Ansari has edge over Jaswant Singh in vice presidential poll

August 6, 2012

ansjas


New Delhi, August 6: As many as 787 members of parliament will vote Tuesday to elect India's 14th vice president. In the poll, UPA nominee and incumbent Hamid Ansari appears to have a clear edge over his rival Jaswant Singh, backed by the opposition NDA, according to sources.

The result will be out Tuesday evening.

The sources claimed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee has the support of 500 out of the total 787 members in both houses of parliament, who constitute the electoral college for the vice presidential election.

The Lok Sabha has a total strength of 545 members, including speaker. It has two vacancies -- Pranab Mukherjee resigned after being elected the 13th president of India and Vijay Bahuguna resigned to be co-opted as council member after he was made chief minister of Uttarakhand. A Bharatiya Janata Party member from Bellary, Karnataka, J. Shanta, facing a court case, would not be able to vote. The Rajya Sabha has 245 members.

UPA constituents like the Nationalist Congress Party, the DMK, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the National Conference are backing Ansari but the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is yet to clarify her stand.

Parties supporting the UPA from outside like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party are also backing Ansari.

The Janata Dal (Secular) has also pledged support to Ansari, who has been a career diplomat and scholar.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had supported Ansari in 2007, is backing him for a second term but the Revolutionary Socialist Party will abstain from voting.

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Jaswant Singh is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies like the Akali Dal, Janata Dal (United) and the Shiv Sena.

The Biju Janata Dal and AIADMK, which had supported opposition nominee P.A. Sangma in the presidential poll, are yet to declare their support to Singh.

A former army man, Singh is a veteran BJP leader and has headed the key foreign and finance ministries during the 1998-2004 NDA rule.

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News Network
March 23,2020

Thrissur, Mar 23: Kerala police on Monday has booked a Catholic priest for violating the Covid-19 advisory against conducting Holy Mass in which more than 100 people attended.

Fr. Pauly Padayatti, vicar of Nithya Sahaya Matha (Mother of Perpetual Help) church at Koodapuzha near Chalakudy in Thrissur district has been arrested by the police.

Despite the strict restrictions of the health department and the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) to temporality suspend church services involving laity in churches, the vicar conducted the Holy Mass on Monday.

The police have also registered case against the devotees for violating the guidelines by attending the service.

The top church leadership including Cardinal Mar George Alencherry repeatedly urged the laity not to go to churches for Holy Mass or other services.

The faithful have been asked to participate in the online streaming of Holy Mass by bishops and priests and pray from their homes.

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Agencies
January 8,2020

New Delhi, Jan 8: Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh has filed a complaint over the violence that took place at the varsity campus on Sunday.

"I am filing this complaint for the incident in which a mob conspired and acted with common intention to assault, intimidate and attempt to murder me, and request you to register an FIR and apprehend culprits at the earliest," the complaint read.

She said that on January 5, in the afternoon, she received information from students in the campus that some students affiliated to ABVP along with other unidentified men and women had gathered with weapons like rods, sledgehammers and lathis near Ganga Bus Stop.

"I along with Nikhil Mathew (MA Labour Studies) who was also present there, were surrounded by a group of persons of that mob most of whom were wearing masks. The mob of 20-30 persons dragged me behind a car standing near the 24*7 and surrounded me and despite my pleading did not let me go and attacked me with rods while I had fallen down. I remember that one of the people was of medium height wearing a brownish-red sweatshirt with UCLA written on it. I saw his face as he was facing me and did not have a mask on and can identify him if I see him," Ghosh wrote in her complaint.

"I was attacked by the above-mentioned persons collectively and was hit on the head multiple times with iron rods. I fell to the ground and my head started bleeding, and some of them kicked me and hit me with the rod on my hand and rest of the body including my head, chest and back."

"I am attaching with this complaint a copy of the MLC which details my injuries. Nikhil Mathew tried to save me but was also hit with an iron hammer and other weapons on his head and arms. The intention of the group of men and their acts was definitely to murder me and other persons associated with me," she said.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am a Delhi court said on Monday.

The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants against four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

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