The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday released the fourth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Among the 60 candidates announced today is journalist Ashish Khaitan from New Delhi constituency. Former Tehelka journalist Khaitan is the founder of news portal gulail.com that had levelled charges against Narendra Modi over alleged illegal surveillance of woman by the Gujarat Police.
The other name announced for Delhi was of Col Devendra Sehrawat, he will contest from South Delhi.
Another prominent name in the list is that of satirist turned politician Bhagwant Mann. He will contest from Sangrur in Punjab. Mann was earlier with Manpreet Badal’s Peoples Party of Punjab.
The fourth list has names of two candidates from Delhi, four from Haryana, 13 from Karnataka, three from Punjab and 38 from UP.
Addressing a rally in Tonk district’s Deoli town Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that his party would go all out to fight the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Launching the campaign in Rajasthan, Rahul said, “We want to do politics and run the government for those who run the country on a daily basis, namely chowkidars, taxi drivers, auto drivers and son on.”
Hitting out at Congress’ main rival the BJP, Rahul said, “They (BJP) just want to benefit the rich if they come to power. But we want to help the downtrodden,” adding, “We will go on the road, will go to villages, we will go to streets and we will fight the BJP government in Rajasthan.”
Playing the youth card, he said, “After we lost the (Assembly) elections we made a youth as PCC president to represent your aspirations.”
Talking about the Congress’ development agenda for Rajasthan Rahul said that they were building dedicated industrial and freight corridor and that the state will benefit from it. He also said that the Congress had industrial corridors from Delhi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Chennai and Delhi to Kolkata on its agenda. “This will create lakhs of jobs,” he said.
At the same time the Congress VP maintained, “We want more and more people to go to IIT’s and universities.”
Rahul Gandhi also promised to bring in new faces for every election. “We will put up new faces and young faces in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha,” he said.
After being expelled from the Aam Aadmi Party, Laxmi Nagar’s former MLA Vinod Kumar Binny is likely to contest Lok Sabha elections from East Delhi on Trinamool Congress’ ticket.
According to reports, Binny recently met TMC Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien and party’s chief campaigner Vinod Singh in Delhi.
At present, East Delhi constituency is represented by Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit who is also a son of former Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit. Furthermore, AAP has fielded Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Rajmohan Gandhi from East Delhi.
Buoyed by Anna Hazare’s support, Mamata Banerjee will organise ‘Jantantra’ rally at the Ramlila ground on March 12. Banerjee may announce the names of the candidates she will field in Delhi’s seven constituencies.
In the Delhi Assembly elections, held in December last year, Binny had defeated former Delhi health minister Ashok Kumar Walia by 8,000 votes. However, he turned into a rebel when he was reportedly not made a minister in Delhi cabinet. Later, he called Arvind Kejriwal a dictator and alleged that the AAP had deviated from core issues.
On the other hand, Kejriwal said that Binny was seeking to contest General Elections from East Delhi, but the party had already decided that no sitting MLA would get ticket. On January 26 Kejriwal expelled him from the party.
supremecourt1The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file five remaining chargesheets in connection with the coal blocks allocation scam.
The apex court passed the order after the CBI submitted a status report informing it about the progress made in the coal scam probe and on filing chargesheet in one of the cases registered by the probe agency in 2012.
The apex court directed the CBI to file the remaining chargesheets by March 28.
The Supreme Court had asked CBI, during the last hearing on February 11, to submit a status report about filing of chargesheet in six of the cases finalised by the agency.
CBI has filed over 16 FIRs which included those against AMR Iron and Steel, JLD Yavatmal Energy, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog, JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd, Grace Industries, Jindal Steel and Power, Rathi Steel and Power Ltd, Jharkhand Ispat, Green Infrastructure, Kamal Sponge, Pushp Steel, Hindalco, BLA Industries, Castron Technologies and Castron Mining and Nav Bharat Power Private Limited.
These FIRs were registered after the agency probed three preliminary enquiries related to coal block allocation between 2006 and 2009, 1993 and 2004 and projects given under a government scheme.
CBI also informed the apex court about the permission sought from nine states which were reluctant in allowing the agency to conduct probe in their jurisdiction.
CBI had been directed to file chargesheet in all the cases finalised by it by first week of March but the agency had moved a petition on March four seeking more time to file the charge sheet in the cases.
In its earlier status report before the Supreme court, CBI had said inquiries in respect of 87 companies had been finalised besides probe in respect of 38 companies had been concluded.
It was stated that reports were in the process of scrutiny for getting final order from the competent authority.
CBI had informed the court that field inquiries pertaining to 149 out of 169 companies had been completed and similar probe pertaining to the remaining 20 companies, including ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) and coal to liquid (CTL), was in progress.
CBI had informed the court that inquires and investigation in other PEs and all RCs would be completed by April 30.
MK Alagiri will not run from his constituency in Tamil Nadu as a candidate of the DMK, the party headed by his father, M Karunanidhi. In January, Mr. Alagiri, who is 63, was suspended for a sustained campaign to undermine his younger brother, MK Stalin, who has been picked by his father as his political heir.
“Don’t hurt me by asking about Alagiri,” said Mr. Karunanidhi to reporters as he announced the regional party’s candidates. Mr. Alagiri’s constituency has of Madurai has been reassigned to another DMK member.
