India

Kottayam (Kerala), April 18 (IANS) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday told his predecessor and the country’s longest-serving Defence Minister A.K. Antony that he can understand the predicament of the latter.

Singh said this while addressing an election rally for the BJP candidate and son of Antony, Anil Antony, at Kanjirapally which comes under the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency, where Anil is fighting a poll battle against three-time sitting Congress MP Anto Antony and veteran CPI-M former finance minister Thomas Isaac.

“ All I have to tell Antony is even if he might not vote for him, he should bless him as a father. I was surprised by what Antony said, maybe he said like that due to the pressure from the Congress party,” said Singh.

Antony after almost six months broke his silence early this month when he said Anil should and will lose at Pathanamthitta and it was wrong for the children of Congress leaders to join the BJP.

“I have the highest regard for Antony and I see him as my elder brother. As Minister, Antony was a clean person, while other Congress leaders are not like that,” added Singh.

“ Anil has a bright future in the BJP,” said Singh and took a dig at Rahul Gandhi when he said the country’s Chandrayan Mission was a success, while the ‘Rahulyan’ mission, even after two decades, has not reached anywhere.

--IANS

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Bengaluru, April 18 (IANS) IT software giant Infosys on Thursday declared a 30 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 7,969 crore for the January-March quarter of 2023-24, up from Rs 6,128 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

The company reported a revenue of Rs 37,923 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, according to a stock exchange filing.

Infosys also declared a final dividend of Rs 20 per equity share and a one-time dividend of Rs 8 per share.

India’s second-largest IT services company also announced the acquisition of In-Tech Holding GmbH, an engineering, research and development services provider.

Infosys share price went up 0.34 per cent on Thursday to settle at Rs 1,419.25, ahead of the fourth quarter results.

--IANS

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New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged in a Delhi court on Thursday that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is deliberately eating mangoes and other high-carb food in Tihar Jail to raise his blood sugar level to build a case for bail.

Arguing the matter before Special Judge Rakesh Syal of the Rouse Avenue Court, special counsel Zoheb Hossain appearing for the ED said on the one hand CM Kejriwal is claiming high sugar levels, and at the same time he is eating mangoes, sweets, etc. in jail.

The Delhi Chief Minister is in judicial custody till April 23 for his alleged involvement in the excise policy case.

The ED has alleged that CM Kejriwal is consciously consuming items like tea with sugar, banana, sweets (1/2 pieces), poori, aloo sabji, etc. on a regular basis, despite being a Type 2 diabetes patient, “knowing very well that consumption of such items results in an increase in sugar levels”.

The agency also said that this is being done to create a medical emergency “to obtain sympathetic treatment from the court on medical grounds".

“Further, the jail authorities on Wednesday asked AIIMS to prescribe a diet chart for the Chief Minister after considering his sugar records and the fact that he is a Type 2 diabetes patient with chronic constipation and cough (chronic bronchitis), who is under regular treatment,” the ED counsel said.

However, advocate Vivek Jain, appearing for CM Kejriwal, opposed the federal agency’s submission saying the ED counsel is playing by the gallery and making statements for the media.

After a brief hearing, the court sought a medical report from Tihar Jail authorities on the CM’s diet and listed the matter for hearing on Friday.

While the ED’s allegations were made in court on Thursday, the issue has been doing the rounds on social media since Wednesday.

According to a post on X, one of the netizen's sources in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) revealed that CM Kejriwal is taking high-sugar food deliberately to increase his sugar level so that he can use it as a reason to get bail.

“He is not only forcing the jail authorities to give him sugar-laden high glycemic index drinks and food early in the morning, but his family is also sending him sugar and carb-laden food so that his blood sugar rises,” the post read.

CM Kejriwal’s lawyers had gone at length detailing his health conditions earlier, saying he was diabetic when he was sent to judicial custody.

Kejriwal's counsel had informed the court that his blood sugar level dropped to 46 and argued that in such circumstances, he should be allowed to consult his doctor three times a week via video conferencing.

However, special public prosecutor (ED) Simon Benjamin had contended that jail facilities are equipped to conduct medical examinations, suggesting that CM Kejriwal could be examined there, expressing his intent to file a reply on the application.

Meanwhile, another user posted: “Every day Kejru asks for high sugar food like juice, banana etc. and he gets high carb food! The plan is to show high sugar and get out of jail. This has been told by your top sources. Whether this is true will be known in a few days!”

Last week, alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar claimed in a press statement that Kejriwal is fooling the people with news of losing weight and falling sick.

