Sharad Pawar Claims 'Seat Guarantee' Offered Ahead Of Polls, D Fadnavis Says...
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has claimed that ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, two individuals approached him offering a "guarantee" of 160 seats for the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, well above the 145 needed for a majority in the 288-member House.
"I introduced them to Rahul Gandhi. He dismissed the offer and felt we should not get involved in such matters, but instead go directly to the people," Mr Pawar said in Nagpur.
This marks the first time in recent years that the veteran leader has publicly questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI). The BJP has countered that if the incident was genuine, Pawar should have alerted authorities at the time.
Reacting to Pawar's statement, Chief Minister Fadnavis questioned its timing. "Why did Mr Pawar remember this after meeting Rahul Gandhi? For many years, even though Rahul spoke of EVMs, Mr Pawar said it was wrong to raise such doubts. This change is the impact of their meeting," he said.
Mr Pawar's comments coincided with the Maharashtra Congress' observance of the 83rd anniversary of the Quit India Movement. The party organised a padyatra from the Tilak statue to August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai, led by state president Harshwardhan Sapkal, Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, and later joined by Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad.
The march, while commemorative, also became a political platform. Mr Sapkal likened the BJP's governance to colonial rule, invoking Mahatma Gandhi's "Do or Die" call. "Just as Gandhi told the British to quit India, today we must tell the BJP to quit its dictatorial ways," Sapkal said. Ms Gaikwad questioned why Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was speaking on behalf of the ECI.
The Chief Minister defended the electoral process, calling India's elections "free and fair" and accusing the opposition of avoiding formal complaints to the ECI despite making public allegations.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
17 minutes ago
- India.com
'Will address street dog issue with empathy': Delhi govt amid protests against SC directive
Delhi cm rekha gupta- File image New Delhi: A day after the Supreme Court directed Delhi-NCR authorities to relocate all stray dogs to shelters, the city government on Tuesday said it will address the issue with 'compassion and empathy', even as animal rights activists hit the streets against the directive. Several politicians and celebrities, including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, actors Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan, and filmmaker Siddharth Anand have expressed their disapproval of the order. While the Delhi government said it would seek suggestions from stakeholders before framing a detailed plan to relocate street dogs, officials noted the civic bodies will start the process of implementing the apex court's order in a phased manner after Independence Day. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the relocation strategy. 'We will have to look into our resources available and also allocate a budget for the campaign. We will plan a detailed campaign and take action accordingly,' an NDMC official told PTI. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Supreme Court directive was a step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy, and stressed that 'blanket removals are cruel, shortsighted, and strip us of compassion'. Former Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi termed the SC directive 'institutionalisation of cruelty' and said that 'nations face deeper moral crises when they step away from empathy'. His mother, Maneka Gandhi, animal rights activist and former Union minister, on Monday called the SC directive 'impractical', 'financially unviable' and 'potentially harmful' to the region's ecological balance. On Tuesday, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) vehicles were seen picking up stray dogs from several locations. However, officials clarified that this was not related to the court order, but part of usual Independence Day preparations and the dogs will be released after the celebrations. Animal lovers and caregivers from across the national capital staged a protest against the apex court's order on Tuesday, saying the move would harm street dogs and disrupt the bond they share with communities. The protest, held at Connaught Place, saw participants holding placards that read 'Beware: Kaal Bhairav is watching' and 'Stop relocation, we stand in solidarity against the SC verdict'. Many displayed a picture of Lord Shiva with a dog seated beside him, symbolising the cultural and spiritual connection between humans and animals. Some were in tears, urging authorities to 'please let them be free, they are like small kids.' About 15 animal rights activists were detained by the police and taken to a nearby police station. During the protest, there was also a scuffle between animal lovers and police personnel. Protesters argued that dogs should not be confined to shelters, pointing out that people often feed them only on specific religious occasions when priests advise it. The top court on Monday directed all the strays to be removed and put in shelters by the Delhi government and civic bodies of Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan noted that there was an 'extremely grim' situation due to stray dog bites resulting in rabies, particularly among children. Delhi Development Minister Kapil Mishra, whose animal husbandry department will supervise the implementation of the SC order in the city, said the BJP government will address the stray dog issue with 'compassion and empathy'. 'We will hold a review meeting with different stakeholder departments in a couple of days. The Supreme Court has given a detailed order listing out various directions like making a helpline and shelter homes, among. 'It is a long-term exercise, and we do not want to get into it unprepared. We will properly do our research for two weeks and then start putting our plans into place,' Mishra told PTI. A senior official said the Delhi government has already started informal interactions with animal welfare bodies and activists to seek their suggestions. 'Before the Supreme Court order, the government was holding meetings to formalise a policy, but the apex court's directions have provided an outline of steps that need to be taken,' he said. An MCD official said that work on the process of relocating street dogs will begin only after next week. Another senior civic official confirmed that it will start after August 15. 'Till that time, no major work will take place because this process requires detailed planning. It has to be done in a phased manner, not in a day,' the official added. According to official data from the MCD, around 10,000 sterilisation and immunisation procedures for stray dogs are carried out on average each month. Thirteen NGOs are currently operating at 20 animal birth control centres in the city. No new proposals have been finalised yet, officials said. Some animal birth control centres in the city reported a surge in calls requesting rescue of stray dogs as well as reporting people abandoning their pet canines, while others said the situation remains unchanged. Ayesha Christine Benn from Neighbourhood Woof, an animal birth control centre, told PTI that they had been asked not to return dogs brought in for sterilisation to their original locations. Meanwhile, Krishna Devi, whose six-year-old niece Chhavi Sharma died after a stray dog attack in June, said, 'We don't want even our enemies to go through what we underwent. With the Supreme Court's decision, we believe that our child's death has not gone in vain.' 'I feel that my child is the change. I hope there are no more Chhavis who are hurt elsewhere. Nobody should go through the cruel fate we underwent,' Chhavi's aunt Devi told PTI.
