People's Vlog: May 2019

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Sikkim gets new chief minister after 25 years, moves to five-day week

Prem Singh Tamang, popular as P S Golay, became the sixth chief minister of Sikkim when he was sworn in by governor Ganga Prasad at Gangtok’s Paljore stadium on Monday.

a group of people standing in front of a curtain

It marked the end of the 25-year rule of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and its leader Pawan Chamling, who holds the record of the longest serving chief minister in any Indian state by administering Sikkim for 8,932 days.

Immediately after being sworn in, the new chief minister declared a five-day week for the state government employees. Earlier, only the second Saturday of each month was a government holiday. “The government would launch an austerity programme. No minister, including me, would travel in luxurious vehicles. We would also not use beacons,” Golay (51) told the media after he was sworn in. After the oath-taking ceremony, he held a meeting of the 11-member cabinet (excluding him).

Among his government’s priority areas were employment generation, health sector, education, capacity building and infrastructure development, the new chief minister pointed out.

Golay said that he would function from home. Earlier, he had said that the building Mintokgang, which served as the office-cum-residence of the chief minister, would be converted into a centre for the treatment of cancer patients, though he did not elaborate on that plan on Monday.

The president of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha(SKM), Golay needs to get elected as an MLA within six months to continue as the chief minister. He could not contest the Assembly election held along with the Lok Sabha polls since he was convicted and imprisoned for one year in a case related to misappropriation of funds. The incident happened when he was a minister in the Pawan Chamling government between 1994 and 1999.

Of the 32 Assembly seats in the Himalayan state, SKM won 17, while the SDF secured 15.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/

Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam Congress chiefs quit over poll loss

These resignations take to six the number of party unit chiefs who have resigned after the its poor show in the Lok Sabah elections -- the others being UP party chief Raj Babbar, Odisha’s Niranjan Patnaik and Ashok Chavan of Maharashtra.

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jhakar emailed his resignation to Rahul Gandhi taking moral responsibility for losing to actor Sunny Deol from Gurdaspur though the party did reasonably well winning 8 of the states 13 seats as compared to 3 seats in 2014. The BJP and its ally SAD won two each.

Congress chief in Jharkhand, Ajoy Roy, sent in his resignation taking moral responsibility for the party’s poor show in the state where they won just one of the state’s 14 seats.

“PCC chief has taken moral responsibility of the party’s performance and sent his resignation on May 24. However, party’s performance was not that bad as we won Singhbhum comfortably and lost Khunti and Lohardaga by a wafer thin margin,” said Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey.

Congress lost in Khunti by 1,400 votes and Lohardaga with 10,000 votes.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/

BIMSTEC leaders to attend PM Modi’s swearing-in on May 30

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday will be attended by leaders from the BIMSTEC member states.

The BIMSTEC member states are: Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and India.

Full coverage: Elections 2019

“Government of India has invited the leaders of the BIMSTEC Member States for the swearing-in ceremony. This is in line with Government’s focus on its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. The President of the Kyrgyz Republic, who is the current Chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, who was the Chief Guest at this year’s Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, have also been invited,” confirmed official spokesperson.

In 2014, PM Modi had invited all SAARC leaders for his swearing-in ceremony.

“The President will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the Prime Minister and other members of the Union council of ministers at 7pm on May 30, 2019, at Rashtrapati Bhavan,” read the statement issued on Sunday.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday designated Modi as the next Prime Minister and asked him to form the new government.

The NDA has a strength of 353 MPs in the 543-member Lok Sabha out of which the BJP has a majority of 303 MPs.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/

BJP gets more than half of ‘minority-concentration’ seats

T.V. Chandran et al. posing for the camera: BJP supporters during a bike rally campaign in East Delhi. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

The BJP has won 41 out of 79 Lok Sabha constituencies across 90 districts that the UPA-I government had identified as having a minority population of over 25 per cent and poor socio-economic indicators. The BJP wrested 15 of these seats from Opposition parties this time, most of them coming from West Bengal.

The Congress s share of these seats was halved, from 12 in 2014 to six in 2019. Out of these, they lost three seats to the BJP in the Northeast, one in Karnataka and one in West Bengal.

The BJP had won 34 such seats in 2014.

The first UPA government in 2008 had identified 90 Minority Concentration Districts as part of a development programme aimed at focusing on education, health and skill development in these districts. As per the 2001 Census, minorities are defined as Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains.

The Census data shows Muslims have a sizeable population, in descending order, in Lakshadweep, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. The data shows that Christianity is a major religion in Northeastern states, Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh.

The majority of these 15 seats gained by the BJP are in West Bengal, with the party winning six such seats in the state. Out of the 18 Minority Concentration seats in West Bengal, four flipped from TMC to BJP Dakshin Dinajpur, Cooch Behar, Bangaon, and Ranaghat. TMC was able to retain ten of the 14 seats it won in 2014 and gained one from CPM.

