Clickwise form top left: Jay Shah; Mallikarjun Kharge; UN Security Council meet; Indian currency notesMallikarjun Kharge was today elected as the new Congress president, defeating Shashi Tharoor. The veteran, who won 7,897 of the valid votes (84.14 per cent) of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates to Tharoor’s 1,072 (11.4 per cent), takes over as the first non-Gandhi chief of the party in two-and-a-half decades. While Kharge’s victory was no less than a landslide, Tharoor, by securing 1,000-plus votes, has made a mark and declared that he cannot be ignored anymore.
Meanwhile, the biggest challenge before Kharge is to transform the party to reconnect with the people and start winning elections again. The focus will also be back on Rajasthan as Kharge and the senior leadership will have to take a call on whether to let Ashok Gehlot continue as Chief Minister, given the huge support he has of the MLAs, or force a regime change and bring in Sachin Pilot.
On Kharge’s election as Congress party chief, read Opinion pieces from Abhinav Prakash, National Vice-President, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha; Sugata Srinivasaraju, senior journalist; and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today officially responded to the Asian Cricket Council, a day after BCCI secretary Jay Shah said the Asia Cup 2023 which is to be hosted by Pakistan will be shifted to a neutral venue. Expressing concerns about Shah’s statement, the PCB wrote: “The PCB has noted with surprise and disappointment of yesterday’s comments made by the ACC President Mr Jay Shah with regards to shifting of next year’s Asia Cup to a neutral venue. The comments were made without any discussion or consultation with the Board of the Asian Cricket Council or the Pakistan Cricket Board (event host) and without any thoughts towards their long-term consequences and implications (sic).”
The rupee today plunged 61 paise to decline below the 83-mark for the first time against the US dollar amid unabated foreign capital outflows and a strong dollar in the overseas markets. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened strong at 82.32 but later pared gains to settle at an all-time low of 83.01(provisional) against the US dollar, down 61 paise over its previous close.
Political Pulse
After ministers Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia and Rajendra Pal Gautam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has trained its guns on another AAP cabinet-level member, Jasmine Shah for alleged “misuse of public office”. Following a complaint of BJP MP Parvesh Singh Verma, the Planning Department of Delhi Government has issued a showcause notice to the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDDC) vice-chairperson, to reply to the notice within seven days. In his complaint, submitted in September, Verma said Shah, while working as the DDDC vice-chairperson “acted as official spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party for political gains, which is in violation of established procedures”. Read Gayathri Mani’s report on Shah, seen as AAP’s “non-politically political” man who has been working on projects especially policy making and matters since 2016.
Express Explained
China has blocked a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to list Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist. This is the fourth time in as many months that Beijing has blocked bids to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists at the UN. India and the US had proposed that Mahmood be designated as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council. Who is Shahid Mahmood, and what is the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee? We explain.
In Express Opinion today
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