In his letter, Chowdhury said it is important to “convene” a Parliament session in order to find a way to ease the lives of people suffering from the novel coronavirus…reports Asian Lite News.
Describing the Covid situation in the country as grave, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has written to President Ram Nath Kovind for convening an urgent session of Parliament to discuss it.
In his letter, Chowdhury said it is important to “convene” a Parliament session in order to find a way to ease the lives of people suffering from the novel coronavirus.
Describing the pandemic situation in the country as “grave”, the Congress leader said there is a need to find a national solution to handle the issue.
In his letter, he wrote, “In this critical situation I would urge your kind conscience to convene a special (COVID crisis) session of Parliament because India consists of a number of constituencies and each member of Parliament representing his/her constituency from the respective state has some say about the condition of people therein and in order to find a way to ease the lives of suffering people.”
Chowdhury’s letter comes on the day Congress convened the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet, the highest decision making body of the party and discussed the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country, besides the party’s dismal performance in the recently concluded assembly elections.
Former Union Minster Manish Tewari even termed Mamata as Rani of Jhansi (queen who fought the Britishers). Some are happy but cautioned the party…reports Asian Lite News
After Mamata Banerjee decimated the BJP in West Bengal it was Congress which was overwhelmed to congratulate the TMC for spectacular performance, while many Congress leaders wondered till when the Congress is happy in BJP’s loss.
Former Union Minster Manish Tewari even termed Mamata as Rani of Jhansi (queen who fought the Britishers). Some are happy but cautioned the party. Salman Khurshid said, “Mamata didi’s victory is relief and comfort despite the sacrifice we as Congress must endure. But for both as indeed many others there is need to return to drawing board for sustainable challenge to BJP.”
The reason for happiness is the defeat of the BJP but some said that the TMC leader was with the youth Congress and have worked with many party leaders during her political career and also the party saw hope in her defeat that BJP could be defeated if one works hard.
But some wondered like Ragini Nayak, “till when the party leaders will be happy in BJP’s defeat.” The Congress was the largest opposition party in outgoing assembly and in 2016 it had 44 seats.
But the Congress State President Adheer Ranjan Chowdhury was more direct and said that Congress should come out from Twitter and FB and hit the roads, perhaps this is the opportunity.
The Congress scored zero in the West Bengal election and even lost its strongholds, while the party has said that it is committed to course correction. After losing in the state polls the Congress said that the party will “study” the results, correct mistakes and do a course correction.
Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala addressing a press conference on Sunday read out a statement and said, “The Congress Party will definitely study the results and all the reasons diligently and we are committed to correct our mistakes and do appropriate course correction.”
Surjewala said the people’s mandate is the final word in a democracy. People of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have given their democratic mandate for the next five years. We accept the verdict with humility and a sense of responsibility.
The statement said the party had lost the elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal but we have neither lost our morale nor our resolve or determination to continuously become the people’s voice in these times of unprecedented calamity.
The BJP vote percentage saw a fall from 15.01 per cent in the 2016 Assembly polls to 12.47 per cent after votes were counted on Sunday to the 140-member Kerala Assembly….reports Asian Lite News
Hours after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that there was large scale trading of votes between the Congress and the BJP, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday hit back, saying the deal was between the CPI-M and the BJP in 69 seats.
Chennithala said that Vijayan’s statement, soon after returning from his home town in Kannur, to the media in the state capital that the deal was between the Congress and the BJP was “meant to fool people and was taking anticipatory bail to suppress the real truth”.
“If one looks into the figures, it was the Congress which prevented the BJP from surging forward and because of that, they could not win the lone seat that they won for the first time in the state at Nemom in 2016. In seats like Manjeswaram and Palakkad, it was the Congress which prevented the BJP from winning,” he contended.
The BJP vote percentage saw a fall from 15.01 per cent in the 2016 Assembly polls to 12.47 per cent after votes were counted on Sunday to the 140-member Kerala Assembly.
LDF CPI-M workers celebrate party’s performance
The Left secured 99 seats, while the Congress-led UDF could manage only 41 seats and the BJP drew a blank.
Vijayan had alleged that the Congress-led UDF would have lost 10 more seats if the secret deal was not there with the BJP and also that the BJP lost their votes in 90 seats as compared to the 2016 polls.
