08:30 Tejashwi Yadav predicts BJP’s “whitewash” after meet with Mayawati:
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday met BSP chief Mayawati, a day after she announced an alliance with her rival, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
After the meeting, Tejashwi Yadav said the BJP would be “whitewashed” in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Tejashwi Yadav welcomed the “grand alliance” in Uttar Pradesh between Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party — in which both the parties agreed to contest in 38 seats each. He said his father, RJD chief Lalu Yadav, had always talked about a Bihar style alliance of regional parties to defeat the BJP.
A grand alliance of regional parties — chiefly the RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JDU– had defeated the BJP in the Bihar assembly election. Kumar, however, ended the alliance over corruption allegations against Lalu Yadav and his family. He later formed a government in Bihar with support from the BJP.
Currently, the Bihar grand alliance has the Congress, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha (S) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insan Party as its members.
“There’s atmosphere today where they want to scrap Baba Saheb’s (BR Ambedkar) constitution and implement ‘Nagpur laws’. People have welcomed the step taken by Mayawati-ji and Akhilesh-ji.The BJP will be whitewashed in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They won’t win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh. The SP-BSP alliance will win all seats,” he said.
08:11 Is Sitharaman giving clean chit to Pak on Uri, Pathankot attacks: Chidambaram:
Hitting out at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for reportedly stating that no major terror attack took place during the BJP-led government’s rule, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram asked whether she was giving a clean chit to Pakistan in the Pathankot and Uri attacks.
“‘There has been no terrorist attack from Pakistan since 2014’ says Defence Minister. Will the Defence Minister take the map of India and locate Pathankot and Uri?” Chidambaram tweeted.
“By saying these attacks were not by or from Pakistan, is the defence minister giving a clean chit to Pakistan in respect of the Pathankot and Uri attacks?” he asked.
Incredible statement of the week that people should remember after May 2019, Chidambaram said of her remarks adding that the truth is the opposite.
The Congress had attacked Sitharaman on Saturday as well for her remarks when party spokesperson Manish Tewari said, if the defence minister’s statement was to be true, “then what was the Uri attack, where 19 soldiers were killed in a terror strike, and the Pathankot terror strike?”
Both the terror attacks had taken place in 2016.
— PTI
07:48 Can’t take open-and-shut stand on Sabarimala, let people decide: Rahul:
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who had earlier argued that all women should be allowed to enter the Sabarimala temple, said he cannot take an “open-and-shut position on the issue as there is validity in the arguments of both the sides.
Speaking at a press conference in Dubai on Saturday, Gandhi said the issue is “much more complicated” and he would leave it to the people of Kerala to decide on the matter.
He admitted that his initial position on the Sabarimala issue was different than what it is today.
“I have heard both the arguments, my initial position was different than what my position is today. After I heard the arguments of people of Kerala, I can see validity in both the arguments that traditions need to be protected. I can see validity in the argument that women should have equal rights. So I would not be able to give you an open-and-shut position on this,” Gandhi said.
“After I spoke to the people in Kerala and the Pradesh Congress Committee team in the state and they explained the details, I realised that the issue is much more complicated and both sides have a valid position. I would leave it to the people to decide on this,” he said.
After the Supreme Court verdict, Gandhi had said that all women should be allowed to enter the Sabarimala temple, noting that his view on the issue was different from that of his party’s Kerala unit.
The Congress in the capital had welcomed the Supreme Court verdict, while the party MPs from Kerala opposed it.
The shrine was out of bounds for girls and women between 10 and 50 years of age. The Supreme Court’s September 28 verdict allowed women of all age groups to offer prayers at the hill shrine dedicated to Lord Ayyappa.
— PTI
Source: Rediff