After Centre’s surprising announcement of holding a five-day special session of Parliament during September 18-22 triggered a debate, the opposition signalled that this could be a move to table the controversial ‘One Nation, One Election’ Bill and accused the government for trying to delay the Lok Sabha polls. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the BJP had already speculated and sensed its defeat in the upcoming general elections, which are scheduled for April-May next year. The Modi government has formed up a high-level committee (HLC) under former President Ram Nath Kovind to investigate all the possibility of holding Lok Sabha and Assembly elections together. Immediately after the announcement, BJP chief JP Nadda met the ex-President and the opposition quickly smelled a plan pertaining to a conspiracy as to postpone polls in the country. The Centre announced the eight-member panel, comprising Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress Leader and Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, jurist Harish Salve, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari, ex-chairman of Finance Commission N.K. Singh and former secretary general of Lok Sabha Subhash C Kashyap. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is a special invitee. The law secretary has been named as the secretary to the committee. Meanwhile, Congress’s Chowdhury bluntly declined to be a part of the HLC. In a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, Chowdhury called the entire exercise “a total eyewash.” However, Congress general secretary organization KC Venugopal has questioned the move to exclude Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge from the panel. “What is the reason behind Khargeji’s exclusion?” he posted on X. On the other hand, Union parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said the Opposition was scared of the government’s proposal whereas the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the initiative would spur development.
K KAVITHA BACKS WOMEN’S RESERVATION BILL IN PARLIAMENT SPECIAL SESSION
BRS MLC and Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha has pitched in a big push for the Women’s Reservation Bill and urged 47 political parties to unite and pass the long-pending Women’s Reservation Bill in the upcoming special session of Parliament. Kavitha’s move came amid speculation that the Women’s Reservation Bill could be taken up during the special session of Parliament, scheduled from September 18 to 22. In her letter, Kavitha called upon the parties to keep aside political differences and prioritise the Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies for women. Kavitha’s letter was sent to Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, DMK’s MK Stalin, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, YSRCP’s Jagan Mohan Reddy among others. On the other hand, Kavitha questioned why Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not list the long pending demand for the Women’s Reservation Bill among issues that the opposition leader wanted the government to take up in the upcoming special session of Parliament. Earlier, Sonia Gandhi had written to the PM pointing out that no agenda was listed for the special Parliament session and requested that nine issues, including the violence in Manipur and price rise, be raised for discussion. The issues listed by Gandhi include centre-state relations, rise in cases of communal tension, border transgressions by China and the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate the transactions of the Adani business group highlighting the several revelations about corrupt practices and caste census. Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said if the Centre brings in a bill on women’s reservation, his party will support it. The Women’s Reservation Bill was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1996 as the 81st amendment.
JD(U) CADRES WANT NITISH KUMAR TO PLAY NATIONAL ROLE IN 2024
In Bihar, JD(U) has begun its preparations for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and banners had been put up at the JD(U) office and supporters chanted “Deshkanetakaisa ho Nitish Kumar jaisa ho”. The slogan sent across the message loud and clear and it signals that the party expected its leader the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to play a national role. As part of its preparations, JD(U) has invited all its district presidents to the state capital on September 11 and the block presidents on September 12. While Nitish Kumar would go ahead for an interaction with the party’s district presidents and the block presidents to account a sincere feedback about the ground realities in different parts of the state in the wake of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. JD(U) had won 16 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in 2019 with BJP-led NDA. Then, BJP had won 17 out of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Another NDA ally – Ram Vilas Paswan-led erstwhile Lok Janshakti Party – had won six seats. Thus, the NDA had won 39 out of 40 seats in the state.
AKHILESH DARES CENTRE TO HOLD UP POLLS ALONGWITH LOK SABHAIN 2024
Akhilesh Yadav has asked the BJP government to hold the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election along with the Lok Sabha poll, as an experiment before going ahead with ‘One Nation One Election’ with the exclusive aim to ascertain how eager voters are to remove the ruling BJP from power. Samajwadi Party are now looking to woo non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs), who constitute about 35 per cent of the UP population. Straightway pitching in and connecting with the youth of every village and planning strategically for the future, SP has started preparation for Mission 80 in Uttar Pradesh for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party is focusing more on Purvanchal seats such as Ghazipur, Ghosi, Mau, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Gonda and Kushinagar to prepare the ground to win the seats. Senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya will also going to visit every village in the state and do OBC Mahasammelan to unite Saini, Shakya, Mourya, Kushwaha, Kurmi votes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
CM VIJAYAN ASKS WHY CENTRE FEARS THE NAME ‘INDIA’
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has waded into the choppy waters of the ‘India versus Bharat’ debate. He has asked the BJP-led Centre why it fears the word ‘India’. CM Vijayan, in a statement, said: “Article 1 of the Constitution itself refers to our nation as ‘India that is Bharat.’ Similarly, the preface of the Constitution begins with the words ‘We the people of India.’ However, what the Centre is attempting now is the removal of the word ‘India’ through a constitutional amendment.” On the other hand, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat made attempts by carrying on a strong pitch for using Bharat instead of India. The controversy over the country’s name had kicked off after invitations for a G20 dinner were sent out on behalf of President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as ‘President of Bharat’ instead of the customary ‘President of India’.
CONGRESS’S HARYANA UNIT SEES BITTER INFIGHTING, RIVAL SLOGANEERING
Infighting within the Congress’s Haryana unit was laid bare as supporters of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda confronted those of senior leaders such as Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala in Karnal. The development came on the same day that Selja and Surjewala met party president Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal to share their grievances against Hooda and Haryana Congress chief UdaiBhan. To select district-level office-bearers, the AICC observers will be carrying on talks in districts until September 10 and will go ahead with the submission of a report on the feedback to state party in-charge Deepak Babaria and state president UdaiBhan on September 11. While slogans were raised against former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in similar meetings in Jind, Hisar, and Charkhi Dadri. For the past few months in Haryana, the ‘camp’ led by Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala and former state Congress president Selja has been organising parallel public meetings to those held by Bhupinder Singh Hooda. However, the infighting has now surfaced and been brought into light much after the slogans as raised by the supporters of both camps in support of their respective leaders at party events. (IPA Service)
BJP’s Defeat In Ghosi Assembly Poll Is A Big Jolt FOR CM Yogi Adityanath 