Category: Politics

Constituency Watch: Mumbai North East a ‘pendulum’ LS seat, repeated political parties only thrice in 57 years, report by Quaid Najmi

The prestigious Mumbai North East Lok Sabha seat is known for its ‘mood-swings’ as from 1967, it has repeated a political party/candidate only thrice and has elected several stalwarts in the 14 elections it has witnessed, including three who became Union ministers.

In these elections, the BJP stands within the constituency’s ‘threshold limit’ with its candidate, MLA Mihir C Kotecha fervently hoping to break the jinx by giving a hat-trick to his party.

Kotecha was fielded in place of the sitting MP Manoj Kotak (2019), who had been nominated in place of the then MP Kirit Somaiya (2014).

Now, the BJP is hopeful of bagging the seat for a third-consecutive time, which is a tough task, given the constituency’s history.

He is challenged by a formidable contender, INDIA-MVA-Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Dina Patil, who was the undivided NCP’s MP from this seat in 2009, but lost to Somaiya in the 2014 BJP-Narendra Modi ‘wave’.

The BJP repeated the feat in 2019 in the second ‘Modi wave’ when Kotak sailed through easily.

In the absence of a perceptible wave in 2024, the BJP is making an all-out bid to counter the anti-incumbency factor plus the discerning voters’ attitude of rarely giving more than two opportunities to any party contesting from here.

The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has fielded Daulat K Khan, but unlike 2019 when the party was in alliance with the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), this time he’s contesting solo with a question mark on his prospects in the constituency.

Way back in 1967 when the Congress’ SG Barve contested the seat, he won but died a week after the results were announced. The subsequent bypoll that year was won by his sister, Tara G. Sapre, while in 1971, Rajaram G Kulkarni bagged it.

In 1977, the Janata Party cannonball Subramanian Swamy was elected and repeated the feat in 1980.

The ping-pong game started from 1984 when the Congress’ Gurudas Kamat was elected, followed by the BJP’s Jayawantiben Mehta (1989), Congress’ Kamat (1991), BJP’s Pramod Mahajan (1996), Congress’ Kamat (1988), BJP’s Somaiya (1999), Kamat (2004), NCP’s Patil (2009), BJP’s Somaiya (2014) and Kotak (2019).

Against this backdrop, it remains to be seen whether or not the constituency lives up to its no-nonsense reputation of having a ‘politically-conscious but incumbency-sensitive’ electorate.

Three of the MPs (all deceased now) elected from here went on to become Union ministers in different governments over the years – Kamat, Mehta and Mahajan – while Swamy was a member of the defunct Planning Commission of India.

Largely a middle class-dominated area, the MNE constituency comprises a mix of Gujaratis-Marathis, plus a significant chunk of Dalits and minorities, particularly in the north-eastern parts that are considered a decisive factor for any candidate.

The seat comprises six Assembly segments, of which three are held by the BJP, three by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance comprising two of Shiv Sena (UBT) and one of Samajwadi Party (SP).

They include the BJP’s Mulund (MLA Mihir C. Kotecha), Ghatkopar East (MLA Parag Shah), Ghatkopar West (MLA Ram Kadam); SS(UBT)’s Vikhroli (MLA Sunil Raut) and Bhandup West (MLA Ramesh Korgaonkar); and SP’s Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar (MLA Abu Asim Azmi).

The constituency has its share of woes akin to most other regions of Mumbai like pollution, traffic, crowded roads, overcrowded suburban trains, a concentration of industries, haphazard development, lack of adequate water supply and other civic amenities, et al, though things are gradually improving.

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To bolster its campaign efforts, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has set up war rooms dedicated to each of its three candidates at the state headquarters…reports Asian Lite News

Congress’ interim Delhi chief, Devender Yadav, announced on Monday the party’s plan to conduct five to seven town halls in the national capital ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Highlighting the significance of these events, Yadav revealed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has agreed to address one of the Town Hall meetings.

With polling scheduled for May 25 in Delhi’s seven constituencies, the town hall meetings aim to engage with citizens on various pressing issues including price rise, unemployment, GST, pollution, women’s safety, resettlement, and unauthorized colonies. Yadav emphasized that these gatherings will serve as platforms to deliberate on solutions to these concerns.

In addition to the town halls, a call center comprising teams of 70 volunteers for each Lok Sabha constituency has been established to disseminate information about booth committee operations. Following May 19, one town hall along with two to three roadshows and rallies, featuring senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are scheduled to take place.

To bolster its campaign efforts, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has set up war rooms dedicated to each of its three candidates at the state headquarters. These war rooms will play a dual role in coordinating with booth-level agents and workers, as well as amplifying the candidates’ outreach through social media platforms.

A key aspect of the campaign strategy involves engaging booth-level agents (BLAs) who are being trained across Delhi’s 13,630 booths to ensure maximum voter turnout. Special teams have been deployed to train BLAs and oversee their activities in promoting the party’s manifesto promises, including the ‘nyay (justice)’ initiative and 25 guarantees, through door-to-door distribution of guarantee cards.

