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East Delhi: Cong has a ray of hope
Cong candidate Maken banks on his work
Kejriwal demands fresh elections in Delhi
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NDA, UPA corrupt forces in country: Kejriwal
NE: Improving education sector high on AAP's agenda
BJP is a well wisher of Muslims: Vardhan
S. Delhi candidates step up campaigns
Boy held for killing mother
Delhi Metro to get Rs 8,933 cr loan from Japan
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East Delhi: Cong has a ray of hope
New Delhi, March 31 The East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency that is struggling with issues like unauthorised construction, non-existent sewerage and parking problem, is one of the largest and highly populated seats in Delhi. The constituency covers east of the Yamuna and has a large population, including Seelampur, Shahdara, Gandhi Nagar and Preet Vihar. The political situation in East Delhi that has been Congress' citadel for a decade now looks shakier as the equations in the area have changed to great extent pro-assembly polls. Despite Congress' assertion that the anti-incumbency wave is over and that the "Modi wave is a creation of media", the battle in East Delhi is going to be tough one. While the BJP bagged just three assembly seats, the accumulative number of votes for the BJP across the 10 assembly constituencies that make up this Lok Sabha seat, is more than AAP's. In the Delhi Assembly polls, the BJP bagged a total of 3,62,013 votes while the AAP had got 3,15,318 votes. Though winning only two seats, the Congress stood at second number, by getting 3,28,050. The party was also second runner-up in five of the assembly seats in this constituency including Jangpura, Laxmi Nagar, Vishwas Nagar, Krishna Nagar and Shahdara. The Congress had won two major Muslim dominated seats, Okhla and Gandhi Nagar. This could be a ray of hope for the Congress to recover its lost vote base in the constituency. Trying to cover that last mile, son of former Delhi Chief Minister and Congress candidate from East Delhi, Sandeep Dikshit, has termed the AAP a "bubble". "The party has lost its charisma due to their poor performance in their 49-day government. And there is no Modi wave in the city anymore," he said. The AAP's vote share in the constituency has also suffered after one of its local forces, Vinod Kumar Binny, who won the Lakshmi Nagar seat defeating former congress minister AK Walia by a huge margin left the party. On the other hand, Okhla, a Muslim majority constituency won by the Congress, is viewing AAP as an alternative party and preferring it over the BJP, a fact that was also evident from the Delhi Assembly results which shows the AAP at the second number. Rajmohan Gandhi, AAP candidate from East Delhi said, "The voters are favouring us and we will win the seat. The AAP is the only party which is following the principles of Gandhi and is a common man's party. The Congress is the 'khas aadmi' party while BJP is the rich man's party". The BJP, which has got maximum number of seats from this constituency too claims that it will sweep East Delhi seat this time and putting all efforts to a good show. Flying high on the "Modi wave", party is confident of winning the seat with a huge margin. "The constituency is in need for a number of developmental works. In a large area there is no water connection. The roads are in a bad condition. Sewage, parking everything is falling apart," said Mahesh Giri, BJP candidate and former Director of Art of Living Foundation. |
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Cong candidate Maken banks on his work
New Delhi, March 31 Maken today said that his team of volunteers called "community reporters" have produced a series of documentaries, showcasing his work as the Sports Minister and that these documentaries would be shown to the people. This is Maken's second attempt to capitalise on his stint in the Sports Ministry to garner votes. He earlier engaged top level athletes, Mary Kom and Vijender Singh, to campaign for him over the radio. He said that sports should be the main priority for the government. "When we say that we want to become a superpower, we think on the lines of economic and defence development. But we can only progress as a nation, if we give importance to sports," said Maken, who is the Congress candidate of the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency for the Lok Sabha elections. As part of his new campaign strategy, Maken said that his team of about 12 community reporters have created 40 documentaries, mainly on sports and the rest are on local issues specific to the New Delhi Parliamentary constituency. He said that the Election Commission has granted permission to him for posting only 32 films on the social networking websites, such as Facebook. "Earlier, we informed people of our work through pamphlets. Now social media has started. So the documentaries that we have produced will be posted on the social networking websites for addressing them there. The youth is our target," said the Congress leader. Vaibhav, who is leading the team of the community reporters, said that the 40 documentaries were made over a period of three months and were shot from android phones and camcorders. He said that the films have been uploaded on Maken's Youtube account. There are three such films on issues regarding sports. One of them called "Triumph of Will" is on Arunima Sinha, the first woman with an amputated leg to climb Mount Everest. Maken said that in 2011 during a train