Chennithala, however, said: “In the three seats at Nemom, Palakkad and Manjeswaram, it was because of the performance of the Congress that the victory of BJP was prevented and the votes of the CPI-M in these constituencies, compared to the 2016 polls, had come down and the votes of the Congress had gone up.”
Had the Congress won lesser votes, the BJP would have won at Nemom, but since the vote share of the Congress grew, the CPI-M won, he added.
At Palakkad and Manjeswaram, it was the Congress which won.
“This time, the BJP got 4,35,606 votes and it was 3.71 per cent less than what they got in 2016. This decreased vote share was the deal and as a result in 69 constituencies, the Left benefitted. At the Kalamassery seat, the BJP candidate got 13,065 votes less votes than in 2016 and hence the CPI-M candidate P. Rajeev won. At Kuttanadu, the ally of the BJP got 18,098 votes less than in 2016 and the direct beneficiary was the Left candidate,” said Chennithala.
He listed out many other constituencies where the “BJP-CPI-M deal was in place”.
UDF
“With this, it has now come out true what Balasankar, the former editor of RSS mouthpiece, before the elections said that there was a secret deal between the BJP and the CPI-M .Moreover just look into the fate of the various scams like gold smuggling and dollar smuggling and see those cases all have gone into the freezer, as this was part of the deal as the BJP’s sole agenda is ‘Congress Mukt-Bharat’,” Chennithala added.
State BJP President K. Surendran, however, dismissed all the theories of deal and trade as humbug.
“The truth is the BJP has lost the one seat it had and the vote share also has come down. I am fully responsible for the set back and am prepared to take whatever the party says. The real reason for this verdict is there was a consolidation of minority votes to the Left. Our party will sit down and find out what went wrong and corrective measures would be taken. Even though we do not have a representation inside the assembly, we will be there outside,” he asserted.
No Muslim member in Assam treasury bench, opposition has 31
In this year’s elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party put up eight Muslim candidates, the Congress fielded 17…reports Asian Lite News
For the first time in 50 years, the treasury bench of the 126-member new Assam Assembly will not have any Muslim member even as 31 members from the community, the second-highest in 38 years, have been elected in the recently concluded elections.
In this year’s elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party put up eight Muslim candidates, the Congress fielded 17, while the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) nominated 19 Muslims and a Hindu candidate.
Of the 31 Muslims elected to the new House, the second-highest after the controversial 1983 elections during the height of the Assam agitation, 16 are from the Congress and 15 from the AIUDF.
Karim Uddin Barbhuiya(Twitter)
In the outgoing House, the NDA comprising BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), had 86 members with Aminul Haque Laskar being the Muslim representative.
Laskar, 55, who was the Deputy Speaker in the Assembly, could not retain his Sonai seat in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley where he was defeated by Karim Uddin Barbhuiya of AIUDF by a margin of 19,654 votes.
The AIUDF was one of the main allies of the Congress-led 10-party ‘Mahajot’ (grand alliance) that won 50 seats against the 75 seats won by the BJP led alliance. Jailed anti-CAA activist and prominent peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, the president of the newly floated Raijor Dal, won the remaining seat from Sibsagar as an Independent candidate.
Congress paid the price of pact with AIUDF in Assam
The Congress and the AIUDF won 29 and 16 seats, respectively, improving their 2016 performance by three seats each.
Other partners of the Mahajot, BPF got four seats while the CPI-M won one seat.
Apart from 1983, the number of Muslim members in the Assembly has usually hovered around the 25-mark.
According to political analysts and commentators, the alliance with the AIUDF shattered Congress’ dream to capture power in Assam, though the grand old party performed better this time as compared to 2016, when it was defeated by the BJP after 15 years.
Political observers categorically said that the Congress paid the price for the coalition with the Muslim-based body, AIUDF, in Assam.
Aminul Haque Laskar(Twitter)
The BJP and few other non-BJP parties had accused the AIUDF and its leadership of patronising “illegal immigrants” and most Assamese people had accepted the logic, they said.
According to Census 2011, Muslims account for 34.22 per cent population in the state, while Hindus and other religions account for the rest of the 3.12 crore total population of Assam.
Of the 126 Assembly seats, religious minorities decide the electoral fate in 23 seats, mostly in western and southern Assam, and play a crucial role in about seven more Assembly seats in different districts.
Of Assam’s 34 districts, 12 per cent or more Muslim population resides in 19 districts and in six districts the Muslim population constitutes 50 per cent or more.
