Heena Sharma Blog

After the BJP's defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections , poll managers of its West Bengal unit are divided whether to push its aggressive strategy on the CAA-NRC or mellow it down and lace it with alternate policies of governance. The BJP that recently suffered a defeat at the hands of the AAP, which won the polls for the third consecutive time on the plank of good governance, is in two minds about its strategy for 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal. According to state BJP sources, just like West Bengal where the party won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 Parliamentary polls, it had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. "But within a few months, we saw that the results are completely opposite in Lok Sabha polls and Assembly polls in Delhi. So we cannot take it for granted that just because we won 18 seats in Bengal, we will also win the Assembly polls." Read More

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday won the Delhi elections, reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress to eight and eight and zero seats in the 70-member Assembly. The largest margin of victory was in Burari where AAP's Sanjeev Jha secured 139,598 votes. Janata Dal (United) candidate Shailendra Kumar was the runners up with 51,440 votes, trailing Jha by 88,000 votes. The smallest victory margin was also secured by an AAP candidate. Bhupinder Singh Joon retained the seat for his party with 57,271 votes, defeating a close second Sat Prakash Rana (BJP) ticket and secured 56,518 votes a difference of just 753 votes. AAP won in 5 of the constituencies in which the victory margin was the lowest. In terms of vote share, while the AAP saw a marginal decline from 54.34 per cent to 53.57 per cent, the BJP’s share rose by 6 percentage points from 32.19 per cent to 38.46 per cent. The Congress’ vote share, meanwhile, plumbed further to 4.34 per cen...

The final voter turnout in Delhi assembly polls was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than 2015, the Election Commission announced on Sunday evening nearly 24 hours after the polling ended, while the Aam Aadmi Party questioned the "delay". Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh, however, said there was no unusual delay in announcing the final voter turnout as the returning officers were busy with scrutiny of data to ensure its accuracy. After elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly were held on Saturday, poll officials had said that there was a turnout of 61.46 per cent, subject to revision. However, as there was no final word from the EC till 4 pm on Sunday, AAP chief and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter saying it was "absolutely shocking" that the poll panel was not coming out with the voting figures. "What is EC doing? Why are they not releasing poll turnout figures, several hours after polling?" Kejriwal tweeted. Read...

Wednesday attacked BJP leaders, saying their character can be defined by the kind of slogans they raise, and claimed that the AAP was copying former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's development model. She also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of being "hungry for publicity". "Slogans tell character. Those who worked in the nation's interest can be identified by their slogans. Our (Congress) slogans were 'Jai jawan, jai kisan', 'Mai yuva hoon', 'Mera ek sapna hai', 'Aaram haram hai', 'Roti, kapda, makaan'," the Congress leader said. "Their (BJP's) slogans are 'Goli maro; khoon se tilak karo, boli nahi goli. Ye desh jodne wale nare hain'? (Are these slogans in favour of bringing the country together)," she said at a poll rally in Chandni Chowk. The Congress general secretary also said that Dikshit during her tenure as chief minister ha...

On the penultimate day of campaigning for the Delhi polls on Wednesday, the AAP, the Congress and the BJP slugged it out over issues ranging from citizenship law, appeasement politics and unemployment. The Congress fielded its leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to attack the AAP and the BJP, even as war of words escalated between the BJP and the AAP which traded barbs over the Shaheen Bagh shooter. On Tuesday, police had said that Kapil Baisala, the man who opened fire at Shaheen Bagh protest site last week, was an AAP worker. Addressing a press conference, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that if Baisala was even remotely connected to the his party then he should be given a "double punishment". "I am not aware of his (Baisala's ties) with the any political party. If he is even remotely connected to the AAP, he should be given double punishment. There should be no compromise on national security," he said. Read More

The BJP on Tuesday released the second list of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, fielding state Yuva Morcha President Sunil Yadav from the New Delhi constituency against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The list was announced after midnight following the announcement of Siromani Akali Dal (SAD) to not contest the Delhi polls in alliance with the BJP due to its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act. According to the list of 10 candidates that came hours before the filing of nomination closes on Tuesday, Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinderpal Singh Bagga has been fielded from Hari Nagar and party's Purvanchal Morcha president Manish Singh would contest from the Delhi Cantonment constituency. The BJP announced its candidates on all four seats that traditionally went to its ally SAD in the previous Assembly elections in Delhi. Dharamvir Singh has been fielded from Kalkaji, former East Delhi deputy mayor Sanjay Goyal from Shahdara and Ramesh Khanma from Rajouri Garden. ...

Expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar will remain in jail for life for raping a woman in Unnao in 2017, a Delhi court said on Friday while sentencing him to life imprisonment. District Judge Dharmesh Sharma also imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakh in the case and has to be paid within a month. "This court does not find any mitigating circumstance. Sengar was public servant and betrayed people's faith," the judge said while declining the plea for lenient approach in sentencing him. The court also said the conduct of Sengar was to intimidate the rape survivor.It also directed that the rape survivor be paid an additional Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the mother of the victim. Read More

An estimated 28.56 per cent of over 4.7 million voters exercised their franchise till 11 am on Monday in the fourth phase of Jharkhand Assembly elections in 15 constituencies, Election Commission (EC) officials said. Polling, which began at 7 am, is going on peacefully, they said. Braving cold weather, voters, including women and senior citizens, are seen waiting in queues for their turn to cast their vote. Voting will end at 3 pm at Jamua, Bagodar, Giridih, Dumri and Tundi while the exercise will continue till 5 pm in the remaining seats, they said. The seats going for polls in this phase are Deoghar (SC), Jamua (SC), Chandankiyari (SC), Madhupur, Bagodar, Gandey, Giridih, Dumri, Bokaro, Sindri, Nirsa, Dhanbad, Jharia, Tundi and Baghmara spread across four districts. A total of 47,85,009 voters, including 22,44,134 women and 81 third-gender people, are eligible to decide the fate of 221 nominees in this phase. Read More

Ahead of the tabling of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha on Monday, the Shiv Sena has questioned whether "selective acceptance" of Hindu illegal immigrants will act as a trigger for a religious war in the country and accused the Centre of apparently doing an "invisible partition" of Hindus and Muslims over the bill. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party also said "vote bank politics" under the garb of the bill (CAB) is not in the interest of the country. In an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena also raised the timing of the bill saying, "There is no dearth of problems in India now but still we are inviting new ones such as CAB. It looks like the Centre has made an invisible partition of Hindus and Muslims over the bill". The Sena, which has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha, also pointed out that most of the states from the North East region have opposed the CAB along with Bihar where the BJP is sharing power with...

Amidst a clamour for withdrawal of the Citizenship Bill (Amendment), the students' union and alumni association of Cotton University have decided to ban the entry of members of the ruling BJP, RSS and other organisations supporting the bill into the varsity. Cotton University Students Union general secretary Rahul Bordoloi in a joint press meet on Monday urged all the MLAs and MPs in Assam and other northeastern states to take a stand against the contentious bill. Along with the BJP-RSS, the students' union and alumni association also banned entry of all organisations and leaders, who are supporting the CAB, into the institution, he said. Bordoloi said the students' union opposes the CAB and it will organise a protest against it on December 5. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend a 1955 law to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan if they have lived in India f...

The BJP on Wednesday took potshots at former ally Shiv Sena’s attempts, asking it how it planned to fit its ‘ Hindutva ’ ideology, which the two share, in the common minimum programme (CMP) it is trying to sew up with ideological opponents, NCP and Congress. “ It is up to the Shiv Sena how to fit their ‘Hindutva’ agenda in the CMP with the Congress,” senior BJP leader and Union minister Raosaheb Danve said. “The Congress, which is a 150-year-old party, will obviously take its agenda further (in government),” he said. ‘ Hindutva’ has been the Sena’s ideological leitmotif, and the glue that made BJP and Sena stick together for over 30 years. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had responded to a similar question at his press conference on Tuesday evening. He said he was collecting information on how the BJP struck alliances with such ideologically distinct parties as the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party, and Telugu Desam Party. Read More

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant from the Union council of ministers with immediate effect, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said. Sawant's resignation has been accepted on advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the spokesperson. As advised by the prime minister, the president has directed that Union minister Prakash Javadekar be assigned the charge of the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in addition to his existing portfolios, the spokesperson added. Read More

As BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani turned 92 on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled his contribution in shaping the party and making it a " dominant pole " of Indian politics. The prime minister, who visited the veteran leader at his home, said Advani never compromised on the core ideology. "Scholar, statesman and one of the most respected leaders, India will always cherish the exceptional contribution of Shri Lal Krishna Advani Ji towards empowering our citizens," the prime minister wrote on Twitter. Advani toiled for decades to give shape and strength to the BJP, he said, wishing him on his birthday. "If over the years, our party has emerged as a dominant pole of Indian politics, it is because of leaders like Advani Ji and the selfless karyakartas (workers) he groomed for decades," Modi said. "Not once has he compromised on the core ideology. When it came to safeguarding our democracy, he was at the forefront. As a minister,...

