General Elections 2019 – Day 26

General Elections 2019 - Day 26

General Elections 2019 - Day 26

PM Modi confident of surpassing 2014 poll results

Speaking with the Hindustan Times today, PM Modi expressed confidence in going past the 2014 poll performance. He spoke on his government’s performance during the past five years, the demonetization controversy, the political opposition, and why he believes the country is better placed today than when he took over in 2014.

When asked the three areas where his government performed the best, the PM replied it was difficult to name a single area as every ministry had delivered excellent work.

On demonetization he said it was to root out black money in the country, and the exercise resulted in the recovery of INR 1,30,000 crore of taxable money. INR 50,000 crore worth of properties seized along with INR 6,900 crore worth of “Benami properties”, INR 1,600 crore worth of foreign assets, and 3,38,000 shell companies identified and de-registered. The PM stressed that it was possible to achieve all this due to the demonetization.

The PM also spoke of the overall improvement in macroeconomic parameters like the tripling of railway electrification, doubling of railways work, increased production in coal and doubling of road construction. All these were deliverables of his government.

He continued to highlight the increase in jobs creation as a result of his government’s investment in infrastructure, industry and agriculture sectors.

PM Modi stressed the people recognized the good work done by his government and would see through opposition’s accusations and the results would show in the coming general elections.

AAP-Congress alliance confirmed in Delhi

After much suspense and debate, the AAP-Congress alliance has finally happened. As per unofficial information available, AAP shall contest 4 seats while Congress will contest in 3. The formal announcement is likely to be made tomorrow.

AAP has been a bitter critic of the Congress and came to power on an anti-corruption, anti-Congress platform. And so, it is indeed interesting to see two become frenemies to take on a common foe in the BJP in Delhi.

EC transfers Bengal top cops; Mamata lodges a strong protest with EC

Based on complaints received from several political parties including the BJP, Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front, the Election Commission transferred four senior Kolkata Police officers and bar them from further poll duty, reports Outlook.

The above-mentioned parties have been making repeated representation to the EC complaining of police partiality in favor of the ruling Trinamool Congress Party in West Bengal and their role in failing to control poll-related violence in the state.

These police officers have been in the news during the sit-in dharna during the recent state-CBI confrontation and also during the detention and questioning of the wife of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee at the Kolkata airport.

Mamata Banerjee has now written to the EC to lodge a strong protest against the move.

Why BJP chose to leave out one-third of BJP’s sitting MPs in 2019

In the candidate’s list announced thus far, the BJP has dropped around one-third of the party’s sitting MPs in Lok Sabha, thus opening the party to dissent and rebellion. What made the BJP take such a risky step to keep away sitting MPs? The answer lies in a combination of factors. The BJP had earlier announced a policy to retire party leaders above 75 years of age, and many of these have touched or crossed that age limit.

The other reason is that PM Modi is a results-driven person and having reviewed performance in the last five years feels these MPs have not made the cut.

The last reason is the PM is confident of another term and wants to revitalize the party with fresh faces in the Parliament.