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Polls over, focus shifts to Raisina Hill
Mixed bag for film fraternity in Lok Sabha elections
Day after victory, reality check for Shiv Sena
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Eye on Assembly polls, M’rashtra BJP wants Shah to weave magic
Let’s clean up Kashi: Modi
Anmol Rattan Sidhu quits
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Polls over, focus shifts to Raisina Hill
New Delhi, May 17 Important domestic and international strategies, internal and external security and economic issues are dealt by these four key ministries atop the Raisina Hill, which also houses the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Prime Minister’s Office. These four ministries and the Prime Minister comprise the all powerful Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) – the highest decision-making body on all fiscal matters like running the economy, new weapons purchases, forces deployment and reaction to situations across the border, strategy on issues arising in India and abroad, dealing with
Naxals, international relations, intelligence gathering, exploring new sources of oil in foreign lands, among others. This time around, barring LK
Advani, none in the BJP has had a previous stint in the CCS. Advani, who was Home Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet during 1999-2004, does not seem like a probable choice in any of the four ministries. Among his previous CCS colleagues Yashwant Sinha did not contest, Jaswant Singh rebelled to contest as an Independent from Barmer and lost and George Fernandes was not in the fray. The BJP’s possible names for CCS-2014 are Arun
Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Amit Shah. Other than Shah all have been union ministers in the past. The lack of CCS-experienced ministers would not be a hindrance, said a senior functionary, the BJP’s top leadership had been in the forefront on debating security, economic and foreign policy issues in Parliament and are well versed with the finer nuances. The immediate call for the new CCS will be a decision on continuation of the existing lot of officers on two-year fixed tenures in these ministries. Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth is on an extension beyond his two-year tenure, which ends on June 13. The Home Secretary Anil Goswami’s tenure is to end on June 30, 2015, while Defence Secretary RK Mathur’s tenure ends on May 25, 2015. Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh’s tenure ends on August 1, 2015. Director Intelligence Bureau Syed Asif Ibrahim has his term till January 1, 2015 while his counterpart Alok Joshi in the RAW is slated to end his term on December 29, 2014. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha will end his term on December 3, 2014. The other issue that could come up first is the recent flare up in the South China Sea where Beijing warned New Delhi to keep out. China and Vietnam are locked in show strength over under-sea oil extraction.
Who’ll be on Cabinet Committee on Security
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Mixed bag for film fraternity in Lok Sabha elections
New Delhi, May 17 Khanna and Sinha had been ministers in the previous NDA regime 1999-2004. Comedian Bhagwant Mann upset Akali stalwart Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa at Sangrur. Hema Malini, the Bollywood “Dreamgirl”, won the Mathura seat on a BJP ticket, while the RLD’s Jaya Prada and Congress’ Nagma lost the Rampur and Meerut seats, respectively. In Chandigarh, BJP’s Kirron Kher pushed AAP’s Gul Panag to the third place, behind Congress’ Pawan Kumar Bansal. In West Bengal, actors Moon Moon Sen (official name with EC, Dev Varma) and Shatabdi Roy won their Bankura and Birhum seats, respectively, on Trinamool Congress tickets. Actor Tapas Paul won from Krishnanagar. Kannada movie actor Ramya, a sitting Congress MP, lost her Mandya seat. In Maharashtra, actor Navneet Kaur Rana of the NCP lost the Amravati seat. She hails from Ropar in Punjab and married to an MLA in Maharashtra. TV’s most famous “bahu” Smriti Irani lost in Amethi on a BJP ticket to Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. In Gujarat, noted actor Paresh Rawal won the East Ahmedabad seat on a BJP ticket. Down south in Kerala, comedian Innocent won on an LDF ticket. In Bengal, singer Balbul Supriyo won the Asansol seat, while magician PC Sorcar (junior) lost in Barasaat. Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan of the Congress lost from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, while his fellow actor in Bhojpuri movies Manoj Tewari won the North East seat in Delhi. Noted Director Prakash Jha lost on the Janata Dal (united) ticket from West Champaran in Bihar and another director Mahesh Manjrekar lost in Mumbai on a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ticket.