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian Om Birla is set to become the Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha after Wednesday's election. Birla, 57, is a two term Lok Sabha Member of Parliament. He won from Rajasthan’s Kota-Bundi seat in the just concluded general election. Birla has been a three-term legislator in the Rajasthan Assembly. Not just BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance, but parties such as the Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress and others are also likely to support his candidature. Birla’s nomination by the BJP leadership as the party's candidate for the Speaker’s post suggests that it is rewarding 'humble workers' who have come up through the ranks. With Birla’s nomination, the National Democratic Alliance has departed from the decade-and-a-half old trend of nominating an experienced parliamentarian to the post. In 2004, 10-term Lok Sabha MP Somnath Chatterjee was elected as the Speaker. Five-term Lok Sabha MP Meira Kumar succeeded ...

Never since Indira Gandhi’s famous 1971 electoral triumph had an incumbent prime minister returned with a majority. Never since 1984 had a party crossed the 300-seat mark. On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first ever non-Congress prime minister to return to power after a full term, and also the first in 48 years to return with a majority. The BJP, at the time of filing this report, was leading in 303 seats, and in 353 seats along with its allies. The last time a party crossed the 300-seat mark was in 1984, when the Congress won more than 400 seats in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The scale and spread of the BJP’s victory are impressive. Apart from winning an unprecedented majority, the BJP vote share in 12 states is more than 50 per cent, including in big states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Uttar Pradesh and Tripura, the BJP vote share is 49 per cent. The Congress, expected to challenge the BJP at least in ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surged to a majority on his own in India’s general election, with his Bharatiya Janata Party establishing a commanding lead in vote counting. "India wins yet again," Modi said in a tweet. "Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong India." BJP supporters have begun celebrating in the streets as the party extended its lead in more than 299 seats -- easily ahead of the 272 seats needed to form government and more than the 282 the party won in 2014. The opposition Congress party is ahead in 51 seats, official election commission results show as of 2:46 pm local time. Follow our TOPLive blog coverage here. After the initial euphoria over the prospects of a landslide victory, gains in Indian assets are evaporating fast. The Sensex, the benchmark equity index, is close to erasing its climb to a record. The outcome is a validation of Modi’s hardline Hindu nationalism and populist economic policies, ...

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reaffirmed its status as India’s pole party, beating principal opponent, the Congress, by leaps and bounds as it did in 2014. The party has yielded very little space to regional forces that at one point looked like standing up to some competition against the BJP and even aspiring to form a federal front as a third alternative. Riding high on the charisma, credibility and ideological convictions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, complemented by the unflagging diligence and unerring strategising and planning by the BJP president, Amit Shah who showed remarkable resilience in accommodating allies punching above their weight and a formidable party machinery that was reinforced by the apparatuses spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP comfortably secured a majority of its own, going by available trends and looked like cushioning its own strength with the gains made by its partners. The biggest achievements of the Modi-Shah duo...

India began counting hundreds of millions of votes in its general election on Thursday, with a coalition led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party taking an early lead, TV channels and the Election Commission said. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is expected to surpass the 272 seats needed to command a majority in the Lok Sabha, six of seven exit polls showed on Sunday. The NDA led in 235 seats, with the opposition United Progressive Alliance ahead in 95, at 9 a.m. local time (0330 GMT), about an hour after the counting of about 600 million votes began, TV channel NDTV said. Official data from the Election Commission showed the BJP ahead in 101 seats, with the main opposition Congress Party ahead in 40. There are 542 seats available. Trends are expected to be known by noon and final results are due by Thursday evening. The NDA’s predicted margin of victory is larger than surveys indicated in the run-up to the vote, w...

Congress leaders including from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed that several surgical strikes were conducted by army during the previous UPA rule. “ Multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure, too. For us, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises, Singh had said in an interview to a newspaper. Congress leader Rajiv Shukla had told reporters at an AICC briefing last week that six surgical strikes were conducted during the period of Manmohan Singh government. PM Modi in a rally slammed the Congress for telling "lies" aand said the party does surgical strikes only "in video games". Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Two opinion polls in lead up to the Lok Sabha elections 2019 predict that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will come back to power, while one says the ruling alliance will fall five seats short of the magic number of 272. Three days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a survey by Time Now- VMR shows that the NDA will come back to power with 279 seats. It projects 149 seats for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and 115 for other parties and candidates. The BJP and its allies are expected to win 267 of the 543 parliament seats at stake, the CVoter polling agency said, just five short of the halfway mark required to rule. The latest estimate is down sharply from the alliance’s current tally of 330 seats secured when Modi swept to power in 2014, promising to transform India. “ In the immediate aftermath of the Balakot strikes the percentage of those strongly satisfied with the government rose to a recent all-time high of 52 per cent,”...