BJP concedes defeat as united Opposition trumps party

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Kairana bypolls: The battle for Kairana was expected to be a close contest between Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mriganka Singh and Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Tabassum Hasan. However, after a tough fight that the initial trends indicated, Hasan took a massive lead of over 50,000 votes handing BJP its third loss in the state this year after the defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

Talking about her win, Tabassum said that this will clear the path to a win for the united opposition in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “This is the victory of truth. I still stand by what I said, there has been a conspiracy and we do not want any future elections to be conducted on EVM machines. The path for united opposition is clear in 2019,” she said, while adding that the people of Kairana have buried BJP.

She added that the margin of victory would have been bigger EVMs didn’t falter. She said that this will be a victory of truth over lies. “Our margins would have been greater if the EVMs didn’t falter. Repolling also helped us by 20,000 votes. This will be a victory of truth over lies — our truth versus their 4 years of lies. All parties coming together for the people worked,” Hasan added.

Tabassum Hasan had contested for the first time in 2009 Lok Sabha election on a BSP ticket, months after losing her husband in a car crash in Haryana. Her husband Munawwar Hasan was a popular leader in Kairana and had an intense rivalry with Hukum Singh.

In 2014, the 47-year-old leader stepped aside, allowing her son Nahid to contest the election on a Samajwadi Party ticket against Hukum Singh. However, Hukum Singh won the election riding on the ‘Modi wave’ as BJP got a historic mandate.

Tabassum had her revenge in the ensuing Assembly bypoll, which Hukum Singh had vacated as Nahid became the SP MLA by beating Hukum Singh’s nephew Anil Chauhan. He won the seat again in 2017, this time against Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka.

The Kairana seat fell vacant after the death of Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka Singh was the BJP candidate. Meanwhile, Tabassum Hasan was supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Kairana bye-election is the fourth Lok Sabha bypolls in the state since 2014. Apart from Gorakhpur and Phulpur, a bye-election was also held in Mainpuri in 2014.

Easy victory for Shahnawaz Alam

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Thwarting JDU in Bihar’s Jokihat assembly constituency, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s party Rashtriya Janta Dal registered a comfortable victory.

RJD candidate Shahnawaz Alam won the Jokihat assembly by-poll with a margin of 41,224 votes.

Tejashwi Yadav on the occasion said  “JDU fielded a candidate who was accused of rape and theft both. This is people’s response to Nitish Kumar’s insult to their mandate. He deserted the grand alliance that was elected to power and went to side with BJP instead, this is people’s answer to that.”

“Those who talk big about the face value and charisma of Nitish Kumar, they should know that only 499 votes went in JDU’s coffer this time.  Nitish has lost three by-polls ever since he has sided with BJP,” he said.

After 10 rounds of the ongoing ballot counting, Shahnawaz Alam had established the comfortable lead over Janata Dal-United’s Murshid Alam.

The Jokihat seat fell vacant following the resignation of JD-U MLA Sarfaraz Alam, who joined the RJD.

Apart from RJD and JDU candidates, a third Independent candidate Mohammad Shabbir is also in the fray.

Voting for the seat took place on Monday.
The JD-U was backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the RJD had the support of the Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of former Chief Minister of Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Jokihat is a Muslim-dominated Assembly constituency, considered stronghold of former Union Minister and Shahnawaz Alam’s father Mohammad Taslimuddin, who died last year leading to bypolls in Araria Lok Sabha seat.

Bank Strike Hits Services; ATM Withdrawals Get Affected

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Banking services were hit across the country for the second day on Thursday, as about 10 lakh bankers continued their strike to protest a “meagre” 2% salary hike offered by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) — the banks’ management body.

Thursday is the last day of the two-day strike being observed by the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation consisting all nine unions of the banking sector. Banking operations are likely to become normal from Friday.

UFBU has claimed that the strike is “total success” as the employees have “enthusiastically participated in the strike in all banks and in all branches”.

“All banking services were crippled as bank branches were closed. ATMs also dried up after few hours as currency chests were closed,” UFBU’s convener (Maharashtra) Devidas Tuljapurkar claimed.

According to reports received by UFBU from various states and centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Patna, Nagpur, Jammu, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Agra, Ambala, and Trivandrum, employees have enthusiastically participated in the strike in all banks and branches.

There are about 85,000 branches of 21 public sector banks across the country, with a business share of about 70%.

Operations in the new-generation private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, however, were almost normal, barring few activities including cheque clearance.

Nearly 10 lakh employees, working in various branches of 21 public sector banks, 13 old generation private sector banks, six foreign banks and 56 regional rural banks across the country went on a two-day strike yesterday as IBA offered them a nominal wage revision, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), affiliate of UFBU had said in a statement.

Since the strike coincides with the month-end, salary withdrawals from branches were said to be affected on Wednesday, and the situation is likely to remain same on Thursday, said sources in the banking sector and employees union.

