020

Beijing, Feb 6: The number of confirmed fatalities from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to at least 560, after authorities in hardest-hit Hubei province reported 70 new deaths on February 6.

In its daily update, the health commission in Hubei also confirmed the number of confirmed infections in the outbreak has reached 28,018 nationwide with 3,694 new cases reported.

The epidemic, which has spiralled into a global health emergency, is believed to have emerged in December from a market that sold wild game in Hubei's capital Wuhan.

Hu Lishan, an official in Wuhan, warned Wednesday that despite building a hospital from scratch and converting public buildings to accommodate thousands of extra patients, there was still a "severe" lack of beds in the region.

There was also a shortage of "equipment and materials," he told reporters, adding that officials were looking to convert other hotels and schools in the city into treatment centres.

Authorities in several other cities in China have placed restrictions on the number of people allowed to leave their homes.

Global concerns have also risen about the virus, with cases confirmed in more than 20 countries.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Jammu, Jan 6: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said India is the only shelter for religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities who come from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, for the safety of their life and honour.

"India owes responsibility towards the minorities living in these countries which proclaim Islam as their state religion," Singh said here while launching the BJP's countrywide 10-day mass contact drive to spread awareness about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Accompanied by senior party colleagues, including former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and former minister Sat Sharma, he began by visiting the house of veteran columnist, writer and Padmashri awardee K L Pandita, where he spent time with them discussing the Act.

Later, he visited prominent social activist Amjad Mirza, eminent Sikh religious leader Baba Swaranjit Singh, retired High Court judge Justice G D Sharma, veteran journalist and former bureau head of Hind Samachar group Gopal Sachar, retired principal of Jammu government medical college Subhash Gupta, social activist and president of Peoples' Forum Ramesh Sabharwal, among others.

During his interaction with them, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office claimed that Congress leaders and their allies protesting against the Act are doing so without "conviction".

He opined that if a "survey" was conducted among the family members of these Congress leaders, then, even they would not support their "anti-CAA stand".

"The tragedy of Congress party and contemporary leaders of Congress is that either they do not read their own history or are blissfully ignorant of the statements made by their own party patriarchs and former prime ministers," he said.

The minister recalled that the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 was inspired by the realisation on the part of the then Congress government headed by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that minorities, particularly Hindus, were not getting a fair deal in Pakistan.

"In 1949, Nehru had written a letter expressing concern about people coming in from then East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, and while doing so, he had referred to Hindus coming from there as 'refugees' and Muslims arriving here as 'immigrants'," Singh said.

Further, Nehru had stated that India owed a "responsibility" to these refugees, the minister said.

Referring to the opposition of senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to the amended legislation, the minister said someone should show them records of proceedings of the winter session of Parliament in 1950 when their great-grandfather (Nehru) had himself said that they deserved to be given citizenship and if the law was inadequate for it, then, the law should be changed.

"PM Modi should actually be given credit for showing courage and conviction to carry forward the task, which the Congress government lacked, to accomplish this," the minister opined.

Singh reiterated that a false fear psychosis against Muslims is being sought to be manufactured when there is no place as safe and comfortable to live for the community as India.

Turning the tables on the opposition to the National Population Register(NPR) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Singh pointed out that PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been stating that the exercise on NRC is yet to begin.

He also said that it was then Union home minister P Chidambaram, who had stated in Parliament in 2010 that NPR could be a basis for NRC.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Mumbai, Jan 30: Speaking at an event, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abu Azmi's son and businessman, Farhan Azmi said that if CM Uddhav Thackeray will build lord Ram's Temple at Ayodhya then he will build Babri Masjid there. He said, "My problem is with Uddhav Thackeray.

I respect him a lot and if in Shiv Sena somebody really deserves respect, then it is no other than Uddhav Thackeray. He never runs a government and I don't think he is running his party correctly.

If being the Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray says he is going to Ayodhya on 7th March, I will also go with him. He will build lord Ram's Temple and we will build Babri Masjid."

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