Uttar Pradesh, however, saw an opposite trend. In 2014, the BJP had won all but one of the 20 Minority Concentration seats there, when the BSP and the SP ran separately. This time, they lost two of these seats to SP (Moradabad and Rampur) and four to BSP (Bijnor, Amroha, Saharanpur, and Shrawasti). BJP, however, gained one seat from SP (Badaun).

A large chunk of these seats is in West Bengal (18), Uttar Pradesh (20), and the Northeast (16).

In the Northeast, the BJP wrested three of these seats from Congress and one from All India United Democratic Front, but also lost one to Congress. Congress now has two of these seats in the Northeast; it had six in 2014.

In Bihar s seven such seats, JD(U) increased their count from one to three.

Last week, 25 Muslim MPs were elected, against 23 in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

Also watch: Illusion being created that BJP a Hindi hearthland-centric party, says PM Modi

Saturday, 25 May 2019

'India lucky to have him as PM', Trump congratulates Modi, fixes meet at G-20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka next month, a statement from the government said on Friday.

“They also agreed to work together for further enhancing the close and strategic partnership between the two countries,” the statement said referring to a telephonic conversation between Trump and Modi on Friday. This came after Trump put out a Twitter message congratulating the Indian prime minister on Thursday on his election win.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 seats in the 545 member Parliament, with the opposition Congress party left far behind with a tally of just over 50 seats.

The meeting between Trump and Modi comes as the US is set to withdraw some preferential trade measures for India under the Generalised System of Preferences, in a bid to ensure fair trade between the two countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka next month, a statement from the government said on Friday.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-in?ocid=spartandhp

Day after stunning defeat, 3 resignations land up on Rahul Gandhi’s desk

Three senior Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka have sent in their resignation to party boss Rahul Gandhi owning responsibility for the party’s poor show in the national elections.

Uttar Pradesh chief Raj Babbar was the latest resignation to be sent on Friday after the Congress won only the Rae Bareli constituency of Sonia Gandhi in the state that sends 80 lawmakers to parliament. Babbar, who contested from Fatehpur Sikri, also lost by a margin of nearly 5 lakh votes to the BJP candidate.

Complete coverage: Elections 2019

HK Patil, who was tasked to oversee the Karnataka Congress campaign in December, has also quit, according to news agency ANI.

Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik had earlier resigned from his post after the Congress won just 9 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat. Patnaik had lost the 2 assembly seats he contested; his son also lost a Lok Sabha seat.

Some more offers to quit are expected to follow as well but a Congress leader said the party may not rush into accepting the resignations.

The Congress has just about 52 seats in the Lok Sabha in this round of national elections, just a shade better than its worst-performance in the 2014 elections when it ended up with just about 44 seats.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has already taken responsibility for the party’s performance in the national elections but hasn’t elaborated on the next step yet. To a question if he would step down, Gandhi told reporters on Thursday that “the decision will be between me and the working committee.”

The Congress Working Committee, the party’s high-decision making body, is meeting on Saturday to review the poll outcome. The Congress has firmly rejected speculation that Gandhi had offered his resignation. These reports, the party said, “are mischievous and incorrect”.

Source: MSN news

Friday, 24 May 2019

Madhya Pradesh Congress leader dies of heart attack at counting centre as results come in

In a tragic incident, the Congress chief of Sehore district in Madhya Pradesh died of a heart attack at a vote counting centre set up for the Lok Sabha elections.

Ratan Singh Thakur

Ratan Singh Thakur, chief of Congress in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, was reportedly collecting information on the latest trends when he complained of chest pain and collapsed.

Ratan Singh was rushed to the district hospital but he died at the hospital.

Congress is heading towards another defeat in Lok Sabha elections in Bhopal.

Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party's Sadhvi Pragya has established a lead of over one lakh votes over her Congress rival Digvijay Singh in Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, with the saffron party is leading in 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh.

MSN News

World leaders congratulate Modi on Lok Sabha election win

Imran Khan, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping standing next to a person in a suit and tie: Imran Khan, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were among the first world leaders to congratulate PM Modi.

Congratulatory messages from Bangladesh, Russian, Chinese and French leaders among others poured in for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he led BJP to a resounding win in the Lok Sabha elections, becoming the first non-Congress PM to return to power after a full five-year term.

Live: Lok Sabha results 2019Complete coverage: Elections 2019

Expressing his gratitude for their compliments and good wishes, PM Modi said the general elections embodied the strength of Indian democracy, which is the world s largest. He thanked the global leaders for their cooperation in developing mutually beneficial bilateral relations and multilateral cooperation and expressed his desire to continue to work further with them in fostering even stronger ties.

Here is how the world leaders reacted to PM Modi’s win:

Russian President Vladimir Putin: "I am convinced that, as the Prime Minister of India, you will further strengthen the centuries-old friendship between our peoples and the all-round development of a particularly privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India."

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan: "I congratulate Prime Minister Modi on the electoral victory of BJP and allies. Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia."

Chinese President Xi Jinping: "I attach great importance to the development of China-India relations and would like to work with you to guide the development directions of the bilateral relations, enhance mutual political trust, expand pragmatic cooperation and promote the closer developmental partnership between the two countries to a new height."

