Sharad Pawar’s remark that many regional parties may move closer to Congress post the elections has led to speculations of a possible merger of NCP(SP) with the Congress. However, the statement of Pawar assumes significance in the wake of BJP targeting the regional parties through various means. While Sanjay Nirupam, who left the Congress to join Shiv Sena, said Pawar has been thinking about merging with the Congress for a long time, and even the Congress had given the very same proposal to him. In 1978, Pawar broke away from the Congress to become the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the head of a coalition government with the Janata party. He returned to the Congress in 1987 and became CM of Maharashtra in 1988, this time as the head of a Congress government. In mid-1999, he parted company with the Congress over Sonia Gandhi’s foreign antecedents — and formed the Nationalist Congress Party.
BSP CHANGES CRUCIAL CANDIDATES IN UTTAR PRADESH AT BJP’S BEHEST
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has replaced its candidates for Jaunpur and BastiLok Sabha seats. The party has replaced gangster-politician Dhananjay Singh’s wife Shrikala with its sitting party MP Shyam Singh Yadav in Jaunpur. The change is being seen as a jolt to Dhananjay Singh, who had walked out of the jail on bail. Being a Yadav on a BSP ticket, it will cut into the SP’s vote bank among the Yadavs and facilitate the BJP’s victory. Now that Dhananjay Singh’s wife is no longer in the fray, political observers say it brightens the chances of the BJP not just in Jaunpur, but in the adjoining Machhlishahar constituency as well. In Basti, BSP has replaced Dayanshankar Mishra with Lavkush Patel. Mishra had quit BJP last month after he was denied a ticket and later he joined the BSP.
CASTEISM UNHINGED: BJP WASHES TEMPLE PREMISES AFTER AKHILESH’S VISIT
Samajwadi Party chief and SP candidate from Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, Akhilesh Yadav, had visited the Siddhapeeth Baba Gauri Shanker Mahadev Mandir to offer his prayers on 6 May and to seek blessings of the Lord. Subsequently, the BJP workers allegedly washed the temple with the holy Ganga water. While temple priest Mathura Prasad stated that the washing of the temple premises was done by the BJP workers, and the temple committee has nothing to do with the incident. Reacting to the incident, Akhilesh Yadav said, “The PDA (pichhda, Dalit, alpsankhyak) is going to wash them (BJP) this time. Seeing the imminent defeat in the elections, the BJP people are doing such petty acts.”
CM JAGAN REDDY SAYS ANDHRA MUST SECURE STATE’S FUTURE IN ELECTIONS
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, has said that the May 13 simultaneous elections to the 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats are not merely about electing MLAs or MPs, but about shaping the future of the state by fortifying ongoing schemes. On the other hand, the TDP and Jana Sena have essentially repackaged the Congress guarantees in Telangana and Karnataka to launch Super Six — a bouquet that offers free bus rides to women; three free LPG cylinders to the poor each year; a girl child fund of ₹18,000 per year at the rate of ₹1,500 for each girl child over 18 years of age in every poor family; monthly unemployment allowance of ₹3,000 each; free water connections; and annual educational assistance of ₹15,000 to each child. Their manifesto also offers ₹1 lakh as Haj allowance for Muslims and a monthly honorarium to clerics, and an allowance to Christians for visiting Jerusalem. All this when, their partner BJP has ridiculed the varied welfare schemes by rival governments as freebies.
PRIYANKA SPEARHEADS RAEBARELI, AMETHI CAMPAIGNS FOR RAHUL, KL SHARMA
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has decided to camp in a Bhuemau guest house run by the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable trust in Raebareli. She arrived on 6 May and will continue to stay there till 18 May, the last day of campaigning before the 5th phase of elections on May 20. She’s spearheading the party’s efforts to boost its connections with Raebareli and Amethi to safeguard the victory of her brother Rahul Gandhi and Kishori Lal Sharma. So far, she has addressed 25 nukkad sabhas in Raebareli on 8 May and accused the Modi government of waiving loans worth ₹16 lakh crore for billionaires, when farmers in Uttar Pradesh were committing suicide. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and other top leaders are expected to campaign in both the seats. The party also deputed former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel as the senior observer for Raebareli from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting, while former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot will be senior observer in Amethi, where family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma will be contesting.
ARVINDER SINGH LOVELY’S ELECTION SOMERSAULT: JOINS BJP BEFORE POLLS
The most talked news item of the town in Delhi is that Arvinder Singh Lovely, who has now earned the moniker of “Paltu Ram”, joined the BJP on May 4, after resigning from the post of Delhi Congress chief, citing the alliance with AAP as his reason. Earlier too, he had quit the Congress and joined the BJP in April 2017. However, within a few months he came back to the Congress in 2018. Congress has appointed Devender Yadav as the interim Delhi chief of the party. Yadav criticised Lovely for his departure from the party. “I put Arvinder Singh Lovely in the category of an opportunist person. This is not the first time that he has tried to sabotage the Congress.” While Lovely claimed that the AAP campaigning in four seats in Delhi was not even using the name of the Congress and its leaders and was still expecting to get the votes of the party workers and supporters. Lovely is one of the 40 star campaigners of the BJP for polls in Delhi. (IPA Service)