Operations like deposits, FD renewals, government treasury operations, money market operations are also being reportedly hit by the strike.

In its last wage negotiation meeting held earlier this month, IBA proposed a nominal salary revision to bank employees and officers, owing to huge losses incurred by them in the last few quarters, bank unions said.

Wage revision in the banks has been due from November 2017.

Congress to get Home and JDS will go with finance.

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After days of hectic negotiations, the JD-S will get the Finance portfolio in Karnataka and the Congress the Home department, highly placed sources in the parties said in Bengaluru on Thursday

The power-sharing arrangement between the two alliance partners is being finalized and is in the final stages, the sources added.

The leaders of the two parties have held five rounds of talks here since Wednesday to finalise the portfolio sharing arrangement between the two alliance partners.

Sources said Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is on board on the issue and has spoken to leaders on phone from the United States.

“We have held five rounds of talks with each other and have decided that the JD-S will get the Finance portfolio. I will be now travelling to Bengaluru to hold further talks within our party,” JD-S leader Danish Ali said.

He said he would meet both Chief Minister HD Kumarswamy and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.

पंजाबी ट्रिब्यून के पत्रकार बलविंदर जम्मू प्रेस कौंसिल ऑफ इंडिया के सदस्य बने

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चंडीगढ़: 31.05.2018

प्रेस कौंसिल ऑफ इंडिया ने चंडीगढ़ से प्रकाशित पंजाबी ट्रिब्यून के पत्रकार बलविंदर जम्मू को कौंसिल  का सदस्य नियुक्त किया है । उन्हें इंडियन नेशनल यूनियन ऑफ जॉर्नलिस्ट की सिफारिश पर रीजनल अखबार से नियुक्त किया गया है ।

Shahkot Bypoll Result Today

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Chandigarh 31.05.2018

The Shahkot Assembly bypoll results, which will be out tomorrow, is being seen as a popularity test for the 14-month-old Congress government in Punjab, with opposition SAD striving to retain its stronghold.

The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Ajit Singh Kohar in February this year.

While the SAD is striving to retain its pocket borough from where Kohar was elected five-times, the results for the ruling Congress in Punjab is being seen as a barometer for the popularity of the 14-month-old Amarinder Singh dispensation.

During the bypoll, the opposition party had accused the Congress of misusing official machinery against political opponents.

The AAP, which faced a humiliating defeat in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll and civic polls, is desperately looking for a victory in Shahkot.

The Congress is confident of maintaining the winning momentum by wresting the seat from rival SAD.

latest: 9:55 am

Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi has increased his lead over rivals by 8500 votes after completion of fourth round of counting.

In the fourth round, he surged ahead by another 2700 votes.

BJP Leads In 2 Maharashtra, Behind In UP’s Kairana Seat

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Chandigarh: 31.05.2018

  The BJP is leading in Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, early leads show. But in Kairana, the united opposition has pulled ahead. In UP’s Noorpur assembly seat, the Samajwadi Party candidate is ahead. Polling in the two parliamentary seats on Monday was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs or electronic vote machines at many booths. Repolling was held in 73 polling stations of Kairana and 49 booths in Bhandara-Gondiya yesterday. Nearly 20 per cent of VVPAT or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines, which eject slips confirming voters’ choices, were replaced on both seats.

  1. In Kairana, where it is a direct contest between a united opposition and the BJP, 384 faulty VVPATs were replaced. Both sides took their complaints of malfunctioning machines to the Election Commission, after which repolling was ordered.
  2. Tabassum Hasan, the opposition candidate belonging to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Kairana, had even alleged that faulty machines in Muslim and Dalit-dominated areas – claimed to be opposition strongholds – had not been replaced. The allegations were rejected by the district magistrate.
  3. The Kairana by-election, a seat BJP won in 2014, is seen as a testing ground for opposition unity ahead of the 2019 elections in a state that sends the maximum number of lawmakers to parliament. After sworn rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) came together to win bypolls to the BJP bastions of Gorakhpur and Phulpur earlier this year, the Congress and RLD have joined the bandwagon in Kairana.
  4. Amid widespread failure of vote machines, opposition leaders like Akhilesh Yadav of SP and Praful Patel of the NCP, which has fielded its candidate in Bhandara-Gondiya, renewed their pitch for using ballot papers instead in the 2019 polls. The Election Commission, which has blamed the malfunction partly on the extreme heat, has ruled it out.
  5. Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat told NDTV that the machines are new and had been deployed for the first time, and would stabilize by 2019. He also apportioned blame to the training of election staff to use the machines.
  6. Bypoll to Maharashtra’s Palghar Lok Sabha seat, which was held by the BJP, has further strained its ties with ally Shiv Sena after it fielded the late BJP lawmaker’s son. The only parliamentary seat in Nagaland, vacated by BJP ally who is now Chief Minister, also voted in Monday’s by-election.
  7. Polling was also held for 10 assembly seats in nine states, Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh), Jokihat (Bihar), Tharali (Uttarakhand), Gomia and Silli (Jharkhand), Maheshtala (West Bengal), Ampati (Meghalaya), Palus Kadegaon  (Maharashtra), Shahkot (Punjab) and Chengannur (Kerala).
  8. In Bihar’s Jokihat, the bypoll is seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the sitting JD(U) lawmaker quit the party and joined the RJD after Mr Kumar joined hands with the BJP last year.
  9. In Maheshtala, a seat held by the Trinamool, the bypoll result will be significant as the ruling party anticipates its vote share going down, though it seems confident of a win. The BJP expects to shore up its vote count in a state where it’s keen on getting a toehold ahead of 2019. Polling, which took place under the watch of paramilitary forces, was peaceful as opposed to violence during the panchayat elections a fortnight ago.
  10. It is a three-way contest in Kerala’s Chengannur, where the opposition Congress is keen on reclaiming ground it lost to the ruling CPM two years ago. After breaching the Left bastion in Tripura earlier this year, the BJP is hoping to do better than in 2016 when it won nearly 16 per cent votes in the assembly polls.

