Congress ruined Manipur, BJP will bring development in 15 months: Modi

Manipur Polls 2017 - amming the Congress party for "ruining" Manipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said if the BJP comes to power in the state it will "do in 15 months what the Congress did not in the last 15 years".

He also assured there will be no economic blockade in the state.

"What Congress did not do in the last 15 years, I assure we will do it in 15 months. Wherever, Congress is in power there is no development, there is only corruption," said Modi at a public rally here.

"There will never be an economic blockade when BJP comes to power in Manipur, I assure you this," he added.

The Manipur assembly elections will be held in two phases - March 4 and 8 - to elect 60 members of the state legislative assembly.

"Unity of Manipur, welfare of its people and development of the state is our only goal. You gave them (Congress) 15 years, give us five years. I assure you we'll complete the pending work in 15 months," said Modi.

"Manipur has been ruined in 15 years. Who is responsible? Congress did no development, do they deserve to be here now?" Modi asked.

He added: "The corruption that took place in Manipur in last the 15 years will be exposed by our government."(Read More)

War rooms and UP polls 2017: Akhilesh Yadav takes on Modi at his own game

UP Polls 2017 - Prime Minister Narendra Modi out-campaigned all-comers in the 2014 general election but, as he faces his biggest mid-term test, he is up against a rival determined to beat him at his own game.

In Uttar Pradesh his opponent, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, has been repackaged as a youthful and media-savvy go-getter who seeks to steal a unique selling point of Modi's - development.

"I am taking it a bit beyond Modi: I work," Yadav told Reuters in an interview in Lucknow, capital of the state of 220 million that is holding the biggest democratic election anywhere in the world this year.

"My work speaks for itself. Modi's empty promises do not," said the 43-year-old leader of the Samajwadi, or Socialist, Party.

Yadav entered the vast election, being held over the course of a month, as a narrow favourite: He had just emerged from a power struggle with his domineering father and struck a pre-poll alliance with the Indian National Congress.(Read More)

UP elections 2017: Over 40% turnout till 2 PM in phase-IV

UP Polls 2017 - Over 40 per cent of 1.84 crore voters exercised their franchise till midday today in the fourth phase of polling in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"Polling is underway at a brisk pace in 53 assembly constituencies spread over 12 districts, including the backward Bundelkhand region," the CEO office said here.

The pace of voting was slow in the first few hours but picked up as the day advanced.

The exercise was by and large peaceful in view of tight security arrangements.

Inter district and inter state borders have been sealed and patrolling by security forces has been intensified in poll-bound areas. Most of the sensitive polling centres are being manned by the personnel of Central Paramilitary Forces.

680 candidates are in the fray in this phase which covers Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot and Fatehpur districts.

The BSP has fielded its nominees in all seats, while BJP's nominees are in 48 constituencies. The BJP has left 6 seats for its ally Apna Dal. The SP nominees are in contest in 30 segments and its ally, the Congress, is in contest from 25 constituencies.(Read More)

UP polls 2017: BSP has an edge and Mayawati is likely to return to power

UP Polls 2017 - Six months prior to the 2017 Assembly elections, the battle for power in Uttar Pradesh was seen as a fight between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which is presently ruling at the centre. The BJP's chances had dwindled slightly after its state vice president Dayashankar Singh made some inappropriate comments against Mayawati. At that point, the Samajwadi Party, the party currently in power, was widely perceived to be out of the race.

All of a sudden, a series of melodramatic incidents within the SP's ruling family catapulted Akhilesh Yadav from the status of 'half CM' to full chief minister and leader of the party. Earlier, he was often taunted to be subordinate to the SP's big four: his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, uncle Shivpal Yadav, uncle Ram Gopal Yadav and senior leader Azam Khan. The impression formed that since Mulayam was publicly taking the side of his brother Shivpal, party cadres would remain loyal to Shivpal if it came to choosing between him and Akhilesh. However, Akhilesh proved everybody wrong and now is the undisputed claimant to the chief ministership on behalf of the Samajwadi Party, with Shivpal and even Mulayam having been marginalised. The state witnessed a silent coup by a serving ruler who has been able to unshackle himself now.(Read more)

Manipur elections: TMC to raise economic blockade issue in Parliament

Manipur Elections 2017 - The Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it would raise in Parliament the issue of the ongoing economic blockade in Manipur and already urged the Election Commission to take action to lift the blockade.