The Congress’ campaign, in alliance with its INDIA bloc partner, is intensifying its efforts to secure victory in all seven constituencies of Delhi. Yadav emphasized the coordination between Congress and INDIA bloc workers, aiming for a comprehensive outreach program targeting diverse sections of society, particularly first-time voters.

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Congress has accused it of neglecting the welfare of the country’s youth through its implementation of the Agnipath scheme….reports Asian Lite News

In a scathing rebuke aimed at the Modi government, the Congress has accused it of neglecting the welfare of the country’s youth through its implementation of the Agnipath scheme.

The criticism comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on a campaign trip to Bihar, prompting Congress leader Jairam Ramesh to pose a series of probing questions regarding the state’s development trajectory.

Ramesh’s inquiries centred on the alleged unfulfilled promises made by the Modi administration, particularly regarding the establishment of airports in Muzaffarpur, Purnea, and Bhagalpur, as well as the stagnant state of Bihar’s sugar mills.

In a pointed post on social media, Ramesh questioned the rationale behind the government’s focus on the Agnipath scheme, which he claims is exacerbating youth unemployment.

The Congress leader’s critique extends to the Namami Gange initiative, raising concerns about its purported role in worsening pollution levels in the Ganga river.

Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reiterated that his party will scrap the Agnipath Scheme in case the INDIA bloc is voted to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said that 1.5 lakh youth who had completed the Army recruitment process should be compensated.

“We have said in our election manifesto that we will roll back Agniveer Scheme. Your dream to join the Army has not been fullfilled,” Rahul Gandhi said while interacting with the youth “impacted” by the Agnipath scheme at New Delhi’s Jawahar Bhawan.

“1.5 lakh youth who had completed the Army recruitment process should be compensated. There should be a way out. It will be analysed (If INDIA bloc is voted to power),” he said.

Rahul Gandhi had claimed that the Indian Army was against the idea of the Agnipath scheme, adding this policy was the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all decisions regarding it were taken in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Earlier poor used to join the Army, they used to get pension. Now they are training an individual for 4 months whereas a Chinese soldier is getting training for five years. You know what will happen, and when that agniveer dies he won’t get anything no pension, no canteen. We will abolish this scheme once our government comes to power. Interstingly, even the Army is against the Agniveer scheme. This scheme was the idea of the Prime Minister and its decision was taken in the Prime Minister office,” Rahul Gandhi had said.

Congress in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls has promised to abolish Agnipath Scheme and return to the normal recruitment processes followed by the Army, Navy and Air Force. “It will guarantee economic and social security for our soldiers,” the manifesto read.

The Agnipath scheme was announced by the Centre in June 2022.

This model seeks to recruit soldiers for only four years, with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them in regular service.

Those recruited under the scheme are called ‘Agniveers’.

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The aim is to ensure a win for her brother, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, from Rae Bareli and close family aide Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi…reports Asian Lite News

It’s a familiar concept in sports, less so in politics but if there has ever been a non-playing captain in the rough and tumble that is the electoral arena it has to be Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is here, there and everywhere in the two constituencies long associated with her family.

Discussing her childhood, the pain of her father Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and her mother’s grief while she steers the Congress campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi, Priyanka Gandhi adroitly walks the tightrope between striking a familial chord and discussing national level issues.

The aim is to ensure a win for her brother, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, from Rae Bareli and close family aide Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi. They are up against the BJP’s relatively low profile Dinesh Singh in Rae Bareli and the star power of Union minister Smriti Irani in Amethi.

Priyanka Gandhi’s task is cut out as she races against time to win the confidence of voters in the two adjoining constituencies, working to counter a latent Ram Temple sentiment in favour of the BJP and Irani riding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal in the Hindi heartland.

The spotlight firmly on her, Priyanka Gandhi is strategist, orator and mass mobiliser as she camps in Rae Bareli to maximise her party’s chances of victory in the two seats.

At a packed party workers’ meeting in Amethi last week, the Congress leader narrated the story of a woman sitting in the audience who wanted to educate her daughter but her father-in-law was against it. Undeterred, she stitched sari falls to fund her daughter’s education and managed to make her a graduate.

Priyanka Gandhi told the woman that she was inspired by her and then called her over to sit on stage. There were plenty of smiles all around and a few cheers too as the audience responded to a meeting that appeared to go beyond being just politics.

It was just one of the many instances in the last few days with during which Priyanka Gandhi went on a charm offensive with speeches centred around anecdotes from past elections – when she campaigned for her mother Sonia Gandhi or brother Rahul, or from her childhood when she accompanied her father Rajiv Gandhi who fought multiple elections from Amethi.

In one meeting, she said she would fast for her father’s safety after he lost power and was in the opposition.

 “I started keeping ‘maun vrats’ and my father asked why I was doing it on Sundays and told me, ‘it is the only day when I get some time to speak with you’,” Priyanka Gandhi narrated.

In her well-attended corner meetings, she sometimes also talks about her mother’s pain when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. “I have never seen my mother smile like she used to when my father was around.”

Most of her speeches are akin to a conversation with the crowd, establishing a connect and giving people the impression that this someone they know, someone sharing her feelings and thoughts with them.

