BSP Supremo Mayawati unveils PM ambitions
BSP Leader Mayawati hinted at her PM ambitions during a press conference in Vishakhapatnam today. Accompanied by her ally in Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan of Jana Sena party, Mayawati said she has served Uttar Pradesh four times as a CM and gathered a lot of experience during these tenures. She said her services are now needed at the centre and were willing to work for the greater good of the people across India.
She extended her support to Pawan Kalyan as the next CM of Andhra Pradesh saying the state needed a change and he represented the best aspirations of the people. BSP will be contesting both Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in alliance with the Jana Sena, CPI(M), and CPI.
BSP is contesting 3 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats and 21 out of 175 assembly seats in A.P.
Shiv Sena prevails over BJP to drop BJP MP Kirit Somaiya
Shiv Sena has had its way with the BJP agreeing to drop Kirit Somaiya, a sitting MP representing the Mumbai North East seat. Kirit Somaiya has been a very vocal critic of the Shiv Sena and its leader Uddhav Thackeray, and Shiv Sena was looking at an opportunity to get back at him.
With about a week to go before polls commence, Shiv Sena placed BJP in a corner forcing it to drop Kirit Somaiya from Mumbai North East or face a Shiv Sena candidate contesting against him. BJP is now nominating Manoj Kotal as a replacement candidate. How Kirit Somaiya responds remains to be seen.
PM Modi begins Bengal campaign with “Speed breaker Didi” jibe
Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his Bengal campaign with an aggressive attack on Mamata Banerjee in her state of West Bengal. The Hindustan Times reports of how the PM tore through CM Mamata Banerjee’s response on the Balakot attack saying she was more pained than the leaders in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
He castigated the CM and other opposition parties for opposing AFSPA in J&K and other disturbed areas saying it was against the high-risk work undertaken by the armed forces operating in these areas. He said removal or dilution of AFSPA would embolden separatists and encourage terrorists further while demotivating our security forces.
PM Modi also called Mamata Banerjee a speed breaker to speedy development in the state. He said the central government had initiated a lot of development work in cooperation with state governments, but in Bengal, it could not carry out much work due to resistance from the CM.
Mamata Banerjee, on her part, has rescheduled her campaign plans and is now going to be holding follow-up rallies at the same or nearby venues to counter the PM, as he attends different rallies within the state.
It’s a sportsmen battle in Jaipur Rural – Rathore versus Poonia
Two Indian Olympic champions are ready to face-off on the political battleground of Jaipur Rural. The big showdown is between Union Minister for Sports and BJP MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and sitting Congress MLA and ex-Discus Thrower Krishna Poonia.
Rajyavardhan Rathore is a Silver medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Krishna Poonia is a Gold medal winner at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
It will be an exciting contest – a fight between two distinguished sportspersons-turned politicians.