Opposition resorting to desperate measures to come to power: Rajnath Singh

Elections 2017 - Lashing out at both of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) political rivals in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday dubbed the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as parties resorting to 'desperate' measures to come to power.

"Out of desperation, the BSP has gone to the limit of appealing for votes on a communal basis," Rajnath Singh told media.

"It was the desperation of the SP which made it get into an alliance with the Congress. The SP has accepted that it is now weak. That is why it allied with a party like the Congress," he added.

Drawing a mathematical analogy, Singh said the SP-Congress alliance will be considered as null only because adding two minuses leads to a minus only.
"SP and Congress alliance is an opportunist one, but the blunder here is that a minus added with another minus is equal to minus only," he said.(Read More)

Win at all costs? PM Modi's reforms meet realpolitik in Uttar Pradesh polls

Elections 2017 - Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to clean up politics. The man running the ruling party's campaign in a crucial state election, who is facing 11 criminal cases, says it will take a while.

"At a time of elections, one has to forget every other aspect and just focus on victory," said Keshav Prasad Maurya, as his three-vehicle convoy carrying police with automatic rifles sped through the countryside.

Polls open on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh, with a population of some 220 million, and on the ground Modi's loftier aims for a new India seem far away.

Maurya, the state's president for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says the charges against him are false and politically motivated; unless he is convicted, they do not prevent him from holding office.

His bosses are not concerned.

An official at the prime minister's office referred questions about Maurya and his criminal cases to the BJP, where an aide to party president and Modi confidant Amit Shah said there was no problem.(Read More)

AIADMK is now with autocracy, says Presidium Chairman Madhusudanan

Adding a new twist in the Tamil Nadu politics, AIADMK Presidium Chairman E Madhusudanan Thursday met O Panneerselvam and extended his support. The development comes ahead few hours before Tamil Nadu governor is expected to reach Chennai.

Madhusudanan reached caretaker Chief Minister Panneerselvam house in the afternoon. Being an eminent figure in AIADMK, he chairs all the meetings of the Party, including the MLAs meeting held at Chennai yesterday.

Madusudanan is a close confidant of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. In fact Panneerselvam yesterday said that late Jayalalithaa wanted Madhusudanan to be general secretary.

Madhusudhan said: “AIADMK is now with autocracy and we need to save the Party so I decided to support OPS.”

Natham Viswanathan, one of the cabinet ministers who support OPS and was also a member of Jayalalithaa’s party, said, “The Party needs to be saved from Sasikala family.”(Read More)

Modi ka Gaon: Censor board 'spikes' feature film on PM, here's the trailer

The censor board has refused to clear a feature film based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi development agenda. One of the grounds cited is the ongoing assembly elections in five states.

The producer of the medium-budget film, "Modi ka Gaon", Suresh Jha, who has co-directed it with Tushar A. Goel, is crying foul and charged the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with discriminating against a movie due for release on Friday.

"Censor board officials informed us they found the film objectionable on three main counts. There is no way I can release it tomorrow (Friday). So I am considering moving the court," Jha told IANS.

"They have stipulated conditions which are so difficult to comply with that I might as well forget about releasing the film.

"The golden solution: 'Get a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Election Commission... I think this must be the first time the PMO or EC are expected to preview a film and clear it before the CBFC certifies it," Jha said.(Read More)

To Watch The Trailer click here

Note ban splits BJP's trader vote bank in western UP

UP elections 2017 - Manoj Kucchal, a hardware vendor in Bijnor’s commercial hub, Sadar Bazar, looked harassed as he summoned his chartered accountant for the morning session he has been holding since the taxman knocked on his doors.

The taxman started sending him alerts after vetting Kucchal’s bank accounts to check how much cash was put in it after November 8, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised high-value currency notes.


“The I-T (income tax) department has served 10 messages on my mobile in the past 10 days. If I do not answer these within 10 days, I will have to pay a penalty of Rs 10,000 per notice. The thing that amuses me is the number of times I have used the figure 10,” said Kucchal, who heads the Bijnor district traders’ association.

At Saharanpur, 110 km away, Vivek Minocha, who helms the city’s traders’ forum, is feeling harassed. “The I-T guys are demanding proof for every rupee we put in (to a bank account). The PM himself said once not to probe deposits of up to Rs 2.5 lakh by housewives. The women in my joint family have made deposits. It seems the I-T sleuths will not heed his advice. What do I do?” asked Minocha.(Read More)