"We would raise the issue of economic blockade in Parliament. We are against any kind of blockade or shutdown. Recently I had met Election Commission and told them that they were required to act in order to lift the blockade as the model code of conduct is in force in the state," Roy told PTI.

Roy, who is presently in Imphal to campaign for TMC candidates contesting in Manipur elections, said that TMC would play a decisive role after the polls as "no party will be able to get a majority on its own."

"We are in a position to win at least seven to eight seats. We won seven seats in 2012 Manipur Elections. And in the post-poll scenario we'll play a decisive factor as no party will be able to get a majority on its own," Roy said.

TMC this time is fighting for 24 seats. Last time with seven seats TMC was the main opposition party in the state. Later, however, all the seven MLAs switched their loyalty to either Congress or BJP.(Read More)

UP elections 2017: Poll promises have not changed in 15 years; here's why

UP Elections 2017 - Pihani, Uttar Pradesh: For 16 years, Kailash Rai (not his real name), 49, has been commuting six hours every working day between his home in the state capital Lucknow and the government degree college where he teaches in Pihani, 135 km to the northwest.

A political-science lecturer, Rai cannot move with his family to Pihani, a cluster of over 100 villages (called a kasba) in Hardoi district, with less than 40,000 families as per Census 2011. When he started working there in 2000, it lacked the basic public facilities–regular power supply, good roads, public transport and good medical services.

Pihani remains an economic backwater. In the ongoing assembly elections, UP’s incumbent and contesting politicians are still promising the basic facilities they did 16 years ago: Electricity, buses and jobs, along with laptops and free data for poor youth.

A UP kasba: 100% rural, 83% farm workers
A community development block in Hardoi district, north-west of Lucknow, Pihani is an agglomeration of over 100 small villages. This rural administrative division is called a taluk or tehsil in other states. UP has 901 such blocks administered by a block development officer.

A third of Pihani’s population consists of people belonging to scheduled castes and tribes. Its literacy rate is 51%, and less than half its women (41%) are literate. Women in Pihani form about 14% of the workforce, nine percentage points less than the national average of 27% as IndiaSpend reported in April 2016.(Read More)

Amid defection, blockades, Congress hopes to retain power in Manipur

 Manipur Assembly elections 2017 - The recurring economic blockades by tribal groups is a major issue in Manipur where the upcoming assembly polls are witnessing a close battle between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP.

Intriguingly, none of the parties has so far stressed on the important issue of employment generation, despite the state having over 800,000 educated unemployed youths out of its less than 2.8 million population.

With the 60-seat assembly slated to hold two-phase polls on March 4 and March 8, campaigning is slowly picking up. The Congress is eyeing a consecutive fourth term in office while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — which had only one legislator in the outgoing House — is throwing a determined challenge to wrest power.

The path ahead looks far from rosy for the Congress due to resignations, anti-incumbency factor and the warning from an outfit to tribal politicians not to contest on tickets of Congress.

Phungzathang Tonsing, the number two in the state cabinet for many years, resigned from the Congress despite being given a ticket. "Manipur is a small place and people know what the Congress is doing," Tonsing said cryptically, while declining to elaborate.(Read More)

UP polls 2017: SP-Cong alliance pins hope on note ban anger to fight BJP

Campaigning comes to an end for the third phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections 2017 today evening. As many as 69 seats across central UP’s Lucknow, Kanpur, Sitapur, Mainpuri, Etawah and adjoining districts will vote on Sunday. Samajwadi Party and Congress workers in the region are nervous. They fear a Hindu consolidation for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP believes the third phase will mark a revival of the party after a tepid response in the first two phases.

In the cities and towns of central UP, there is a positive buzz for Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav but the alliance’s hopes rest more on the mistakes of its rival. The alliance has tried to tap into the anger on the street for Narendra Modi government’s note ban decision, the perceived non-performance of BJP’s Lok Sabha members of Parliament and the infighting in that party’s ranks because of faulty ticket distribution.

But the cadres are also discovering a groundswell of support from the upper castes who wish deliverance from the “Ahir-Muslim” rule of the last five years. The BJP is sure that the patchwork of caste coalition of upper castes and non-Yadav OBCs would help it win majority of the seats in the region.

1. Hindu consolidation

2. Note ban

3. Non-performance of BJP MPs, poor candidate selection

4. Chinks in SP-Congress alliance

5. Anti-incumbency and law and order

6. Split in Muslim votes

Read More