The pattern in what has been seen so far is there are quite a number of seats where the balance is shifting between the Left and the Congress-led UDF candidates…reports Asian Lite News
Pinarayi Vijayan led LDF govt is on hope for a second term as Counting of votes that began at 8 a.m. on Sunday in Kerala is showing that the Left after leading in the postal ballot, continued to maintain its lead when the EVMs were opened, while the Congress led-UDF made slight forward progress and the BJP was leading in two constituencies.
In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, according to the latest reports the Left leads in 80 constituencies while the Congress-led UDF is ahead in 58 and the BJP in two seats.
All the exit polls had predicted a clean victory for the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left with a minimum of 75 seats and a maximum of 120 seats.
The pattern in what has been seen so far is there are quite a number of seats where the balance is shifting between the Left and the Congress-led UDF candidates.
The BJP which presently has one seat at Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, continues to lead and so is Metroman E.Sreedharan at the Palakkad constituency.
By now on an average two to three rounds of counting has been over and there are about 13 to 15 rounds in each constituency, and in the constituencies where the fight is close, one will have to wait till the last rounds to be counted.
All the leaders are leading, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala but two Ministers J.Mercykutty and T.P. Ramakrishnan are trailing.
At Badagara, K.K. Rema, the wife of slain former CPI-M leader T.P. Chandrashekeran, who has been supported by the UDF, is leading with over 3,000 votes.
Sources said there has been a lack of coordination between the state’s Congress unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and state in-charge Jitin Prasad…reports Asian Lite News
In the first phase of the Assembly polls in West Bengal, no high-profile leader of the Congress came for campaigning even as the party is contesting the elections in the state in alliance with the Left.
Sources said there has been a lack of coordination between the state’s Congress unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and state in-charge Jitin Prasada, as Chowdhury has been taking decisions regarding the elections and leaders from Delhi drafted for the state are not being kept in loop.
Prasada has hence returned from Bengal and close aides say that he is miffed with the way Chowdhury is managing the election-related affairs.
The Congress is contesting on 92 seats in the state that went to the polls in the first phase on March 27 (Saturday).
Jitin Prasada and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury jointly were to spearhead the campaign in the state.
Prasada, when asked about the campaign programme of top party leaders including Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka, said “once the programme is finalised, we will inform the media”, while other leaders insisted: “Ask Adhir”.
The Congress is contesting on 92 seats in the state(Twitter)
According to sources, leaders who are in the star campaigner list are also not excited to go for campaigning as there is no positive feedback from the state.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in direct contest while the Left is trying to win back its rural support, and the Congress is trying to retain its last tally of 44 in 2016 elections.
The first sign of cracks emerged during the ticket distribution which was delayed and after many hiccups it was finalised, but not before differences surfaced within the party.
Another concern for the Congress is that till elections in Kerala gets over, it cannot go full-throttle in West Bengal as it’s difficult for the party to praise the Left in Bengal and criticise in Kerala.
In Kerala, former party president Rahul Gandhi has been attacking the Left.
The Congress in its manifesto has assured NYAY promised a monthly support of Rs 5,700 to 20 per cent of the most economically backward families.
The Congress is contesting on 92 seats in the state(Twitter)
The manifesto also promised Rs 5,000 a month as interim relief to families of migrant workers till they get employment.
The Congress’ vote share had declined to 4 per cent in the 2019 General Elections, but it still remains an important factor in some districts such as Puralia, Malda and Murshidabad.
The polling in West Bengal will be held in eight phases till April 29 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.
The number of voters for every booth has been brought down to a maximum of a thousand to avoid crowding, reports Asian Lite News
Around 26 per cent voters have cast their ballots so far on Saturday in the first phase of the Assam Assembly polls which is underway amid heavy security in 47 constituencies, according to election officials.
Saturday’s voting is being held in the Assamese heartland comprising the south and north banks of the Brahmaputra river.
After casting his vote at a school in Dibrugarh, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who is contesting from Majuli, told the media that that Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp) would get more than 100 seats in the 126-member Assembly.
The first phase of polling will decide the fate of 264 candidates.
Besides Sonowal, the other prominent faces in the fray are state Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami (Jorhat), state Congress chief Ripun Bora (Gohpur), Asom Gana Parishad chief Atul Bora (Bokakhat), Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia (Nazira), jailed Raijor Dal President Akhil Gogoi (Sivasagar) and Assam Jatiya Parishad President Lurinjyoti Gogoi (Duliajan).
