1. AAP Proves It’s Bullet-Proof in Delhi
Winning by a landslide in a fiercely competitive arena is no mean feat, but pulling off an encore is nothing short of a miracle. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP stunned the nation on Tuesday, 11 February when it beat back an aggressive BJP to sweep the Delhi polls, winning 62 of 70 seats, a strike rate of 90%.
AAP’s tally was just five seats short of 2015’s and its vote share fell by less than a percentage point – and this was in the face of incumbency. The brute majority and transformation of Kejriwal from an insurgent who gatecrashed Delhi’s political arena seven years ago into the city’s undisputed political boss will help restore his status as an important satrap among anti-BJP players. Unlike five years ago, when he had a support cast, AAP’s campaign this time was Kejriwal’s solo play.
For BJP, it is another setback. Though Kejriwal had widely appeared to be the overwhelming favourite, the saffron party, which had routed AAP in the Lok Sabha elections in May last year, had launched a no-holds-barred campaign spearheaded by its master strategist, home minister Amit Shah.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. ‘Terrorist’ Jibe, ‘Goli Maaro’ Slogan, BJP Motormouths Muted After Results Come In
On counting day, two of BJP’s most vocal leaders, who had been penalised by the Election Commission — Model Town candidate Kapil Mishra and West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh — found themselves with little to say. While Mishra lost to AAP’s Akhilesh Pati Tripathi by over 10,000 votes, in Singh’s Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP lost all 10 seats.
A lead of 90 votes after round one of counting convinced Mishra that he would be the next MLA of the constituency. By round five, it was clear Mishra was set to lose, as AAP’s Tripathi was leading with over 10,000 votes. A similar script played out with Hari Nagar’s Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who lost to AAP’s Rajkumari Dhillon by over 20,000 votes.
After a campaign that saw jibes at anti-CAA protesters in Shaheen Bagh and other provocative statements, on Tuesday, both Bagga and Mishra were far more muted.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Shots Fired at AAP MLA Naresh Yadav’s Convoy, 1 Volunteer Dead
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday claimed unidentified men on Tuesday, 11 February, opened fire on the convoy of its MLA-elect Naresh Yadav. The party said one person was killed in the attack.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh told IANS that on late Tuesday night, Yadav was attacked when he was returning from temple.
“The convoy of Yadav was attacked. Unidentified men opened fire at the convoy when Yadav was returning from the temple after results. A party volunteer Ashok has been killed,” Singh told IANS.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. BJP Believes CAA Boosted Vote Share, Won’t Back Down
Its debacle in Delhi may be seen by many as a rebuff to the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), but BJP does not intend to back down from its plan to use the new law as one of its key planks.
The BJP leadership believes the focus on CAA was the reason why its vote share improved by over 6%. Party officials also said the popularity of CAA or otherwise was not an issue in Delhi because of Arvind Kejriwal’s tactical ambiguity over both the law and the opposition it has drawn. “He skated around it and towards the last stage of the campaign, appeared to blame the Shaheen Bagh disruption on protesters,” said a highly placed party official.
The party is expected to pitch CAA as a major issue in forthcoming elections, not the least because its opponents in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala have been aggressively adversarial towards the law.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. Delhi Polls: Congress Wipeout – Zero Seats, Under 5% Vote Share, Clueless in Ideas Battle
The Congress’s abysmal showing in the Delhi Assembly elections did not come as a surprise to many in the party but the slide in its vote share — leading it to conclude that it could have lost both Hindu as well as Muslim votes — is forcing the central leadership to think how to navigate the minefield of the ideological issues the BJP pushes and the emergence of parties like AAP which take a nuanced centre-right position.
The other challenge for the Congress is that in states where there are strong regional parties, it is increasingly ceding the anti-BJP space to them. And where regional parties are in power, the BJP is squeezing the Congress out.
The Congress, for instance, came third in local body polls in Telangana last month. Same was the case in Odisha. The party met the same fate in West Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. PSA Dossier on Mehbooba Only Slander; No Solid Argument: Daughter Iltija
Terming the Public Safety Act (PSA) dossier against former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti as “slander”, her daughter Iltija Mufti said that the BJP “tasted power for a second time in Kashmir” — after the death of Mehbooba’s father Mufti Mohammed Sayeed — only because her mother was “daddy’s girl”, one of the terms used in the dossier against the PDP chief.
Iltija said the police dossier and the “grounds of detention” under the stringent PSA should be objective, with solid arguments. Even if the administration had to accuse her mother of “something serious”, they should have been at least dignified, she said.
“As a daughter, it is very painful for me to see such slander against my mother. It is appalling,” Iltija told The Indian Express. “They accuse my mother of being a ‘daddy’s girl’ — they used it to slander her — but had she not been a ‘daddy’s girl’ BJP would not have come to power again after Mufti-sahib’s death. My mother was unabashedly and unapologetically a ‘daddy’s girl’, and that is why BJP tasted power for the second time. We all know she honoured Mufti-sahib’s commitment. Otherwise she was dithering for a good three months — she didn’t want to part of this (PDP-BJP) alliance”.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’: No Information on Any Such Group, Govt Tells LS
The Centre informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, 11 February that it had no information on any group called the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’.
Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the Ministry had no information on whether the terminology was based on specific inputs from law enforcement agencies. “No such information has been brought to the notice of the government by any law enforcement agency.”
He made the remarks in response to the questions from Congress members Vincent H Pala and Jasbir Singh Gill. They asked whether an organisation, called ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’, had been identified and catalogued by the Home Ministry; whether the terminology was based on specific inputs; and whether the Ministry or any intelligence agency had drawn up a list of supposed leaders and members of the group.
(Source: The Hindu)
8. SC: What Action Taken on Srikrishna Panel Report?
The Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra was directed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday to apprise it of the action taken against police officers who were allegedly indicted by the commission of inquiry that probed the Mumbai riots of 1992-1993.
The apex court noted that despite the fact that the commission headed by Justice B N Srikrishna filed its report in 1998, state governments have consistently done nothing to implement the recommendations made in the report and “did not obey in letter and spirit” the orders of the top court.
“We direct Secretary (Home), Maharashtra Government, to file detailed response in respect of each police officer mentioned in the chart (annexed with the report) about the criminal and disciplinary action taken against them and also about police officers against whom no action has been taken,” a bench headed by Justice R F Nariman said in the order.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. US President Donald Trump Says Looking Forward to Visiting India
US President Donald Trump has said that he is looking forward to his visit to India later this month where millions of people would welcome him.
“I look forward to going to India,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, a day after the White House announced that he will be travelling to Ahmedabad in Gujarat and New Delhi on 24 and 25 February.
“He [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] is a friend of mine. He’s a great gentleman,” Trump said in response to a question.
Trump said that he spoke to Modi over the weekend and during the conversation, the Prime Minister told him that millions and millions of people would welcome him from the airport to the cricket stadium.
(Source: The Hindu)