journey, a group of men were trying to snatch her necklace and when she resisted, they threw her off the train. Her one leg had to be amputated. She now has an artificial leg in its place. "At that time I went to Lucknow and I brought her to Delhi by flight. The Sports Ministry paid for her medical treatment. She later went on to climb Mount Everest. This is the story of a girl who has got courage and with a single leg she climbed the Everest. This tells us that if we do not lose hope we can always achieve what we have wanted," said Maken. Another documentary is based on the "Come and Play" scheme that was launched by Maken in October 2011, when he was the Sports Minister. Under the scheme, he had opened the stadiums of the Sports Authority of India for the citizens. The scheme includes coaching by trained professionals in sports such as badminton, boxing, basketball and football. Apart from the documentaries, Maken also said that school students should focus on physical fitness. "Children nowadays can be mostly seen sitting in front of their computers. This seriously affects their physical fitness. There should be marks for physical fitness in schools. I want to take this forward. Our playgrounds are also decreasing. I spoke to Kamal Nath (the current Minister of Urban Development) when I was the Sports Minister and I had asked him to order schools to open their playgrounds after school hours for children. I will also take this forward," said the Congress leader. |
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Kejriwal demands fresh elections in Delhi
New Delhi, March 31 The visit comes after both BJP and Congress failed to submit their replies today to the Supreme Court in the matter of a petition filed by the AAP, challenging the President's rule imposed in Delhi in February this year after its chief resigned as Chief Minister. The court now has asked them to file an affidavit by the next hearing on April 17. They challenged both the parties to reveal their stand on whether the President's rule should continue in Delhi and spell out the reasons for getting the interim budget passed in Parliament which ended the relief to the people of Delhi on electricity and water tariffs. "The AAP will effectively raise these issues in its campaign and will not allow the BJP and the Congress to run away from answering the public on these key issues," they asserted. Stating that the extreme reluctance of these parties to make their stand public on the issue was evident during the hearing when they sought more time to file their replies, the AAP leaders submitted a memorandum to the LG demanding reconsideration of his earlier decision. The party stated that it will "expose the match fixing" between the BJP and the Congress, both of whom are desperate to "avoid" fresh assembly elections in Delhi at all costs. "The BJP and the Congress, both, appear to be happy with the President's rule in the national Capital. They are running away from facing the assembly elections and are denying the people their basic right of having an elected state government," they said. They said it is surprising that BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, both of whom have addressed election rallies in the capital recently, have chose to maintain silence on whether their parties want fresh assembly elections or not. |
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NDA, UPA corrupt forces in country: Kejriwal
New Delhi, March 31 Kejriwal appealed to the voters to defeat both the forces, if they wanted to eliminate corruption from the country. Exercising their franchise against both the forces on the day of polling is the only way to shun the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA from power. Addressing the rally, Kejriwal said there is no Modi wave in the country. "Instead of Modi wave, I have seen heat wave wherever I have gone. The wave has been made by media and election cannot be won by the media only. If there is Modi wave, why the BJP prime ministerial candidate is contesting election from two seats - Varanasi and Vadodara in Gujrat," asked Kejriwal. He said that Modi had fear that he might be defeated in Varansi that was why he had also filed nominations from Vadodara. He said that the election is in favour of AAP candidate Kumar Vishwas in Amethi where Rahul Gandhi is the Congress candidate. Kumar has strong possibility of winning the election with a margin of two lakh votes. If Rahul is defeated in the election, the Congress will be divided in many groups and thereafter the people will get real independence. He also said there would be re-election for the Lok Sabha after a year. Kejriwal urged the electorates to exercise their franchise in favour of the AAP candidates in Delhi so that the AAP can win all the seven seats in Delhi. He said in West Delhi AAP candidate is Journail Singh who has worked for the Sikh community. He also appealed to audience to leave rally ground with a pledge that each one of them will bring 100 votes for the AAP candidate. |
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NE: Improving education sector high on AAP's agenda
