General Elections 2014 – Day 48

Day 48 - General Elections Diary

If election results in India finally defy the opinion polls, Congress may want to send a thank you note to VHP leader Praveen Togadia. Courtesy his outrageous comment about not allowing Muslims to buy houses in Hindu areas, BJP had a tough day fire fighting; trying to desperately dissociate Togadia (who has a bitter relationship with Modi) from the party. As a damage control measure, late in the evening Gujarat police filed a FIR against VHP leader for inflammatory speeches.
Togadia, known as a hardliner Hindu leader was seen offering advice on how to prevent Muslims from buying property in areas where Hindus are in the majority.
The footage from Bhavnagar, Gujarat shows Mr Togadia saying, “You put pressure on the government to enforce the Disturbed Areas Act the way we have in cities like Ahmedabad. The Disturbed Areas Act makes it tough to sell property to a member of the minority community”.
Togadia though completely denied making such statement. He said that his words have been intentionally manipulated. He has sent notices to media houses which initially reported the story. This story led to much furore in the political ranks. Congress leader Kapil Sibal said that people like Togadia are trying to spread venom in the country. JD(U) leader K.C Tyagi said Togadia has Taliban mentality. CPIM demanded his prompt arrest. On the other hand, BJP leader Prakash Javedkar said Togadia has denied saying something like this. RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav tweeted to deny the entire incident. Election Commission has sought a recording of the speech and will take any decision after listening to it.
Social media was completely charged after news of this speech trickled in. RSS and VHP are part of the larger Hindu parivaar which often provides the last mile support to BJP leaders. Thus it will be extremely difficult for them to completely wash their hands off this controversy.
Meanwhile, ahead of the next round of voting in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, voters have received hate pamphlets that appeals to “Free India of three crore Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh” and “Free Kashmir of traitors.”
It is reported that the booklets are being distributed in a door-to-door campaign by workers of RSS and VHP.
In a day of high political drama, Rahul Gandhi accused BJP of trying to make Hindus fight against Muslims. He charged the saffron outfit saying that BJP wants to create two India with one for chosen business class and another for the poor.
Rahul while addressing a rally in Telengana also hit out at Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao .Congress Vice President accused him of “backstabbing” by going back on his word to merge his party with the Congress after formation of Telengana.
Is Rahul trying to reach out to AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa? The rumours started today when Rahul heaped effusive praise on Tamil Nadu’s development model. He said that Tamil Nadu model is far better than the Gujarat model. Incidentally today was the last day of campaigning in the state. Jayalalithaa who is perceived to be ideologically closer to Narendra Modi has repeatedly attacked the Prime Ministerial candidate in her campaign speeches.
Judging the national mood, Narendra Modi is trying to take a tough stance on the issue of corruption. Today he said that a committee will be formed as soon as they start governing. Based on declaration of candidates, the committee will ask Supreme Court to give speedy trial to the accused MP’s. Finally all those found guilty will be thrown away from the Parliament. He made it clear that no exception will be done for BJP and NDA candidates too. In an election rally in UP he targeted the Gandhis saying that they have done very little for the development of the country.
BJP-TDP alliance seems to be unable to iron out the edges. Modi and Naidu are supposed to attend a joint rally. But that is now uncertain after BJP asked TDP to withdraw candidates from three Assembly seats which were allotted to the saffron party. BJP may have earlier ceded some ground to pacify TDP over alliance formation but it seems to be in no mood to compromise further. Thus Narendra Modi has cracked the whip. TDP has to withdraw those three candidates by Monday according to demands of their alliance partner BJP or not join the rally.
Narendra Modi faced a setback of perception in his battle for Varanasi today. Family of legendary Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan refused to become a proposer for Modi when he files nomination from the temple town. Bismillah’s grandson said that they don’t want to get involved with any political party. Hence they have refused the offer given by BJP mayor Ramgopal Mohale. Mohale though has denied that he asked Bismillah’s family to become a proposer.
BJP president Rajnath Singh believes the provision of Article 370 has not helped the cause of average Kashmiris. He said that the party is in favour of having a dialogue about it with all stakeholders. Singh said that those in favour of it should describe how it is helping the people of the state. BJP President promised that NDA will try to normalise relations with Pakistan. He lambasted the Manmohan Singh government of being weak in dealing with Pakistan.
The battle between Amrinder Singh of Congress and Arun Jaitley of BJP for the coveted price of Amritsar is heating up. Unfortunately again the issue of anti-Sikh riots of 84 is being raked up by parties for political leverage. In an interview Ex Punjab CM Amrinder said that riot accused Jagdish Tytler was probably innocent. Amrinder acknowledged some of the prominent leaders of Congress were involved in inciting the riots but said that nobody mentioned Tyler’s name at that time.
This has led to angry response from BJP. Arun Jaitley in his blog criticised his rival saying that Amrinder is trying to prejudge the guilt of a person. A court in Delhi last year ordered the CBI to reopen the investigation against Mr Tytler after the agency said it wanted to close the case against the politician.
Workers of the Shiromani Akali Dal protested in front of Congress office demanding that action should be taken against Amrinder Singh for his comment. The large group of Sikh demonstrators were finally dispersed using water cannons.
Two people died while making bombs in Birbhum district of West Bengal. The matter has come under the scanner of Election Commission. They are investigating it. Left leaders allege TMC workers were making bombs. Expectedly TMC leaders put the onus on Left Front.
This was all for today. We will be back with more tomorrow.

Related Information:

Bhavnagar Election Results
Amritsar Election Results
Gujarat Election Result
Madhya Pradesh Election Result
Jammu and Kashmir Election Result
West Bengal Election Results
Punjab Election Result
Result of Election 2014