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Braverman wins party seat selection

London, Sept 07 (ANI): Indian-origin barrister Suella Braverman appointed UK's new Home Secretary, in London on Wednesday. (ANI Photo/ANI pic service)

The fight had been labelled by media commentators here as the “Battle of Waterlooville”, after the town in Hampshire at the heart of the redrawn boundaries…reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s Indian-origin Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has won a key contest with a fellow Conservative Party member of Parliament to be selected as the candidate for her redrawn constituency.

The 43-year-old senior Cabinet minister, of Goan and Tamil heritage, had a face-off with fellow Tory MP Flick Drummond in an internal party vote on Wednesday over who gets to contest from a new proposed constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire in the next general election – expected in 2024.

Under the Boundary Commission of England’s changes, Braverman’s original seat of Fareham in south-east England is being re-carved and Drummond’s Meon Valley is being scrapped under the new parliamentary boundaries.

“I am honoured and humbled to have been adopted by Conservatives members to be their Parliamentary Candidate for the new Fareham and Waterlooville constituency,” Braverman tweeted soon after the vote – which she reportedly won 77 to 54.

“I thank my Parliamentary colleague Flick Drummond MP for her excellent work for the people of Meon Valley,” she said.

The fight had been labelled by media commentators here as the “Battle of Waterlooville”, after the town in Hampshire at the heart of the redrawn boundaries.

Drummond said she was “incredibly disappointed” by the election result but said she would “continue to be Meon Valley MP” until the next election, a position she has held since 2019.

The selection vote comes as a number of constituency changes have been proposed across England as part of the 2023 Boundary Review, the final recommendations of which are due to be presented to the UK Parliament by July 1 to be adopted ahead of the next general election. The Boundary Commission for England says it has closed its “final consultation” and that it is analysing the feedback received.

Braverman’s victory came soon after the UK Home Office announced that it would be using a barge, or a docked vessel at Portland Port in Dorset, south-west England, to accommodate illegal migrants and asylum seekers in the UK.

The move is aimed at reducing the reliance on “expensive hotels” and to deliver what the government says would be a “more orderly, cost effective and sustainable asylum accommodation system”. The UK government says it costs the British taxpayer over GBP 6 million a day to house illegal migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed and want to find alternatives to cut down on costs.

Now the barge, called the Bibby Stockholm, will accommodate about 500 single adult males whilst their asylum claims are processed. The Home Office says it will provide basic and functional accommodation, and healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security will be in place on board, to minimise the disruption to local communities. People whose claims are refused and have exhausted their appeal rights will be removed from the UK.

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-Top News UK News

Boris Seat in Danger Zone

The survey of 10,000 respondents carried out by multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) in April also looked into the opposition Labour Party’s prospects in the election. It found that it would emerge as the single largest party, but fall short of a majority by 18 seats, reports Ashis Ray

An opinion poll in Britain — amid a grim economic situation and a spiralling tension in Northern Ireland — says Prime Minister Boris Johnson will lose his House of Commons seat in the next general election.

Johnson is an MP from the west London constituency of Uxbridge and Ruislip.

The survey of 10,000 respondents carried out by multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) in April also looked into the opposition Labour Party’s prospects in the election. It found that it would emerge as the single largest party, but fall short of a majority by 18 seats.

On the other hand, if Labour Party undertakes seat adjustments with Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, the combination would win a comfortable majority. The figure of 326 is the magic mark for a party or alliance in a chamber of 650 lawmakers.

Correspondingly, if the hard-line pro-Brexit Reform Party stands down in seats where Johnson’s Conservative Party is vulnerable, this could further dent Labour’s prospects.

A spokesperson for ‘Best for Britain’, an internationalist organisation, said: “Once again, Best for Britain’s seat level analysis shows the safest route to victory in defeating this (Johnson’s) corrupt government is for the opposition parties to work together during election time.”

If Labour Party falls short, it could be dependent on the separatist Scottish National Party, which could demand independence for Scotland or at least another tricky referendum as a condition for its support.

Analysis for ‘Best for Britain’ by Focaldata indicated that 54 per cent of Labour supporters and 56 per cent of Liberal Democrats supporters want their respective leaders to work more closely with the Greens.

However, after its showing in this month’s countrywide local elections, Labour Party will hope its chances will progressively improve as Johnson and the Conservatives plummet further in public esteem.

Appearing before a House of Commons Select Committee, the Governor of the Bank of England, Britain’s central bank, Andrew Bailey warned of “apocalyptic” food prices. He of course blamed it on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Figures due out on Wednesday are expected to reveal that the annual inflation rate has climbed above 9 per cent and it going beyond 10 per cent when the energy price cap is lifted even more in the autumn.

“Another factor that we’re dealing with at the moment is a further leg of Covid-19, which is affecting China. We have seen a series of supply shocks coming one after another and that’s unprecedented.”