New Delhi, March 31 Former academic Prof Anand Kumar, who is the party's candidate from the North East Delhi, said that Northeast district was a vulnerable area where people "feel betrayed and neglected" due to issues of poor governance. He said he would work towards setting up an east campus, establishing Central School and Novodaya Vidyalayas. He said he will also work to regularise the unauthorized colonies. "Overall development of the area, providing basic amenities, including access to water, good roads, electricity, sewers and hospitals to its people, high quality education, will be high on my priority. I will show what development means on ground," said Prof Anand Kumar, the AAP candidate for the North East Delhi Parliamentary constituency while releasing the party's manifesto for the seat. "People are suffocated with the hypocrisy of the Congress and the BJP, which in the past 20 years have blatantly ignored all their basic needs. People are adamant at exposing the bluff that these parties have played. Our manifesto is an expression of people's aspirations," he said. Other highlights of the manifesto for education include, improving the standard of government schools, so they are as good as private schools, high fees and donations in private schools and colleges to be regulated, new colleges, Delhi government-run universities to be expanded and teaching posts in government schools, private schools and colleges to be regularised. The AAP, which ruled Delhi for 49 days, will also release a national manifesto. Prof Kumar while presenting his agenda for the solution to these problems said, "I will prioritize the solutions for sewer, water logging, and transport along with the availability of government land for hospitals, roads, transports, parks, cemetery, mortuary, and places for cultural programmes". |
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BJP is a well wisher of Muslims: Vardhan
New Delhi, March 31 Addressing a conference of minorities, Dr Vardhan said after the formation of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the educational and social standard of the crores of Muslims will be improved so that this community gets due respect and justice and not treated as vote bank only. Dr Vardhan said the BJP is the only party in India which does not relate any class, religion or community with terrorism. Terrorism is a global problem. Good and evil persons are found in every society and religious group. No area can be termed a terrorist hub. He said the BJP does not discriminate between the majority and the minority. After coming to power, the BJP will accord highest priority to the education of the Muslims. Muslims gathered in the conference held at Keshavpuram, a segment of the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency welcomed Dr Vardhan, assuring him to exercise their franchise to get him elected. In this election, the Muslims have already decided to vote for the BJP. |
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S. Delhi candidates step up campaigns
New Delhi, March 31 His arch rival Congress candidate Ramesh Kumar too held public meetings today in his Central Election Office at Saidulajab, which was attended by former Congress MLAs, municipal councillors, senior congress leaders and workers, to strategise his campaigns. Ramesh Kumar was joined by Arvinder Singh Lovely, chairman of the Pradesh Election Campaign Committee, Subhash Chopra, Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Vidhan Sabha Haroon Yusuf, and spokesman for DPCC Mukesh Sharma to name a few. Taking a dig on the claims of the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narender Modi, Subhash Chopra said, "There could be no bigger lie because development in Delhi has taken place much more than in Gujarat. He further said that the people of Delhi and the country know it very well that in the matter of development the Congress government in Delhi had surpassed all other states in its 15 years' governance." On the other side, Bidhuri and his associates during his campaigns of Bijvasan, Mahipalpur and Palam said, "This year we have to ensure that Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister and Bidhuri wins from the South Delhi constituency. People have seen my work and that is why they have elected me thrice from Tughlakabad." |
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Boy held for killing mother
New Delhi, March 31 The boy, who has been arrested, has been identified as Rohit. He was living with his mother, Sumitra (50), at Vikaspuri. His elder brother lives at the ground floor of the building. Following Sumitra's murder, Rohit was missing from the house. He was apprehended from Subhash Nagar, where one of Sumitra's daughters lives. Rohit allegedly told the police that he had a quarrel with his mother yesterday. "When she was beating him, he put a dupatta around her neck and pulled it hard. She collapsed. He dumped the body inside a double bed, locked the house and disappeared. He threw the bunch of keys at a drain in front of C-Block Gurdwara and at his disclosure it has been recovered," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West District) Ranvir Singh. The police learnt that Sumitra often scolded and beat her two sons when she found them in "bad company". "We learnt that she was short tempered," said Ranvir Singh. |
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Delhi Metro to get Rs 8,933 cr loan from Japan
New Delhi, March 31 The project intends to link the existing 190-km developed network with additional 116-km belt line, including six routes and six intervals which connect Indira Gandhi International Airport and Noida district and construction of heritage line connecting Central Secretariat, Delhi Gate and Kashmere Gate. The completion of the project will extend the length of the Metro network to 329.4 km and will transform the Delhi Metro into a global standard urban transportation system, comparable to the Tokyo Metro. |
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