That is also the message the Congress is also looking to convey with its social media campaigns, running hashtags such as ‘Rae Bareli ke Rahul’.

In her speeches, Priyanka Gandhi also repeatedly invokes the January 7, 1921 Munshiganj massacre during a farmers’ protest. While some accounts suggest the death toll was minimal, there are accounts that hundreds of people may have been killed. Her great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru visited at the time.

She points out that her great great grandfather Motilal Nehru also went to Rae Bareli to back the farmers and her family’s ties with this area are over 103 years old.

Accountability is a constant refrain.

To underscore her point, Priyanka Gandhi recounts how her father Rajiv Gandhi would patiently listen to the “scolding” by people of Amethi over some development work or the other even when he was the prime minister.

She also recalls the electoral loss the people of Rae Bareli handed to her grandmother Indira Gandhi when they thought her policies were not beneficial for them, a reference to the defeat the former prime minister suffered in 1977, post-emergency.

 “She did not get angry with the people but went back and won their trust…bring back that politics which was about the people,” Priyanka Gandhi said at a recent meeting.

In her campaign speeches, Priyanka Gandhi also makes it a point to appeal to people to not vote on emotive issues based on religion and caste and vote for bread and butter issues to improve their daily lives.

She attacks Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Smriti Irani in equal measure, highlighting the “economic failures” of the Centre on one hand and Irani’s “single-minded quest to defeat Rahul Gandhi”.

“The MP from here did not come here for you people, she did not come here for your development but came here to defeat Rahul Gandhi,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a corner meeting in Amethi and often repeats this charge.

Rae Bareli seems to be a relatively easier seat for the Congress with many people saying Rahul Gandhi would sail through from there against what several people view as a lightweight candidate, but the contest in Amethi is fierce and could be anybody’s election is the feeling among voters.

A group of people assembled in the main market in Amethi recently animatedly discussed the elections with each one claiming to have a hunch about the results.

Most of them were BJP supporters and contended that it is because of Prime Minister Modi that the Ram temple in Ayodhya could become a reality. They claimed Smriti Irani will bag a win but agreed that it would have been different had Priyanka Gandhi been in the fray.

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A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said it cannot go into such issues and it is up to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to look into it….reports Asian Lite News

The Supreme Court dismissed a plea on Monday seeking the removal of Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister of Delhi because of his arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said it cannot go into such issues and it is up to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to look into it.

The bench said, “How should we go into all this? Let the LG take action if he wants to… there is no legal right.”

Last week, the bench granted interim bail to Kejriwal in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Delhi on June 1. The bench, however, said that Kejriwal cannot discharge the functions of the Chief Minister, sign any official files, or use the Chief Minister’s Office.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court dismissed pleas seeking directions to remove Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi following his arrest by the central agency. Petitioner before it was attempting to drag the court into a political thicket, the Delhi HC had said.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal received a big relief from the Supreme Court, which on Friday (May 10) granted him interim bail till June 1 in the alleged money laundering case linked to Delhi’s excise policy.

He spent over 50 days in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the ED in connection with the case on March 21, days after the election schedule for the general elections was announced.

The bail is applicable til June 1, and Kejriwal must surrender to authorities on June 2. The Delhi CM can participate in poll campaigning but cannot attend his office as Chief Minister.

The Lok Sabha elections in Delhi’s seven parliamentary constituencies will be held in a single phase on May 25. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.

SC extends stay on defamation case against Delhi CM

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday adjourned to August a plea filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over a defamation case for retweeting a video of a YouTuber making allegations against BJP IT Cell.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta adjourned the case to August 12. The apex court also extended the stay granted earlier on the proceedings of the case before the trial court.

Earlier, the bench had granted a stay on the trial court’s proceedings in the defamation case against Kejriwal over retweeting a video.

The apex court then granted more time to the complainant in the criminal defamation case against Kejriwal to discuss with him the modalities of an apology that would close the case.

On February 26, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Kejriwal submitted before the apex court that retweeting the video, which was allegedly defamatory, circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in 2018 was a “mistake”.

The apex court had then directed the trial court not to proceed with the defamation case against him for the time being.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief had approached the apex court challenging the February 5 order of the Delhi High Court refusing to quash the summons issued against him. The High Court had said that reposting alleged libellous content would attract defamation law.

The summons was issued in a defamation complaint lodged against him for retweeting a video of a YouTuber on the social media platform ‘X’.

Singhvi had told the apex court, “There is no problem in admitting that this was a mistake if he had known that these would be the consequences.”

The bench had then asked the complainant in the case to take instructions if the case could be closed based on Kejriwal’s admitting to the mistake.

A defamation complaint was filed against Kejriwal for retweeting a video by a YouTuber in 2018 accusing the account holder of an X (formerly Twitter) page called ‘I Support Narendra Modi’ of behaving like ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’. Kejriwal retweeted the post, which led to the account holder moving a defamation complaint against the Delhi CM.

Vikas Sankrityayan, the complainant, asserted that the YouTube video with the title ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’ circulated by Rathee from Germany, contained false and defamatory allegations. (ANI)

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