Upbeat BJP Gears Up for Assembly Polls

States: Upbeat BJP Gears Up for Assembly Polls

 

After sending 71 MPs in Lok Sabha in an unprecedented success at the polls of late, the BJP state unit of Uttar Pradesh feels adequately rewarded when its nine leaders got inducted in the union cabinet of Narendra Bhai Modi. In an upbeat mood, the BJP state leaders UP rejoice and prepare for yet another battle of assembly elections, possibly to take place earlier.
The state chief Laxmi Kant Bajpai has already declared that the Akhilesh government will crumble on its own, and will not complete its full term. “Having tasted the most shameful defeat the Samajvadi Party has lost all its morale” he added. The state BJP chief says that we are gearing up for yet another fierce struggle in UP’s battle ground. The enthusiastic workers and BJP leaders feel that the Akhilesh government is not going to complete the full term, and that it won’t sustain for long, and fall down under its own pressure. He further added that the party is going to take up the issues of corruption, law and order, power supply, and minority appeasement to the streets.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh got its reward for electing maximum 71 BJP Members of Parliament when eight leaders from this politically sensitive state got ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi cabinet that took shape the other day. Of these eight ministers – four are cabinet rank – which includes Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharati, Kalraj Mishra and Menaka Gandhi. Two MPs – Gen (Retd) VK Singh and Santosh Gangwar are Minister of State (I/C) while Manoj Sinha and Dr Sanjiv Baliyan took oath as Minister of State. Besides these eight, Smriti Irani, who unsuccessfully contested against Congress vice-president from Amethi also got Cabinet berth. She is a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
It was more than expected that Uttar Pradesh would get a major share in Modi’s cabinet because of the sweep the party had got from the state. UP has 80 seats and BJP won 71 of these. Besides, its ally Apna Dal won two seats of Mirzapur and Pratapgarh. The equations of region and caste have also been taken into consideration while choosing the names. The list includes Thakur, Brahmins, backwards including Lodh and Kurmi. Modi has been able to match the regional balance by picking up ministers.
With Modi being elected from Varanasi the eastern UP gets maximum share. Kalraj Mishra and Manoj Sinha were elected from purvanchal too. Gen Singh and Dr Baliyan are elected from western UP, Uma Bharati from Bundelkhand, Rajnath Singh from central UP and Menaka Gandhifrom Terai.
Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Uma Bharati (Jhansi), Kalraj Mishra (deoria) and Menaka Gandhi (Pilibhit) – all are seasoned campaigners. Barring Kalraj Mishra the other three were ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. Mishra was minister in Kalyan Singh cabinet from 1997 to 2000. Even Minister of State (I/C) Santosh Gangwar, seven time MP from Bareilly, was Petroleum minister in Atal’s regime.The only freshers are Gen VK Singh (Ghaziabad), who is MoS (Independent Charge) and other two MoS Manoj Sinha (Gazipur) and Dr Baliyan (Muzaffarnagar).

—Dr Shakti Kumar Pandey
from Lucknow

 

Deoband takes a U-Turn

Even before Narendra Modi could take oath of office and secrecy as 15th Prime Minister of India, a large section of Muslims started rallying around him. The biggest change was witnessed among Deobandi Ulemas, who had sometime back forced Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi of Gujarat for taking over as Vice Chancellor of Darool Uloom Deoband just because the Maulana had praised the working of Modi. They might not have voted for Modi, but now they have changed their thinking. State leader of Muslim Majlis Badar Qazi sees the beginning of Modi era as the end of Maulana mentality.
Nayab Mohatmim of Darool Ulum Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi questions those who were expressing misleading apprehensions that country would be divided if Modi becomes PM. He asks where all those people have now gone? Alim of Darool Uloom Waqf and an experts of foreign affairs Maulana Abdulla Javed feels that under Modi a well polished foreign policy of India would come out with improved relations with the neighbouring countries. He also welcomes the decision of inviting heads of SAARC countries including Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the oath ceremony. He feels all Muslim countries would welcome Modi leadership in the country. Ghulam Mohd Vastanvi described the coranation of Modi as historic event. President of Rashtriya Ekata Ambedkar Society, Nawab Akhtar feels Modi would be popular worldwide like the US president Obama. He said India would emerge as a super power under Modi. He feels Modi would prove to be more popular than Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Atal Behari Vajpayee.

—Surender Singhal from Deoband

 

Revival of Naxal Terrorism

 

Intro: Maoists presence has been hitting the headlines in the State quite often since the last one year, and is turning soft heaven for the sorts of elements due to the soft policies adopted by the main stream political groups

A six member group suspected with Naxalite links who were suspected to be involved in the brutal murder of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) leader K Ramulu in Andhra Pradesh were nabbed by the police in Thiruvananthapuram on May, 20.
With tip off from sources Kerala Police arrested the alleged six convicts- Somayya, Suresh Manji, Panka Ravi, Ramesh, Ellesh and Kumaraswamy from a city lodge in Thiruvananthapuram, and seized a.32 revolver and an amount of Rs 1, 20,000 from them. Somayya revealed to the police that he had surrendered in 2008.