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Day after victory, reality check for Shiv Sena
Mumbai, May 17 The Shiv Sena is aware that the BJP with 283 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha does not need any ally to stay in the office. “We hope the BJP does not forget us since we stood by it during its difficult days,” Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray told reporters late Friday evening. While the Shiv Sena expects its MPs to get some Cabinet berths in the Narendra Modi government, the party is eyeing the Assembly elections due later this year. “We would want the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition to project Uddhav Thackeray as the alliance’s Chief Ministerial candidate,” confirmed a senior party leader. In the 2009 elections, the Shiv Sena had contested 169 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly, leaving 119 seats to the BJP. However, with Raj Thackeray’s MNS eating into its vote share, the Shiv Sena bagged just 44 seats, leaving the BJP with 46 seats. Uddhav Thackeray had also to concede the post of Leader of the Opposition to the BJP. With the MNS now a spent force, the Shiv Sena leadership is confident of sweeping Maharashtra as part of the saffron alliance. However, buoyed by victory, it is still not clear whether the BJP would accommodate its regional ally. A section of the BJP leaders led by former party president Nitin Gadkari feel it is time to dump the Shiv Sena. Shortly before the elections, Gadkari met Raj Thackeray in what was seen as an attempt to get the MNS into the NDA. However, the Shiv Sena kicked up a row, forcing the BJP to quickly abandon the move. Shiv Sena leaders say, Thackeray, who underwent a cardiac procedure around a year ago, had recovered enough to participate in electioneering. He addressed 34 rallies across Maharashtra, despite the summer heat. The Shiv Sena bagged 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats it contested in Maharashtra.
The worry
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Dalit base intact, growing: Maya
Lucknow, May 17 Substantiating her point, she said that the total BSP votes had, in fact, increased by 9 lakh votes from 2009. Addressing a press conference at her 13, Mall Avenue residence, Mayawati said that the verdict had proved that people had completely rejected the Congress-led UPA government’s policies. “The BSP and other parties, who supported the UPA to keep communal forces at bay, have paid a price for the UPA’s failure,” she said. However, she pointed out that in UP, the BJP had won barely 42 per cent of votes while 58 per cent of voters had rejected the BJP. She squarely blamed BJP’s UP in-charge Amit Shah of giving the election a communal colour and polarising the vote by his provocative election meetings in western Uttar Pradesh. “The Congress, SP and BJP’s misleading propaganda of the Dalit vote shifting to the BJP confused the Muslims, dividing their votes and directly benefiting the BJP,” said Mayawati. She admitted that despite her repeated warnings to them during her election meetings, a sizable section of the Muslims, upper caste and even the OBC voters had succumbed to the Opposition parties’ propaganda and had not voted for her party. According to Mayawati, the Muslim community would soon realise their mistake and regret their decision. However, Mayawati was not worried about her party’s performance claiming that her party remained strong and had retained almost 20 per cent of UP’s vote share and came second at 34 seats. In contrast, she pointed out that the five Samajwadi Party seats and two Congress seats had been won due to a friendly match, as the SP had not fielded candidates in both the Congress seats and the Congress doing vice versa at three of the five SP seats.
