Prime Minister Narendra ModiPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday released a video message for voters of his Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, and urged them to break all previous records of voter turnout. In the video, Modi recalled his last visit to the constituency, when he filed his nomination, and said the people of Varanasi and party workers have assured him of their complete support. The video has triggered speculation over whether the PM will go to Varanasi again before campaigning ends on Friday evening. With just three days left, the local BJP unit had not received any formal communication until Tuesday about the PM’s visit, if any.
The Confirmation
It was a good day for two recently retired judges of Supreme Court. First, there was the report that Justice Madan Lokur, who retired on December 31 last year, will join the Supreme Court of Fiji’s non-resident panel for three years starting August. Just a few hours later came the announcement by the News Broadcasters Association, a self-regulatory agency for Indian television news industry, that it has appointed Justice Lokur’s former colleague, Justice A K Sikri, as chairperson of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority. Justice Sikri, who had retired in March this year, will replace former Supreme Court Justice R V Raveendran, whose tenure at the NBSA ends on May 25.
Quiet On Name
During the press conference at the BJP headquarters on Tuesday, senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was asked several questions on election-related violence in West Bengal, and the state authorities’ decision to deny BJP leaders permission to hold programmes. While Singh answered all questions and held the “state government” and “Chief Minister” responsible for the situation, he did not name Mamata Banerjee even once.
