General Elections 2019 – Day 33

General Elections 2019 - Day 33

General Elections 2019 - Day 33

PM Modi traverses Tamil Nadu hoping for to turn sentiments

Tamil Nadu votes on 18 April and so the Prime Minister today addressed rallies across Tamil Nadu to convince citizens his government’s performance at the centre. He further invoked former leaders like MG Ramachandran (MGR) and Jayalalithaa and how his BJP’s alliance with AIADMK will help improve the living conditions of people of Tamil Nadu.

Times of India reports from the PM’s rally in Ramanathapuram and Theni in Tamil Nadu said the PM touched upon the sensitive subject of water availability, sharing and distribution. Tamil Nadu has faced a lot of stress on account of erratic rainfall and water sharing disputes with Karnataka and Kerala. The PM told the local people his government had given a lot of attention to the development of water resources and further promised to establish the Ministry of Jal Shakti to ensure clean water for drinking and irrigation is made available to farmers.

At Theni, the PM took on the Congress raking up issues related to denial of justice to victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Bhopal Gas tragedy, and frequent cases of violence against Dalits.

In his address, he mentioned the failures of the Congress, DMK and the Muslim League and how another vote to them will impact the pace of development in the state.

Rahul Gandhi continues with a focus on NYAY

Addressing a joint rally at Kolar in Karnataka, Congress president Rahul Gandhi focused his address on the failure of the Modi government in depositing Rs 15 lakh into people’s account, as per promise made in 2014 general elections, reports The Hindu.

Sharing the dais with leaders of JD(S), the alliance partners in the state, Rahul Gandhi promised, his government would introduce the minimum income guarantee scheme (MIGS) – earlier referred as Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY).

He assured people 5 crore of the country’s poorest families would receive Rs 6,000 per month or Rs 72,000 annually. The scheme would cover 25 crore people across the country.

He once again went hard against the PM and his government for failing to prevent the likes of Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi leaving the country. He also spoke of how the ill-planned policies of the Modi government like demonetization and GST had affected the lives of small traders and farmers.

A.P CM Chandrababu Naidu demands EC revert to ballot papers

After the first phase of voting, EVM malfunctioning has become a major political and administrative issue. Worst hit has been Andhra Pradesh, and consequently, the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu visited the EC office to complain about the malfunctioning of EVMs, reports Hindustan Times.

CM Naidu demanded the EC revert to manual voting through ballot papers saying the EVMs were unreliable. Further, he objected to the EC unilaterally transferring some senior government staff along with controversial police officers. He accused the EC of working at the behest of the centre and YSR Congress.

Yogi Adityanath, Mayawati, Maneka come under EC scrutiny for controversial remarks

UP CM Yogi Adityanath did not do himself any favours when he made a polarizing remark at a rally in western U.P where he said if the opposition had ‘Ali,’ his party had ‘Bajrangbali.’ The opposition latched on to this remark and complained to the EC. The EC issued a show cause on violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The U.P CM has apologized for the remark assuring the EC the same would not be repeated.

Earlier, on 7 April, Mayawati while speaking at a rally in Deoband, U.P, had appealed to Muslim voters to vote for the BSP-SP alliance. CM Yogi Adityanath had made his remark in response to this statement. Mayawati too recovered a show cause notice from the EC.

Meanwhile, Maneka Gandhi of the BJP has attracted EC attention a video clip is circulating showing her threatening Muslim voters into supporting her party. The EC has issued a show cause notice to her as well.