KERALA

Police has revealed that the alleged convicts belong to Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. And told that it is not only Islamic fundamentalist but Maoists are also enjoying the cool umbrella of Kerala’s peculiar “secular” political scenario.
According to police, TRS leader Ramulu was killed at Ramnagar Colony in Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh while walking to a wedding hall with his bodyguards. The murder took place on May 11. It was reported that suddenly seven extremists shot Ramulu dead and sprayed chilly powder on his guards. Following the attack the police had issued a countrywide alert for the killers.
Ramulu was a former Maoist and brother of the slain CPIM (L) general secretary K. Sambasivudu who was killed near the Gokaram village in Nalgonda on March 26, 2011.
Police is reported to be suspecting that one of the arrested Nayeemuddin is wanted in several sensational killings in Andhra Pradesh. A former People’s War Group member, he is alleged to have masterminded the killings of Ramulu and Sambasivudu.
Native of Bhongir in Nalgonda, he is accused in cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping and for allegedly killing an IPS officer in 1993. Later on he surrendered before the police and turned an informer. He is also reported to have amassed a huge wealth from real estate business.
The six arrested have been taken to the Armed Reserve camp for further questioning by the intelligence department, a police source said.
According to police, nationalist forces have been warning the authorities since long that Kerala has turned a haven for the religious fundamentalists and extremists. Lot of enquiries and arrests has taken place in the state since the last few years.
But still it is on an upward trend, thanks to the vote bank politics being played by both ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and opposition CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). The culprits and conspirators are always lucky because the people of Kerala always embrace one Front after every five years. And, both the Fronts keep competing with each other to help the fundamentalists in view of the vote bank politics they have specialised in.
Maoists presence has been hitting the headlines in the State quite often since the last one year, and is turning soft heaven for the sorts of elements due to the soft policies adopted by the main stream political groups.

—T Satisan from Kerala

Wooing Minorities by Loan Waivers Addressing a press meet on May 19 on the occasion of completing one year in office, Siddaramaiah disclosed Rs 1,340 Crores of waiver of loans benefiting 10.18 lakhs of people belongs to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Minorities. Siddaramiah said, “I am happy to provide relief package to SC, ST, OBC and Minorities to the tune of Rs 1,340 Crores with the complete waiver of loans including Principal and Interest”.He further added that poor people who defaulted in paying a nominal amount to electricity companies under ‘Bhagya Jyothi’ and ‘Kuteera Jyothi’ schemes to the tune of Rs 280 Crores has also been waived off. KARNATAKA Waiving of loans does help affected farmers when they lose crops, but, liberal waiving of loans to create a vote bank of minorities may send wrong signal in the society. Firstly, genuine beneficiaries may decide not to repay when they learn that Government will eventually waiving their loan. Secondly, as they do not have to return it, large number of fake beneficiaries may increase by submitting fake documents by colliding with corrupt officials. Going by the words of CM, it appears that Congress Government is consolidating vote bank of Dalits and Minorites through loan waiver, but the general public is criticising the government for not taking positive steps to create conducive atmosphere to repay the loan and are indulging in squandering exchequer money. —Guruprasad from Bengaluru

 

Massive Spate Against BJP Workers

On May 27 morning, an armed gang of some 40-50 Trinamool Congress (TMC) men identified as the henchmen of notorious criminal and TMC leader Sajahan Shekh attacked local villagers at Rampur, Gayen Para, Haldar Bheri area under Rampur Post Office, Sandeshkhali Police Station of North 24pgs district without any provocation.

 

WEST BENGAL

Those attacked are all BJP workers and sympathisers. The TMC goons indulged in indiscriminate firing resulting in 24 BJP injured. The injured were first taken to the local Khulna Medical Centre. From there, they were transferred to Basirhat General Hospital. Here the authorities only admitted 11 and the rest 13 with grievous injuries were shifted to PG Hospital in Kolkata. Amongst these 13 the condition of 3, namely Prabhas Gayen, Gautam Gayen and Manik Sardar are very serious. All the injured belongs to the marginalised SC, ST and OBC communities. Police as usual has been of little or no help throughout.
Massive spate of post-election violence is being unleashed against BJP workers and activists all over West Bengal and is getting increasingly gruesome and fatal with each passing day. The central proponent of these attacks and violence are the workers and leaders of the ruling TMC party. From North Bengal to South Bengal, every nook & corner of urban and rural Bengal bears testimony to TMC's undemocratic harassment and torture.

—Krishanu Mitra from Kolkata