At least 23 female aspirants are also contesting these elections.
Voting began across 11,537 polling stations mostly covering the eastern Assam’s 12 districts at 7 a.m.
It will continue till 6 p.m as the Election Commission extended the time by an hour in view of the Covid-19 induced situations.
A total of 8,109,815 voters, including 4,032,481 females, are eligible to cast their ballots.
Covid-19 protocols for the voters, including social distancing and thermal screening, are being maintained.
Election officials said that to avoid crowding, the number of voters for every booth has been brought down to a maximum of a thousand.
As a result, the number of polling booths has been augmented by 34.71 per cent to 33,530 from 24,890 in 2016.
To avoid direct contact with the Electronic Voting Machine, every elector is being given a hand glove.
In the 2016 elections, the ruling BJP-led alliance secured 35 of the 47 seats, while the Congress won nine and the remaining three seats by other parties.
According to the election officials, over 30,000 Central Armed Police Forces along with thousands of state security forces have been deployed to maintain law and order during this phase.
No untoward incident has been reported so far from any of the 12 districts where balloting is underway.
In a unique gesture, the election officials donated saplings to the voters in the model polling stations, which were decorated with colourful balloons.
The 126-member Assam Assembly will go to the polls in three phases.
The other two phases will be held on April 1 (39 seats) and April 6 (40 seats).
Elaborating on the party manifesto, Priyanka alleged that the BJP government has cheated lakhs of poor tea garden workers despite promising to increase the daily wages of 10 lakh tea estate workers to Rs 350 a day…reports Asian Lite News.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed on Monday that the BJP governments in Assam and at the Centre have been selling endangered animals and strategic assets to their close friends for which the saffron party must be voted out of power in the coming Assembly elections in the northeastern state.
Addressing three election rallies at Sarupathar, Kaliabor and Nagaon in central Assam, Priyanka said the BJP has been selling a range of things, from black panthers to ONGC, airports and other public assets, to the friends of party leaders for their benefit, forgetting the interests of the people and the nation.
Last month, the opposition Congress in Assam had strongly condemned the transfer of two black panthers from the state zoo to a private zoo in Gujarat.
The Congress General Secretary said that her party has been opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) across the country as it would split the society and create unrest in the country.
“The BJP leaders, while campaigning in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, are making contradictory statements about the implementation of CAA,” she claimed.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had released the party’s manifesto for poll-bound Assam on Saturday, in which the mnain promises include restarting the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC), repealing the CAA, Rs 365 daily wage to tea garden workers, 5 lakh jobs in five years, Rs 2,000 per month to housewives and 200 units free electricity per household.
Elaborating on the party manifesto, Priyanka alleged that the BJP government has cheated lakhs of poor tea garden workers despite promising to increase the daily wages of 10 lakh tea estate workers to Rs 350 a day.
Smt Priyanka Gandhi in Assam (Pallav Paliwal)
“The BJP had forged an electoral alliance with the Bodo People’s Front and the Asom Gana Parishad. It came to power in Assam with their help, but then it weakened both the parties by adopting various strategies.”
She also said that no party is concerned about the women, especially those in the rural areas.
“That’s why the Congress promised to give an allowance of Rs 2,000 per month to the housewives of every household. The Congress’ ‘five guarantees’ will be fulfilled after the party forms the government in Assam following the elections.”
Smt Priyanka Gandhi in Assam (Pallav [Paliwal)
Addressing an election rally along with Priyanka in Nagaon, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who is also one of the star campaigners for the Congress, said that his government had waived loans of 18 lakh farmers besides purchasing rice from the farmers at the rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal against Rs 1,000 per quintal in Assam.
“My government is also purchasing cow dung at the rate of Rs 2 per kg, benefiting lakhs of farmers, shepherds and cowherd,” he added.
Priyanka, who arrived in poll-bound Assam for a two-day visit on Sunday, addressed six election rallies during her stay besides visiting the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva in Bordowa Satra.
Smt Priyanka Gandhi in Assam (Pallav Paliwal)
Sankardeva was a 15th-16th century Assamese saint, scholar, poet, playwright, social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in Assam’s cultural and religious history.
The 126-member Assam Assembly will go to the polls in three phase on March 27, April 1 and April 6. The results will be declared on May 2.