The Hindu
17 minutes ago
- The Hindu
BJP reaches out to Chirag Paswan, asks him to tone down criticism of Nitish government
In an effort to prevent history from repeating itself, the senior leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been at pains to ensure that Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader and Union Minister Chirag Paswan refrains from making critical remarks against the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar. However, it has so far seen mixed results. According to a senior national office-bearer of the BJP, Mr. Paswan has been asked to tone down his criticism of the State government, particularly following his recent remarks on a series of murders in Bihar. 'I feel sad to support a government under which crime is out of control,' Mr. Paswan had said. The remarks did not go down well with Mr. Kumar's party, the Janata Dal(U), which fears that Mr. Paswan might end up splitting NDA votes, as in the 2020 Assembly election. According to one estimate by the JD(U), the party lost at least 12 seats in that election because Mr. Paswan, after breaking away from the NDA, fielded candidates against the JD(U) who made inroads into the NDA votes. 'We have conveyed to Chirag Paswan that he is on a good wicket, he has age, and a significant support base on his side, he should pull together with NDA, there is no need to be isolated within the alliance,' said a BJP leader. Mr. Paswan, who often refers to himself as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hanuman, or disciple, even when he was not a part of the NDA, has never hidden either his antipathy towards Mr. Kumar and the JD(U) or even his own ambitions. His party's MP Arun Bharti (also Mr. Paswan's brother-in-law) had, in an interview to The Hindu, said that Mr. Paswan was a 'Bahujan leader and LJP(RV) is a Bahujan party', signalling Mr. Paswan's intentions of casting his net wider in terms of communities other than his own Dalit constituency. Recently, Mr. Paswan's absence from a meeting presided over by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Sitamarhi raised eyebrows, but he later said that this was not deliberate but due to a scheduling conflict. 'We will be reaching out to him again,' said a senior BJP leader. The BJP assesses that the upcoming Bihar Assembly election has a couple of unpredictable factors — Mr. Kumar's health and the impact of Prashant Kishor and his Jan Suraaj Party. In the highly caste sensitive political landscape of Bihar, the Opposition party workers often refer to Mr. Kishor as 'Prashant Kishor Pandey', underlining his Brahmin lineage. Much will depend on the candidates selected by Mr. Kishor, and if he puts strong candidates, especially in the seats held by the JD(U), the upper caste voters may choose to go with him. In such a scenario, Mr. Paswan's remarks and the perception that the NDA may not be the united house it should be in the run-up to the polls is something that the BJP wants to squash as early as possible.
The Hindu
17 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Assam Congress begins training booth level agents in anticipation of SIR
With Assam administration indicating that the State will soon be holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, State Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi said that the party has begun the process of recruiting and training its Booth Level Agents (BLAs). The SIR is currently underway in Bihar and the Election Commission (EC) has indicated that it will be held across the country. 'So far we have registered close to 28,880 BLAs. We have also started a training programme for these agents. On Sunday, we concluded one round of training. At the end of the month, we will hold a week-long training programme. In the first module, we are briefing them on how voter list manipulation has been undertaken in Maharashtra and in Karnataka. We will show them the evidence that Rahul Gandhi's team had provided,' Mr. Gogoi told The Hindu. The party is also prepping up its legal team to support the BLAs to file objections and claims. The SIR exercise in Assam, Mr. Gogoi said, will be particularly difficult because of the demographic complexities, which he accused the BJP government of further complicating. 'NRC in limbo' 'The NRC (National Register of Citizens) remains in a limbo in Assam. The BJP government is not willing to address the issue of foreigners since they have no solutions to offer. Instead with the Citizenship Amendment Act, they have issued guidelines by which several Bengali speaking people have to give a written affidavit that they are from Bangladesh to apply under the Act,' he said. Instead of identifying illegal Bangladeshis as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed, Mr. Gogoi pointed out that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, today says that he is unable to address the issue. 'Instead of making Assam safe and secure, he is absolving himself of responsibility and wants to distribute guns to the people,' he said.