In such circumstances for Johnson to contemplate a unilateral scrapping of parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol with the European Union (EU) is considered in political circles to be ill-conceived, as an introduction of tariffs by the EU by way of retaliation, could have a devastating inflationary impact.

In refusing to agree to tax-free trade with the EU and opting for a customs border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland in the Irish Sea, the Prime Minister has predictably created an economic and political crisis in Catholic and Protestant conflict-ridden Northern Ireland.

So much so that the United States (with a significant Irish American population, including President Joe Biden, as a powerful pressure group), which stands as guarantor of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ushered relative peace to the region after nearly 75 years of unrest or violence, has been compelled to intervene.

However, Rishi Sunak, the Indian-origin Chancellor of the exchequer, is reported to be working on fiscal measures to ease the cost of living crisis, having refused to incorporate these in his budget statement in March.

The steps could include relief for pensioners and benefits claimants and cutting duties on imported food.

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India News

SP, allies face seat-sharing trouble

In a press statement, the SBSP named its UP president ‘Sunil Arkvanshi as the Samajwadi Party-SBSP candidate on the Sandila seat in Hardoi for the UP polls…reports Asian Lite News

The Samajwadi Party’s alliance seems to be running into rough weather over the issue of seat allotment.

While the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), an ally of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in west Uttar Pradesh, is facing trouble over seat allotment in at least eight Assembly segments, another ally has now queered the pitch for the SP.

A day after SP president Akhilesh Yadav named Rita Singh as the party candidate from the Sandila Assembly constituency in Hardoi for the UP polls, his alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has now announced its own candidate for the same seat.

In a press statement, the SBSP named its UP president ‘Sunil Arkvanshi as the Samajwadi Party-SBSP candidate on the Sandila seat in Hardoi for the UP polls.

Samajwadi Party state spokesperson, Rajendra Chaudhary said, “I am not aware of the seat declaration by the SBSP or if there is any confusion, we will work it out.”

However, SBSP national spokesperson Piyush Mishra said, “There cannot be any confusion. The SP had allotted the Sandila seat to the SBSP. In fact, Akhilesh even did a rally for us in this constituency on November 27.”

Akhilesh Yadav, on Saturday, had announced the induction of Rita Singh, the wife of former Samajwadi Party MLA from Sandila, into the party.

Rita Singh, the wife of the late Raja Mahavir Singh who won the Sandila seat on the SP ticket in 2012, is from the famous Bhargava family of Lucknow.

She is the daughter of the late Rani Ramkumar Bhargava, a freedom fighter and Congress leader. Rita Singh’s brother Luv Bhargava was earlier the state general secretary of the Samajwadi Party. Luv Bhargava had contested on the Lucknow East seat in the 1993 UP Assembly polls as an SP candidate.

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India News

Why Lucknow Cantt seat is now so important

Aparna, wife of Prateek Yadav, had contested the 2017 elections from the Lucknow Cantt seat but lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi…reports Asian Lite News

The Lucknow Cantt seat has suddenly turned into a much-coveted Assembly segment with several BJP leaders making a bid for it even though the party has a sitting legislator on it.

BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who won the seat in 2017, now wants to field her son Mayank Joshi, who is making his political debut.

She had vacated the seat in 2019 after she won the Lok Sabha seat from Allahabad.

Joshi has been lobbying hard for the ticket and her supporters claim that if Rajnath Singh, an MP, can get a ticket for his son Pankaj Singh, and Rajvir Singh, also an MP, can get a ticket for his son Sandeep Singh, they Rita Bahuguna Joshi also deserves to field her son.

Suresh Tiwari, a former MLA, regained the seat for the BJP in 2019 when he won the by-election from here. He had won the seat in 1996, 2002 and 2007 also.

According to party sources, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also has an eye on this seat that has a sizeable upper caste vote.

While the other Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya has been named as a candidate for the Sirathu seat in Kaushambhi district, Sharma’s candidature is yet to be cleared.

According to a party leader, Dinesh Sharma would prefer the Cantt seat which has 1.5 lakh Brahmin voters, 60,000 Sindhi and Punjabi voters who are traditionally BJP supporters, 25,000 Vaishya voters and Muslim voters are only about 40,000.

What has suddenly made this seat into a VIP seat are reports that Aparna Yadav, younger daughter-in-law of Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, is all set to contest this seat.

Aparna, wife of Prateek Yadav, had contested the 2017 elections from the Lucknow Cantt seat but lost to BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

There have been speculations that Aparna is preparing to join the BJP, but sources close to her claim that this is likely to happen only if she is denied a ticket by the Samajwadi Party.

Her uncle Shivpal Yadav has already advised her to stay in the family and the party and work. “She will get a reward at the right time,” he said.

BJP leaders, on the other hand, feel that Suresh Tiwari should be renominated for this seat since he got barely two years after he was elected in the by-election.

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