ICICI Bank to probe allegations against CEO Chanda Kochhar

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Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Wednesday said it has decided to institute an independent enquiry into the allegations levelled by anonymous whistleblower against managing director and chief executive Chanda Kochhar.

ICICI Bank in a regulatory filing said the enquiry will be headed by an independent person.

The lender’s board has said that its audit committee will take further actions in the matter. The committee will appoint the head of enquiry, determine the terms of reference and the period covered. The audit committee will also help the head of enquiry with the required independent legal and other professional support.

“The scope of enquiry would be comprehensive and include all relevant matters arising out of and in the course of examination of the facts and wherever warranted, use of forensics/e-mail reviews and recordal of statements of relevant personnel etc,” the filing said.

The allegations are related to ‘conflict of interest’ over a time and ‘quid pro quo’ in course of Kochhar’s work in dealing with certain borrowers.

This comes few days after markets regulator Sebi issued a show-cause notice to the bank and its CEO for alleged violation of disclosure requirements under securities law in the case involving Videocon Group and NuPower Renewables, a firm run by her husband Deepak Kochhar

Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi will face expedition

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NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday impressed upon the UK the need to expedite the process of extradition of Indian fugitives and economic offenders, which include former liquor baron Vijay Mallya and ex-IPL boss Lalit Modi. At the Indo-UK home affairs dialogue here, the Indian side is also reported to have sought the help of British authorities to locate diamantaire Nirav Modi .

“We have sought the help of the authorities in the UK in the extradition of our wanted persons. The process is on and everyone knows that it is because of our proactive action, that Mallya now has to fight his extradition case in a UK court, investing his time and money,” said an official privy to discussions during the two-hour long meeting here.

The third Indo-UK home affairs dialogue dwelt on 8 issues including counter-terrorism, terror financing, cybersecurity, women’s safety, organized crime and visa-related matters. While the Indian delegation was led by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, the UK team was led by Patsy Wilkinson.

During the talks, Gauba communicated India’s concern over activities of pro-Khalistan and Kashmiri separatist elements in the UK and urged it to maintain a vigil over such elements and take appropriate action including timely sharing of intelligence.

Last year, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju had raised with the UK India’s request for extradition of 13 fugitives, including Mallya, Lalit Modi and cricket bookie Sanjiv Kapur.

Mallya, facing CBI and ED investigations, is accused of defrauding Indian banks of Rs 9,000 crore. He is currently contesting extradition proceedings initiated by India, in a UK court.

India had earlier moved ED’s request for extradition of Lalit Modi. However, Interpol had rejected the request for a red corner notice against him on the ground that no chargesheet had been filed against him in the Indian courts.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who left India early this year, are wanted by authorities for allegedly duping Punjab National Bank of Rs 13,000 crore. TOI had earlier reported that information with officials of the Indian High Commission in the UK pointed to his being in the UK. A request to locate him is reported to have been made to the UK authorities on Wednesday.

‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ launched.

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Chandigarh, May 30, 2018

 Former diplomat, Rajya Sabha MP and author, Pavan K. Varma’s latest book, ‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ was launched by Shri V.P Singh Badnore, Honourable Governor of Punjab and Administrator of U.T., Chandigarh, at Punjab Raj Bhawan, on Wednesday.

The book ‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ is a well-researched account of the life and times of the child-saint Adi Shankaracharya, who travelled across India to set up of monasteries or mathas, even while giving a form and structure to Hinduism. The book includes a select anthology of Shankaracharya’s seminal writing; and most importantly, examines the startling endorsement that contemporary science is giving to his ideas today. It reminds readers about the remarkable philosophical underpinning of Hinduism, making it one of the most vibrant religions in the world.