OMG! BJP kick-starts early 2019 poll preparations

News Network
August 17, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 17: The BJP has started early preparations for 2019 polls as party president Amit Shah got into a huddle with top leaders on Thursday to appoint managers to curate 120 Lok Sabha seats it never won.

Shah, said BJP sources, took a meeting of about a dozen union and UP ministers and ten general secretaries at the party's Ashoka Road headquarters, to identify leaders who can work as "palaks (managers)" on at least 6 Lok Sabha seats each which it had lost always. 

Among the union ministers, who attended the meeting and are likely to be assigned the task of palaks are Ravi Shankar Prasad, JP Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman. While general secretaries present were Ram Lal, Ram Madhav, Arun Singh, Anil Jain, Murlidhar Rao, Kailash Vijayvargiya, V. Satish, Shiv Prakash, Saudan Singh and BL Santosh.

Shah is keen to create a crack team to work on the ground on these parliamentary segments where union ministers will chip in heavily since the party does not have enough leaders to galvanise workers and voters to convert defeat into victory, explained BJP sources aware of the planning.

Other than palaks, the second rung of the team will have leaders who will be assigned other than their native constituencies. The BJP believes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image is intact despite opposition sweating out to erode his and the NDA government's credibility.

BJP wants to take an early lead in its preparations to outwit the opposition still struggling to put up a grand alliance to checkmate saffron surge. The opposition though had showcased its intent by fielding a common candidate of seventeen parties during president and vice president's elections.

The party has been doing the spade work at the booth level in these weaker areas such as West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha and in North East, except for Assam it had won comfortably, to compensate for states where the BJP had peaked in 2014 elections to win overall 282 seats. Those states are - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

The party poll managers are confident of doing well in Congress held states of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka in the coming assembly polls.

Shah also has been re-emphasizing Modi's message that the NDA government's welfare schemes like providing underprivileged women LPG cylinders through Ujwala scheme and providing toilets should be electorally milked in rural belts as it successfully did in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

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News Network
October 21,2024

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Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on Monday warned passengers not to fly on Air India flights from November 1 to 19. He asserted that an attack could take place on an Air India flight during the specified dates, which coincide with the "40th anniversary of the Sikh genocide".

The founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), who holds dual citizenship in Canada and the US, had issued a similar threat around the same time last year.

Pannun's fresh threat comes amid several airlines in India receiving multiple threat calls about potential bombings, all of which turned out to be hoaxes. It also occurred at a time when India and Canada are engaged in a murky diplomatic row following Canada's allegations of India targeting Khalistani elements in the country, including the murder of another terrorist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In November 2023, Pannun released a video claiming that Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport would be renamed and would remain closed on November 19, warning people against flying on Air India that day. The National Investigation Agency charged him with criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, and various offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

In December last year, Pannun threatened to attack the Parliament on or before December 13, following reports of an alleged foiled plot to kill him. December 13 marks the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001.

He also threatened to kill Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Director General of State Police Gaurav Yadav on Republic Day this year. He also urged gangsters to unite and launch an attack on Mann on January 26.

Pannun has been designated a terrorist by the Ministry of Home Affairs since July 2020 on charges of sedition and secessionism, as he leads SFJ, a group advocating for a separate sovereign Sikh state. A year prior to this, India banned SFJ as an "unlawful association" for engaging in "anti-national and subversive" activities.

In another development, on October 17, the United States charged a former officer of India's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder Pannun, a charge New Delhi has rejected as baseless allegations.

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News Network
October 22,2024

Several Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) schools across India were hit with hoax bomb threats on Tuesday, just days after an explosion occurred near a CRPF school in Delhi. The threats, sent via email late Monday night, targeted schools in Delhi and Hyderabad, according to sources.

Earlier this week, a bomb exploded outside a CRPF school in Delhi’s Rohini area, causing significant damage to nearby vehicles and property. Fortunately, no casualties or injuries were reported.

In response to the blast, Delhi Police confiscated CCTV footage from nearby markets as part of their investigation. Sources indicate that surveillance footage captured a suspect at the scene, wearing a white T-shirt, displaying suspicious behavior the night before the explosion.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the explosive device had been hidden in a polythene bag, buried in a shallow pit, and covered with garbage. The blast caused a hole in the school's boundary wall and shattered the window panes and signboards of nearby shops.

Following the incident, the Delhi Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Section 3 of the Indian Explosives Act, and other relevant sections.

The FIR states, "A case of an explosion caused by an unknown explosive substance has been registered, and the investigation continues." It also details the damage, noting that the blast left a hole in the boundary wall and affected nearby structures.

The targeted schools serve children from CRPF and other paramilitary families, and the recent threats have heightened concerns. In response, Delhi authorities have placed the city on high alert, ramping up security measures, especially in markets, ahead of the Diwali festival. 

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