After eggs, ink was thrown at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal while he was undertaking a roadshow in Varanasi on Tuesday following his visit to the Kal Bhairav and Kashi Vishwanath temples.
Kejriwal’s face and shirt were splattered with ink by unidentified people. The UP in-charge of the party Sanjay Singh and former Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti were also targeted by these people.
The AAP leader also faced sporadic protests while undertaking the roadshow.
Earlier, according to supporters, eggs were thrown at Kejriwal’s car outside the Kashi Vishwanath Temple here.
The egg-throwing incident occurred when Kejriwal was exiting the temple after offering prayers ahead of his rally in the city, they said. However, police at the spot denied that any such incident had taken place.
Later, as the roadshow moved through the narrow lanes of the temple city, it evoked mixed response from the crowd.
“There is no doubt that BJP’s Narendra Modi will win from Varanasi,” said Rishi Mehrotra, an electronic owner shopkeeper.
“Kejriwalji is in the fray. Let’s see what he has to offer after which people can decide,” said a B.Ed student.
The main opposition party, BJP, on Tuesday released the party’s official anthem for 2014 Lok Sabha polls amid much fanfare.
The campaign anthem,’Main Desh Nahi Jhukne Doonga’, was released by senior party leader Arun Jaitley in the presence of other top leaders of the party.
“We are officially releasing our campaign anthem today,” Jaitley said.
“BJP’s campaign anthem will be available in both audio and video form,” Jaitley said during the release.
The opening lines of BJP’s campaign anthem, written by famous lyricist Prasoon Joshi and sung by singer Sukhwinder Singh, will have Narendra Modi’s voice, Jaitley told reporters.
The BJP’s campaign anthem has been composed by famous music composer Aadesh Srivastava.
A war of words erupted between senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on Tuesday.
In a bid to fan infighting within BJP, the Congress leader had on Monday said that Sushma Swaraj was a better Prime Ministerial candidate than Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Responding to this, Swaraj on Tuesday said: “Even I think Digvijay Singh is a better candidate than Rahul Gandhi.”
Singh took a potshot, saying: “So it means, she (Swaraj) is accepting that the UPA government is coming to power this time too.”
The BJP also ridiculed the Congress leader for his remark, saying it did not need advise from a man who could not “dare” to fight Lok Sabha election and has been involved in his party’s three consecutive defeats in Madhya Pradesh.
“Our party has taken a decision after due deliberations. We don’t need his advise. But let me ask him who is his party’s PM candidate? The courtiers in Congress backed Rahul Gandhi for it but he did not accept the challenge,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prasad said even Congress no longer takes Singh seriously.
“He could not dare to fight Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh. He keeps making such statements to be in media. Congress under him has lost for a third time in row in MP Assembly Elections. We don’t need his advise,” he told reporters.
On Monday, Singh, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said: “Sushma is acceptable like Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It’s now no BJP only Modi.”
“I say that Sushma would be a much better Prime Minister than Modi due to a number of reasons,” Singh told reporters at his residence here.
Unlike Modi, Sushma Swaraj has an image of a moderate leader. She had begun her political career with the JP movement at a time when she was a student leader but had later on drifted towards the BJP, he said.
Sushma would be “more acceptable to allies” of the BJP in the NDA in the same way that (former prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee was, the Congress leader expressed.
“Sushma has conducted herself as the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha in a very dignified manner, although it was under her leadership that the Lower House of Parliament had faced maximum number of disruptions,” he said, adding that he did not agree with her on many issues raised by her in the Lok Sabha.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing on Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy’s bail plea.
Roy will remain in judicial custody as the hearing on Roy’s bail plea will now resume on Wednesday.
During the hearing on Tuesday, Sahara group came out with a new proposal for refunding Rs. 20,000 crore of investors money before the Supreme Court.
The company has proposed to pay Rs. 20,000 crore of the investors’ money within one year instead of 18months. The apex court will consider the company’s new plan to OFCD investors on Wednesday.
Sahara Group has assured the SC that it will pay Rs. 2,500 crore within 3-4 working days and will pay three installments of Rs. 3,500 cr each at the end of June, Sept and Dec, rest of the money by Mar 31, 2015.
Subrata Roy in his petition had submitted that detaining him was “purely illegal, contrary to the procedure prescribed by law and against the principles of natural justice”.
Roy was sent to jail on March 4 by the top court in connection with contempt proceedings over two group companies’ failure to pay Rs. 20,000 crore by way of dues to market regulator Sebi.
In a significant development ahead of General Elections, DMK president M Karunanidhi on Tuesday permanently expelled elder son MK Alagiri from the party, two months after suspending him.
Karunanidhi said he along with DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan decided to expel Alagiri because his son was critical of the party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election and causing confusion in the minds of DMK members and supporters.
A defiant Alagiri told a news agency: “I have no reaction (to my dismissal). I just had lunch, and want to sleep peacefully. I am not the loser. They are the losers.”
Asked if he would float a new party, he said: “As of now I have no such plans. Everything will be decided after discussing with my supporters.”
Last week, the DMK had threatened disciplinary action against party members if they were found to be in touch with Alagiri.
In a statement, Anbazhagan had said Alagiri was causing confusion by organising meetings on the pretext of meeting his supporters.
On January 24, the DMK had suspended the 63-year-old Alagiri for opposing his brother MK Stalin, 61, who is tipped for the party’s top post.
Both are sons of Karunanidhi.
Recently, Alagiri met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, creating a flutter in political circles.
Alagiri said he would discuss with his supporters and decide the formation of a new party.
Alagiri is said to be upset as none of his supporters got tickets to contest the General Elections.
Sadhu Yadav, a controversial former MP, on Tuesday announced that he will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Saran seat, where his sister and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi is in the fray as a RJD candidate.
