New Delhi: Mint brings to you your daily dose of political news reported by newsrooms across the country.
Will BSP spring a surprise in Uttar Pradesh and roil electoral calculations?
Will Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) turn out to be the dark horse of the ongoing election to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly? Having drawn a blank in the 16th general election and based on opinion polls, BSP is ranked behind the incumbent Samajwadi Party (SP) and its challenger Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, interviews conducted across the state suggest that the BSP is not a pushover. Read more.
Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP may join hands against BJP in Maharashtra
In a development that could imperil the stability of the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, an anti-BJP coalition is emerging among the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Shiv Sena, which needs the Congress to support its mayoral candidate in Mumbai, has initiated a friendly outreach to the latter through its mouthpiece Saamana. Read more.
Madras HC issues notice to Tamil Nadu CM Palaniswami, speaker
The Madras high court on Monday issued notices to Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and the speaker and secretary of the Tamil Nadu assembly, on a petition filed by the main opposition party seeking to have a trust vote won by Palaniswami declared “null and void”. The court also directed the Tamil Nadu assembly secretary to produce a video recording of the entire proceedings on 18 February. Read more.
CRPF to use modified pellet guns in Jammu and Kashmir
A modified version of the pellet guns, which were blamed for seriously injuring protesters, will be deployed in Kashmir soon. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) said it will use the modified guns that are less lethal but equally effective. The guns, which are being modified by the Border Security Force (BSF), will soon be provided to the CRPF. Read more.
Wild ass becomes part of poll lexicon
The humble donkey never had it so good. It found redemption finally from its popular caricature as a dimwitted animal on 20 February in Uttar Pradesh, smack in the middle of a bitter political face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Read more.
Will the Ujjwala Yojana be able to fuel Modi’s pro-poor pitch in Uttar Pradesh?
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016, the Ujjwala Yojana scheme has turned out to be a major welfare scheme akin to the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s rural employment guarantee scheme. The scheme falls in line with the Prime Minister’s poll pitch of development for all and has found resonance in the state which entered its fifth phase of polling for the assembly election on Monday. Read more.
Modi govt plans Buy Indian policy
To promote its flagship Make In India programme, the government is proposing its own version of the US’s Buy American policy through a national government procurement policy, according to a government official familiar with the plan. The policy being considered involves purchases of Rs2 trillion a year but doesn’t include defence equipment. Read more.
Tamil Nadu urges Centre to advise Karnataka not to proceed with Mekedatu project
Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday urged the Centre to advise the Karnataka government not to proceed with the Rs5,912 crore Mekedatu project, saying it would violate the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. The Mekedatu Multipurpose Drinking Water and Power Project has become the latest bone of contention in the 150-year-old squabble over the Cauvery river water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Read more.
Gurmehar Kaur faces rape threat, BJP asks who’s polluting her mind
A campaign criticising the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), started by the daughter of an Army captain who died fighting militants, in response to last week’s clashes in Delhi University’s North Campus, has drawn sharp reactions from several BJP leaders, including Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Kiren Rijiju, The Indian Express reported.
A Lady Shri Ram College student Gurmehar Kaur, 20, went to the Delhi Commission for Women on Monday complaining that she had received rape and death threats online after which she was provided two Home Guard personnel, the report added. Read more.
BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari can’t campaign as Delhi HC allows EC plea against parole
The Delhi high court on Monday allowed a plea by the Election Commission (EC) opposing custody parole granted to BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari to campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. In effect, Ansari will not be allowed to leave the prison to campaign for Mau constituency in UP. Ansari is the sitting MLA for the constituency, a position he has held for the last four terms. Read more.
Shiv Sena says Maharashtra may see mid-term polls
Shiv Sena ideologue Sanjay Raut has indicated that the state might be heading towards a mid-term poll, according to The Times of India. The development is an indication that the Shiv Sena, stung by the BJP’s impressive tally of 82 seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, might be preparing to precipitate matters for the 28-month-old Devendra Fadnavis regime in the state, said observers in the report. Read more.
Abhiram Ghadyalpatil contributed to this wrap.
