Chorus grows for Priyanka Gandhi to take charge as Congress president

Agencies
July 18, 2019

New Delhi, Jul 18: With the Congress facing uncertainty after Rahul Gandhi's resignation as party chief, voices within are growing in favour of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the party in these critical times.

Former MP Abhijit Mukherjee, who is the son of ex-president Pranab Mukherjee, made an open plea in favour of Priyanka Gandhi, saying she should not ignore the "clarion call of lakhs of Congress workers" across the country to take over the party.

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Anil Shastri said Priyanka Gandhi is the best person to lead the party at this time and the AICC should elect her as the new Congress chief in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's insistence on quitting the post.

"Now that Rahul Gandhi is firm on his resignation as Congress President, it's the question of party's existence. And, if the party has to survive we have to have a President at the earliest. There can't be a better person to lead the Congress than Priyanka Gandhi and let the AICC elect her," Shastri said on Twitter.

The Congress is yet to decide on its new president after Rahul Gandhi made his resignation public, taking moral responsibility for the party's Lok Sabha poll debacle.

Gandhi, during the crucial meeting of the Congres Working Committee on May 25 where he quit as party chief, had made it clear that the grand old party should find a new president other than anyone from the Gandhi family.

He had also rejected demands from senior partymen for making Priyanka Gandhi as party chief.

Abhijit Mukherjee said the party is facing an existential crisis and Priyanka Gandhi should take over its reins and change its fortunes. She will drive it back to a landslide victory like her grandmother Indira Gandhi did, he said.

Chiming with the views of these leader, former Union minister Shriprakash Jaiswal also made a strong pitch for Priyanka taking charge as party president.

"When Congress is facing an existential crisis after Rahul Ji has tendered his resignation, Priyanka Gandhi Ji must not ignore the clarion call of lakhs of Congress workers and supporters throughout India," Mukherjee said.

"I am strongly hopeful that it will be a rewind of 1980 once again driving the Congress to a landslide victory like her grandmother and our charismatic leader Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi did," the leader from West Bengal said.

The former MP from Jangipur, who lost the 2019 election, also lauded the role of Sonia Gandhi for being instrumental in forming the UPA government for 10 years and Rahul Gandhi for leading the party with vigour and dedication.

Jaiswal, a former minister in the UPA government, said this is the right time for Priyanka Gandhi to lead the party.

"She should command the party at this critical times. She is capable and can lead the party," the Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh said.

Congress leader from Odisha Bhakt Charan Das said a large number of party workers are demanding that she should take over after Rahul Gandhi has decided to resign.

Senior Congressmen say Rahul Gandhi is still the Congress president as the CWC is yet to accept his resignation.

Though Rahul is pressing that he is no longer the Congress chief, the CWC has rejected his resignation and asked him to restructure the party at all levels.

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News Network
March 26,2024

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There is no let-up in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire.”

Israel carried out air raids and artillery strikes on several parts of Gaza on Tuesday, hitting residential buildings and gatherings of displaced people, “killing and wounding hundreds of people”, the Palestinian Information Center said.

Among the victims are 15 people, including four women and children, who were killed in an attack on a house in the neighborhood of Mosbeh, north of Rafah.

Media reports also said that fighting on the ground continued unabated.

That’s while the UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution for an “immediate ceasefire” for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The resolution was put forward by the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favor of it.

After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on social media platform X that failing to implement the resolution “would be unforgivable.”

Palestinian resistance movements have welcomed the resolution, but Israel’s minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant said Israel will not stop its attacks in Gaza. 

“We will operate against Hamas everywhere – including in places where we have not yet been,” Gallant said.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said in a post on X that the attacks will continue until all the captives taken by Hamas during its October 7 blitz are released.

Israel unleashed its war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 32,300 Palestinians and injured over 74,000 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.

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News Network
March 22,2024

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday produced Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the Rouse Avenue court and sought a 10-day custody in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. "Kejriwal was the kingpin of the scam," the ED reportedly told the court after the AAP chief was produced before Special Judge Kaveri Baweja around 2 pm amid tight security. 

ASG S V Raju was appearing for the agency, while Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is representing Kejriwal. 

Raju in his argument said Kejriwal was "directly involved in formulation of the (liquor) policy... he was involved in handling of proceeds of crime as well in the Goa election campaign."

"The expert committee was constituted but it was a sham committee. The policy was made in such a manner that it would enable the taking of bribes and recoupment of people who gave the bribes," the ED counsel said. 

Kejriwal was produced in the trial court shortly after he withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Kejriwal's counsel said he would contest the remand proceedings before the trial court and then come back to the apex court with another petition.

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News Network
March 15,2024

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Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi would formally kickstart the BJP's Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka on Saturday from Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's home turf— Kalaburagi.

He is scheduled to address a mega public meeting at the district headquarters town's N V Ground at 2 pm.

Kharge, who had represented Kalaburagi (Gulbarga Lok Sabha segment) twice in the past, lost to BJP's Umesh Jadhav by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 general elections here— the octogenarian leader's first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades.

BJP has once again fielded Jadhav from the segment.

Speculations are rife that the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, who has the role of managing the party nationally and coordinating with the opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc, may not contest the coming polls and, instead, the Congress is likely to field his son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani, a businessman, who also manages educational institutions.

On March 18, Modi will be in Shivamogga, the home district of veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, and is scheduled to address a huge public meeting at 2 pm.

Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra is the sitting MP from Shivamogga and has been re-nominated by the party. Yediyurappa's other son B Y Vijayendra, who represents Shikaripura assembly constituency in the district, is the state BJP President.

BJP has announced candidates for 20 seats in the State, which has a total of 28 constituencies.

After being ousted from power by the Congress in the 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP now is making a strong bid to regain the lost ground in Karnataka.

The BJP won 25 out of total 28 seats in the previous elections, and had ensured the win of a party supported independent candidate in Mandya. The then ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance had come a cropper winning just one seat each.

It is a role reversal of sorts for JD(S), which joined the NDA last September and has forged an electoral alliance with the BJP. The regional party is expected to contest in three seats— Mandya, Hassan and Kolar.

Sharing details of Modi's visit, state BJP General Secretary Sunil Kumar on Wednesday said BJP National President J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath along with other leaders will visit different Lok Sabha constituencies for campaigning in the coming days.

Speaking about the party's poll preparations, he said: "We have divided 28 Lok Sabha constituencies into eight clusters for Lok Sabha elections. Keeping in view the local political and geographical background, programmes and strategies are being worked out in those eight clusters."

Several senior leaders including Shah and Nadda have already visited one of these clusters, Kumar said, adding, "Workers' convention, well-wishers' contacts have been made and election preparations are on in all these eight clusters. In the second phase, large public meetings will be held."

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