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Eye on Assembly polls, M’rashtra BJP wants Shah to weave magic
Mumbai, May 17 “Yes, we will certainly take help of Amit Shah’s expertise and guidance in the Assembly polls,” state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis told reporters here today. He was replying to a query on whether BJP’s state unit will use the political acumen of Modi’s master strategist to wrest power from the Congress-NCP combine in the Assembly elections. On the dismal performance of the NCP, whose strength was reduced from eight to four, Fadnavis said, “The NCP was an Innova party last time. We have made it a Nano party now. They should learn from this.” Both parties (Congress and NCP) went into a denial mode whenever questions were asked about problems facing the state, he said. “The state government did not help people in times of distress like hailstorm thats why people rejected it. We feel the government should face elections as people have expressed total distrust in it. “Modi has said we don’t want to indulge in vindictive politics. So no difficulties will be posed by Centre for state government. Whatever assistance is expected from Centre, we will get it,” he said. BJP MPs from state will meet in Delhi on May 20. — PTI
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Rao elected TRS floor leader
Hyderabad, May 17 A joint meeting of the party’s newly elected state legislators and MPs, held here, passed a unanimous resolution electing him as the leader of the legislature party. The stage is now set for KCR, as he is known in political circles, to become the first Chief Minister of Telangana, the 29th state of the country. He will take oath on June 2 when Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh will come into existence. KCR steered his party to victory in simultaneous elections to the Assembly and the Lok Sabha. The TRS bagged 63 seats in the 119-member Assembly, three more than the half-way mark, and 11 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 17 in the region. The voters gave a decisive verdict in favour of the TRS, which spearheaded the statehood movement since its inception in 2001. KCR was elected from both the Medak Lok Sabha seat and the Gajwel Assembly constituency. Party general secretary K Keshava Rao told reporters that the date for the swearing-in ceremony would be decided after the lifting of the President’s Rule and the constitution of the new Assembly. At a joint meeting of the party MLAs and MPs, one of the legislators Rajaiah proposed KCR’s name while others supported it. The TRS leaders will meet Governor ESL Narasimhan tomorrow to convey to him the resolution passed by the legislature party electing him its leader. The MPs passed another resolution, authorising the party chief to name the floor leader in the Lok Sabha. Addressing the MLAs and MPs, KCR said the focus of the new government would be on development and welfare of the poor.
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Let’s clean up Kashi: Modi
Varanasi, May 17 His visit within 24 hours of the BJP’s astounding victory in the General Election and his personal victory by 3.7 lakh votes from Varanasi was a symbolic thanks giving to the city which gave him a pan-India stature. In his 20-minute thanks-giving speech after witnessing the Ganga aarti at the Dashwamedh ghat here this evening, Modi expressed his gratitude to the voters of Varanasi who had voted for him despite his failure to campaign in the city. An emotional Modi claimed that he had received a divine call from ‘Ma Ganga’ and today he felt the pleasure that a child feels in his mother’s lap. Urging the people of the city to turn Varanasi into a truly spiritual capital of the world he said that the first step would be to clean the city. “Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary would be celebrated in 2019. We should take a pledge to follow his ideal of cleanliness. Let us begin with this city”, he said adding that he was aware that it was difficult to make the people of the city work. “Till now India had seen coalition governments. This time the people have given such a verdict that there appears to be chances of a coalition opposition”, sarcastically commented BJP prime minister designate Narendra Modi. As a precautionary measure to check communal incidents, the Akhilesh Yadav government had banned victory processions on the day of results, preventing Modi visiting the city yesterday. Arriving in the evening, Modi’s cavalcade went straight to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Accompanied by BJP national president Rajnath Singh, close aide Amit Shah Modi participated in a 45-minute long ‘rudra abhishek’ ceremony assisted by five pundits.
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Ex-Air India Chief Russi Mody no more
Mumbai, May 17 Born in a Parsi family in Bombay Presidency on June 17, 1918, Mody was educated at Harrow and went on to do his graduation from Christ College, London. He joined Tata Steel in 1939 and went on to become its chairman. Following his retirement, he took over as the joint chairman of Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines. Meanwhile, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry mourned Mody’s death, saying India had lost a true giant of a man, whose human touch endured him to many hearts. — Agencies
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Anmol Rattan Sidhu quits Chandigarh, May 17 Also the president of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, Dr Sidhu had held the post of Assistant Solicitor-General for more than six years. In his resignation addressed to the ministry concerned, Dr Sidhu has stated that he performed his duties to the best of his ability, but was not in a position to continue further.
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As the Narendra
Modi-led BJP government gets ready to occupy the seat of power in the iconic British-era buildings atop the Raisina Hill, all eyes are on the four key ministries —
Defence, Home, External Affairs and Finance.
Among film stars, Vinod Khanna won from Gurdaspur and Shatrughan Sinha from Patna Sahib on BJP tickets, but their compatriot and Congress candidate Raj Babbar lost to General VK Singh (retd) in Ghaziabad.
