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Tharoor Accuses Left of Dividing Votes

BJP has fielded Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar against Congress MP Tharoor…reports Asian Lite News

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday alleged that the “only effect” of the CPI’s campaign against him in Thiruvananthapuram is to “divide the anti-BJP vote”.

In a post on X, the senior Congress leader said, “It’s ironic that the same @cpofindia that complains about @RahulGandhi’s candidature in Wayanad is playing the BJP’s game in Thiruvananthapuram”.

His post added: “The only effect of the CPI’s campaign against me in Thiruvananthapuram is to divide the anti-BJP vote. And they preach alliance dharma in Wayanad!”

Reacting to this, CPI General Secretary D Raja said it is left that is “fighting the communal and fascist forces”.

“It is an absurd statement. An educated man like Shashi Tharoor must understand the history of Kerala properly. It is the Left that is fighting the communal and fascist forces…so many Congress leaders are leaving and joining BJP…,” he said.

Hitting back, the CPI leader questioned why is the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad in Kerala.

“Rahul Gandhi claims that he is spearheading the fight against BJP, then why is he contesting from Wayanad and fighting against LDF? Congress must explain, what message they want to convey to people. Who are their main political enemies…,” Raja told ANI on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Tharoor believes that his work over the last 15 years in the constituency will speak for itself.

“I’ve served the people of Thiruvananthapuram for 15 years. They know me and have seen my service. It’s not as if I’ve got anything to be ashamed of in my track record. I’ve been consistently available and attended to all the major issues,” he said. “It’s always been a three-cornered fight here because I took the seat from the LDF. They had won it two times before me and then in the last two times, the BJP came second. So we have to take both candidates seriously. I’m very confident that I would prevail,” Shashi Tharoor said on Monday.

BJP has fielded Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar against Congress MP Tharoor.

Pannyan Raveendran, the Left Democratic Front’s Lok Sabha candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, said that the main fight in the constituency is between the LDF and the Congress-led UDF.

“The main contest is between LDF and UDF. BJP is irrelevant in Thiruvananthapuram,” Raveendran who won the constituency in 2005 told ANI on Tuesday.

Kerala will hold elections in a single phase on April 26. There are 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala and the BJP has never won a parliamentary seat in the state.

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA won 353 seats, the UPA stood at 91, and Others won 98. (ANI)

Alathur: A Prestige Battle For CPI(M), Congress

CPI(M) stakes prestige on popular face K. Radhakrishnan while Congress fields incumbent Remya Haridas to defend Alathur constituency.

Alathur Lok Sabha constituency, a reserved constituency this time, will witness an intense battle between the CPI(M) and the Congress.

The battle is prestigious for the CPI(M) as it has given the seat to one its most popular faces — State Minister of ST/SC and Devasoms K. Radhakrishnan, whose Assembly constituency Chelakara also is in Alathur.

The Congress has repeated its candidate, Remya Haridas, who has been asked to defend the seat.

While Alathur is in Palakkad district, this constituency has four Assembly constituencies from the district and three from the Trissur district.

The CPI(M)-led Left holds all the seven Assembly constituencies.

While Radhakrishnan, is a former Speaker of the Assembly and also a state minister when he won his debut election in 1996, Remya Haridas stole the limelight in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when she trounced sitting youth CPI(M) leader P.K. Biju, who was looking for a hat-trick win from Alathur.

Haridas, also a youth leader, walked into the hearts of her voters in 2019 by singing songs during her campaign. She won the seat with a massive margin of over 1.58 lakh votes.

“Yes, this time also I will reach out to my voters by singing songs and I don’t think there is anything wrong in it,” said Remya and started singing a few lines when she was spotted at her campaign.

But Radhakrishnan and the CPI(M) know that the margin that their seven candidates got from the Assembly polls in 2021, which fall in the Alathur Lok Sabha constituency, is in excess of two lakh votes and that’s their strength.

What has raised eyebrows is the BJP-led NDA is yet to announce their candidate and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving at Palakkad on Tuesday, they are expected to announce the name soon.

At the 2019 polls, the BJP-led NDA candidate won around 89,000 votes.

Incidentally, Alathur constituency was formed in 2009 after being carved out from the erstwhile Ottapalam Lok Sabha constituency and nearby areas.

The Ottapalam Lok Sabha seat came into national reckoning as it was from here that the country’s former President K.R. Narayanan won three successive elections in 1984, 1989 and 1991 before occupying the top chair. In 1992 he became the Vice-President and five years later the President.

ALSO READ-Tharoor confident of winning polls

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Modi appeals to first-time voters

The Prime Minister said that the double engine governments in Lucknow and Delhi had taken a lead to address the aspirations of the youth…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called upon first-time voters to support the BJP in forming the government again so that their aspirations can be fulfilled.

Addressing the first virtual rally for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Prime Minister said: “Uttar Pradesh is working towards ensuring its progress. The Yogi government is making sure that all benefits of our schemes percolate down to the last beneficiary. The number of houses we built for the poor has risen to 800 in Baghpat in the previous government to 33,000 in the same district in Yogi regime.”

The Prime Minister came down heavily against the previous Samajwadi Party (SP) government on the law-and-order issue.

“Five years ago, there was the ‘dabbang’ and ‘dangai’ in Uttar Pradesh. The mafia ruled the state and women and girls could not move out safely. When the riots took place here (Muzaffarnagar), some people were enjoyed an ‘utsav’. The land of the poor, Dalits, OBCs and deprived sections were forcibly taken away,” he said.

He further said that when BJP came to power here, it was with the resolve to serve people.

“Yogi Adityanath has dealt with the mafia and made them understand the meaning of law. Today, the same people are using all their force to bring back a government that remains favourable to them. Today, employees, farmers, traders are all safe and secure.

The Prime Minister said that the double engine governments in Lucknow and Delhi had taken a lead to address the aspirations of the youth.

“We have new avenues for jobs and career building-from medical colleges, universities to IITs. A number of industries have come to Uttar Pradesh and this will ensure more jobs. The defence corridor and other projects will create new employment,” he stated.

The Prime Minister said that the ban on triple talaq had brought immense relief to Muslim women, adding that his government had raised the marriageable age of girls to 21 years so that they could study further and make their career.

Lauding the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the Prime Minister said that the BJP was being opposed by those who are arrogant and cater to the rich.

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