Sadhu, who is Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad’s brother-in-law, said that he will contest polls from Saran to challenge candidates of mainstream political parties, who have neglected its development.
Sadhu alias Anirudh Prasad Yadav said that he has decided to contest polls from Saran.
“I will contest from Saran as an independent,” Sadhu said.
Sadhu Yadav was a powerful leader during the Lalu-Rabri rule in Bihar.
Rabri Devi was fielded by RJD in Saran from where Lalu Prasad won in 2009. But, he had to quit after being convicted in a case of the multi-crore fodder scam last year.
Sadhu deserted RJD five years ago and joined the Congress. Later, he also quit Congress and tried to join the BJP.
BJP has fielded Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran.
The Congress and the RJD early this month announced their alliance under which RJD was to contest 27 of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress 12 and the Nationalist Congress Party one.
The BJP flaunted its brand new import, Sonaram Choudhary, as its candidate from Barmer, Rajasthan, in a grand show attended by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and a number of party leaders.
The show of strength appeared to be a further slight to senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who has filed his papers as an independent candidate, after his party of three decades rejected him to field Col Choudhury, who quit the Congress days ago.
“We took the decision based on the feedback of party workers. I have not done any politics for myself, but for the family of Rajasthan,” said Vasundhara Raje.
“A family is a family and we have to be together. Don’t leave the party, please accept what the party does,” the Chief Minister said in words clearly intended for Mr. Singh.
Ms Raje, who recently handed the BJP a clean sweep of Rajasthan in state elections, had reportedly pitched Col Choudhury, a jat leader, as the candidate more likely to win than Mr. Singh, who wants to contest what could be his last election from Barmer as he was born here.
Mr. Singh’s supporters say it’s preposterous for a newcomer to be rewarded at the cost of a veteran.
Yesterday, the former union minister joined the club of detractors who allege that the BJP has allowed Narendra modi, its prime ministerial candidate, to eclipse all other leaders.
“NaMo NaMo is a chant for God, not humans… NaMo chant diminishes God by treating human beings as Gods,” said Mr. Singh.
Mr. Singh claimed that he had been expelled by party president Rajnath Singh on the phone for a second time, a charge the BJP has not yet confirmed.
He said that the party had earlier dialed in his eviction in 2009 over the allegation that his book cheer-leaded Mohd Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He was taken back 10 months later at the urging of senior leader LK Advani.
Veteran CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan hit out at the BJP for focusing its entire campaign on its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who he called a “slaughterer”.
“He (Modi) is responsible for the killing of more than 3,000 Muslims in Gujarat,” Mr. Achuthanandan said, adding, “BJP has even discarded its own senior leaders like LK Advani and AB Vajpayee. All they want is Modi.”
The 90-year-old made the remarks while campaigning for the Left Democratic Front’s candidate in Thiruvananthapuram, from where Union minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is seeking re-election from after winning the last polls with 46% votes.
“Tharoor has failed to fulfill the promises he made… His wife was found dead in a hotel but despite legal provisions, police has not filed any case in this issue,” Mr. Achuthanandan said.
In Nadar-Nair-dominated Thiruvananthapuram, the CPI has fielded Bennet Abraham, the Director of CSI Medical College, as its candidate. The party is hoping to garner votes from the Christian Nadar community, which Mr. Bennet belongs to, and split the “Tharoor vote bank” in the capital.
Within the Opposition LDF, CPI(M) is contesting 15 seats, CPI is fighting on four while the JD(S) is contesting from one constituency.
It’s the seat of the BJP president Rajnath Singh but Ghaziabad feels a little neglected. Not only is the shine of adjoining Noida missing, citizens are openly complaining about the fact that their MP never had time for them.
Perhaps keeping this is mind, Rajnath Singh moved to Lucknow and passed the baton to freshman in politics but veteran in every other sense, General VK Singh.
The former army chief has already moved in to Raj Nagar in Ghaziabad and he assured his constituents he will be different. But the question keeps chasing him at his public meetings in Muradnagar and its Kankra Village, and so do the internal problems of his party.
General Singh tried to walk the tightrope in the battle of heavyweights within his party.
“I am trying not to focus on these issues, they are trivial,” he says when we ask him about Jaswant Singh’s rebellion.
Asked about what Sushma Swaraj said especially about the induction of tainted politicians like Sriramalu, the former army chief said, “I am still for anti-corruption. Politics is a system in which some compromises are to be made. But I’m sure a time will come when we can rectify that.”
The general, while commanding a loyal servicemen following and a sizable Rajput vote along with what partymen are calling a ‘Modi wave’, has his work cut out. Ghaziabad’s has 4 BSP MLAs and one from the Samajwadi Party which means there is no BJP-dominated area right now.
The constituency also has a high profile Aam Admi Party candidate in Shazia Ilmi and the Congress’s Raj Babbar also seems formidable as a two time MP.
The ruling Congress at the Centre will release its 2014 manifesto on Wednesday. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be present during the release function.
According to party sources, right to health and employment opportunities will be the main focus of the manifesto.
Reservation for women in politics and employment opportunities in judiciary and police to sensitise these departments are likely to be the poll promises of Congress. Congress is also promising to bring back the black money and controlling black marketing.
The sources say that the party will reiterate its commitment to pass anti-corruption measures, if voted to power again.
In order to attract BJP and AAP votes, the Congress is likely to focus more on youth and middle class by promising more opportunities for them, the sources say.
It is likely to promise mandatory quota for the SC and ST in the private sector. More facilities for farmers and agricultural output are also likely to figure prominently in the manifesto.
After eggs, ink was thrown at AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal while he was undertaking a roadshow in Varanasi on Tuesday following his visit to the Kal Bhairav and Kashi Vishwanath temples.