Included in the DMK’s list of candidates are two former Union ministers being investigated for corruption when they handled the telecom portfolio. A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran will both run for Parliament from the constituencies they won in the last election in 2009.
Mr. Maran is being investigated by the CBI for allegedly misusing his office as Telecom Minister to pressure the sale of Aircel to a Malaysian firm whose owner then made a large investment in Sun Networks, owned by Mr. Maran’s brother.
Mr. Raja replaced Mr. Maran as Telecom Minister and is accused of accepting large bribes to help ineligible firms get mobile network licenses at throwaway prices in 2008.
Mr. Karunanidhi also announced a candidate for Sivaganga, represented in Parliament by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The move signals that the DMK is not considering an alliance with Mr. Chidambaram’s party, the Congress, which is asking voters for a third consecutive term in power at the Centre, but is expected to perform poorly according to opinion polls.
The DMK participated in the Congress-led UPA coalition at the Centre till March 2013, when it quit the government, saying India had failed to take a strong stand against the Sri Lankan government for alleged atrocities against the country’s ethnic Tamils.
A 22-year-old youth died after he “collapsed during a workout” at a gym in the Vanasthalipuram area in Hyderabad on Sunday, the police said.
G Vasu, suddenly collapsed from the treadmill and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’, the police said.
After a complaint was filed by the dead person’s father, the L B Nagar police booked a case under Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code against the gym authorities and are investigating the matter further.
“Nobody has been arrested so far. We are studing the CCTV camera footage which showed Vasu collapsing from the treadmill,” a police officer said.
Muneer Ahmad, a resident of Kashipur, who accelerated his car in reverse gear in a bid to set a world record one fine day reached a police station when he was caught by Uttarakhand police for flouting traffic norms.
Ahmad decided to take up this challenge in his Indigo car but did not take any official permission. On the day of task, he began driving on a highway road along with other vehicles. As soon as he applied the back gear, he was caught by police and the car was immediately challaned.
On being asked about the incident, Muneer said that he will soon set the same world record.
Rebel RJD leader Ram Kripal Yadav is all set to join the BJP and contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti from Pataliputra.
This comes after he resigned from all RJD posts as he was denied a ticket to contest the general elections.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav gave ticket to his daughter, Misa Bharti instead of Yadav from Pataliputra seat.
Ram Kripal had accused the party of dynasty politics. He had said, “The party seems to believe in family politics. Without taking me into confidence, the party chief announced his candidature from my constituency and I supported him.”
He had also expressed his wish to contest polls and said there were many option before him. He said. “I did want that I fight Lok Sabha elections. The people in the area wanted it. I had expressed this to the party leadership. All options open before me. I have not taken any decision yet.”
Ram Kripal even termed Misa’s visit to his place as a political stunt. He said, “The way daughter Misa came to me was a political stunt or emotional attack on a party worker. Misa is my daughter.”
Lalu had sent his daughter to persuade Yadav not to quit the party. Misa had said that she was ready to sacrifice her ticket for him.
The Bharatiya Janata Party must maintain unity at all cost if that want to get a majority. Murli Manohar Joshi must not create any negative controversy he must be very strictly told to maintain order. Why should he contest election now? Mr Joshi should aim to become the Vice Chancellor of some university and not aspire for any political position. BJP leader Lalji Tandon also wants to contest election from Lucknow. He is also an old hand and both want to piggy back Modi for success and yet denying him the seat at Varanasi and Lucknow. See the extent of ambition and selfishness and they propagate Hindu values. It is a matter of shame for them.
Arvind Kejriwal was effectively shut up but the Delhi Police Chief in a very amicable manner. He exposed him brilliantly. Those who have not served enough in their chosen fields and shown escapist tendencies must not be taken seriously by the people. We must get it very clear that one party must be given comfortable majority for good governance otherwise the country will suffer.
We have to increase our defence spending and upgrade our indigenous capability to be largely self sufficient in matter of defence equipment and weaponry. Things which have to be imported from outside must be procured speedily by cutting bureaucratic hurdles. We must establish pragmatic ties with China without indulging in excessive statement issuance. Chinese like to work silently and with sincerity and do not like one-up-manship at all. Do not say anything to belittle them or cause them to lose face.
Navy must visit colleges to recruit talent, train them well and retain them a few years more and not retire them early because that way they will lose experienced hands. A greater engagement between Merchant Navy officers and Naval Officers is necessary to take advantage of more sea going experience and port making and leaving which merchant seamen possess by virtue of their trade.
BJP must start behaving as if they are already in power under the leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They must start talking about the contemplated and on going technical projects in the field of providing better roads ( multimodal transport), providing drinking water, providing more electric power and reducing theft and losses. People expect order and development and will reject politicking and slogan mongering.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s helicopter made an emergency landing in Beed district because of bad weather, police said.
The chopper made emergency landing at 3.11 PM, police said, adding that later the NCP chief left for Parbhani, where he was to attend a political meeting, by car.
“Pawar was going from Osmanabad in the helicopter to Parbhani for a political meeting. But his chopper had to make an emergency landing on SRT Medical College ground at Ambejogai in Beed district due to bad weather,” a police official said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday released the fourth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. 
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s helicopter made an emergency landing in Beed district because of bad weather, police said.