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: "This emphatic verdict is a reflection of the trust and confidence reposed on you (Modi) by the people of India."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The election results are a re-approval of your leadership and the way you lead the world’s greatest democracy. Together we will continue to strengthen the great friendship between us and India and Israel and lead it to new heights."

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed: "I was pleased to talk to my dear friend Narendra Modi, India’s PM, over the phone to congratulate him on his party’s election win. We look forward to working together to deepen our strong bilateral ties. The UAE wishes India & its friendly people more development & prosperity."

US President Donald Trump: "Congratulations to Prime Minister @NarendraModi and his BJP party on their BIG election victory! Great things are in store for the US-India partnership with the return of PM Modi at the helm. I look forward to continuing our important work together!"

Thursday, 23 May 2019

Lok Sabha election results: 2019 is more like 1977 and 1980 than 2014 elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has firmly established itself as the dominant pole of Indian politics in the 2019 general elections.

If the current trends hold , the 2019 verdict will have a close resemblance to the results of the 1977 and 1980 elections in terms of the dominance of one political party in India. Data scarped from the Election Commission of India (ECI) website shows that at 11:03 am, around 19% of the total votes had been counted in the country. The BJP is leading in 288 parliamentary constituencies (PCs) with a vote share of around 40%, nine percentage points more than what it had in 2014.

Live: Lok Sabha results 2019

No political party in India has had such a high level of vote share after the 1984 elections, which were held in an extremely polarised environment months after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The Congress had a vote share of 48.1% and it won 415 PCs in the 1984 elections.

Complete coverage: Elections 2019

The 2019 results, if the current trends hold, will be closer to what the Janata Party and the Congress achieved in the 1977 and 1980 elections. In 1980, the Congress won 353 PCs with an all-India vote share of 42.7%. In 1977, it was the Janata Party which got 295 PCs with a vote share of 41.3%.

The 2019 verdict, or what it looks like as of now, also has some regional exceptions to the overall trend, like in 1977 and 1980. Even though the Janata Party swept the northern region of the country in 1977, the Congress performed really well in Andhra Pradesh (41 out of 42 PCs) and Karnataka (26 out of 28 PCs). Similarly in 1980, the Congress could win only 4 PCs in West Bengal despite winning the majority of seats in almost all major states.

As of now, the BJP and its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are either leading or making major advances in all major states except Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which are voting clearly for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK) led alliance and YSR Congress Party respectively.

The Congress, despite adding around four percentage points to its 2019 vote share has not been able to make any significant gains in terms of seats. Also, the party has suffered major reverses in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where it defeated the BJP in the 2018 assembly elections.

After the 2014 elections, when the BJP crossed the half way mark in the Lok Sabha with just 31% vote share, lack of opposition unity was seen as a key factor behind the party’s victory. With the BJP all set to cross the 40% vote share mark, the opposition will have to reinvent its chemistry with the electorate rather than just arithmetic.

A stronger Narendra Modi is headed for second term

As the trends became clear in the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA is headed for a second term with a number of leads indicating a clear edge for the BJP-led ruling coalition.

The latest trends show that the NDA is leading in more than 320 seats with the BJP leading in 275 seats, close to the halfway mark.

Live: Lok Sabha results 2019

The trends suggest a wave in favour of Narendra Modi which took the BJP beyond 200 just an hour after the counting began at 8 am. The BJP is doing extremely well in the Hindi heartland, its strong bastions, as well as in the east and in the west. Both in Odisha and West Bengal, the two states where the BJP and its president Amit Shah have focussed to expand the party’s base, it is doing well.

The Rahul Gandhi-led Congress’ performance appears to be dismal, with the party struggling in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the party has won assembly elections just four months ago.

Complete coverage: Elections 2019

The only relief for the Congress is Punjab and Kerala, where the party-led UDF appears to be sweeping the poll. This appears to be tandem with the party leaders’ assessment that party could do well due to the presence of Rahul Gandhi as a candidate in Wayanad.

The most disappointing for the anti-BJP camp has so far been the performance of the Mahagadbandan in Uttar Pradesh where the SP-BSP-RLD alliance was expected to give a tight fight to the BJP which won 71 of the 80 seats in 2014. Going by the general view that the party that captures Uttar Pradesh would rule India, the BJP may be heading for a landslide victory in the 2019 election. The NDA appears to be sweeping Bihar also.

The BJP is holding on to its absolute dominance in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana along with the hill states and is winning considerable number of seats in Karnataka, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

However, the regional parties in the southern states appear to have contained the BJP’s race and disappointed the party leadership in its ambition to grow as a formidable force, except in Karnataka. DMK, which is in alliance with the Congress in Tamil Nadu is sweeping the state while YSRCP is ahead of TDP in Andhra Pradesh and TRS is continuing its dominance in Telangana.

In the campaign ahead of the seven-phased April-May elections, Modi has dominated the scene as the BJP focussed on his image as a strong and decisive leader and the issues of national security. In many states, the campaign took a communal turn with the BJP advocating for Hindu pride to be reflected in the voting.