“Everyone should know that he is luxuriously enjoying his salads and palak paneer,” claimed Chandrashekhar, who is also behind bars in a money laundering case.

--IANS

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Thiruvananthapuram, April 18 (IANS) Top Congress leaders and star campaigners, now in Kerala, on Thursday, wanted to know why Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is being treated softly by the BJP government.

This was asked by Rahul Gandhi while speaking at an election rally in Kannur, as well as by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar while campaigning in Wayanad.

“I am 24x7 attacking BJP and Vijayan is 24x7 attacking me and I don’t know why. Two Chief Ministers are now in jail and I know that if anyone attacks BJP, they attack back using ED, CBI and other agencies. But no one knows why BJP is not sending CBI and ED to question the Kerala CM,” said Gandhi.

At Wayanad, Shivakumar asked the same question: why the BJP government is not taking action against Kerala CM.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, campaigning in the state capital also had the same thing to ask when he told a rally that BJP and CPI-M are hand in glove and that’s why the Kerala CM is allowed a free run.

Kerala goes to the polls on April 26 to elect 20 new Lok Sabha members to the Parliament.

--IANS

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Bulandshahr (UP), April 18 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday that while SP, BSP and Congress used to run their governments on riot policy, the BJP runs it on the policy of development.

“BJP is necessary for faith, security and prosperity. People of SP, BSP and Congress are under curfew. During their rule, a curfew was imposed for months but today there is no curfew in the state. These people used to create chaos in the state by instigating riots. They used to run riot policy, we run the policy of development. In our government, the path of 'Ram-Ram' journey will remain open for the common people of the state and 'Ram Naam Satya' for the mafia criminals,” he said while addressing an election meeting in Bulandshahr.

The chief minister said that before 2014, terrorism was on the rise.

“Today, we all are in new India. People who witnessed the 2014 elections know what kind of India was at that time. They should tell the present generation and new voters that before that there was resentment and distrust among the people. Terrorism, Naxalism and separatism were becoming rampant in the country. Corruption was at its peak in all the institutions of the country. The youths were disappointed and the farmers were committing suicide,” he stated.

He said that in the past 10 years, people have seen a changing India. Problems like Naxalism and terrorism etc. have been solved.

“Congress gave the problem and the entire country including Jammu, was brought under the grip of terrorism. There were explosions every day, and innocent people died. Families were devastated, but Congress remained a spectator. Even once these people were not ready to speak against terrorism but today Article 370 has been abolished,” he said.

The chief minister further said that Asia's largest airport being built in Jewar is an example of development. Secunderabad and Jewar will benefit the most from this. He said that the economy of the country and the state has strengthened.

“We are going to provide a rapid rail facility. Metro is coming. Rail connectivity, the junction of the dedicated freight corridor in Dadri, the country's largest logistics centre is also going to be built here, where lakhs of jobs will be created,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath also enumerated the development schemes and said that the Ayushman card has taken care of the health issues that people face.

By solving the problems of builder-buyers in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Authority, the cases pending for years are being closed and the buyers are being given rights.

He further said, “This election is between the family of selfishness and the family of PM Modi (India of 140 crore people).

People of SP, BSP and Congress cannot even think outside their families. Now there is a better environment for security investment. After 500 years, Ram Lalla got the opportunity to celebrate His birthday at His birthplace. You must have seen the consecration of Suryavanshi Ram with the tilak applied by the rays of Lord Surya. The entire Sanatan was glowing after seeing that aura.”

The chief minister gave the credit for the prosperity that India got to PM Narendra Modi and said that a development-oriented government will be possible only with lotus flower (BJP symbol).

--IANS

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New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Over 16.63 crore voters in 1.87 lakh polling stations across the country will decide the fate of 1,625 candidates in the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Friday.

Deploying over 18 lakh polling officials, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that it has taken a "slew of decisive measures" for the peaceful and smooth conduct of the elections as Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu gave final touches to poll preparations at noon on Thursday.

While the remaining six phases of polls will continue till June 1 with around 97 crore voters lined up to exercise their right to franchise - the counting is scheduled for June 4.

Here are some facts detailed by the ECI about the first phase of polling:

- Polling for Phase-I of the General Elections 2024 will be held on April 19 for 102 Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) in 21 States/UTs and 92 Assembly Constituencies in the State Assembly elections in Arunachal and Sikkim. It has the highest number of parliamentary constituencies among all phases.

- Voting begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. (closure of poll timings may differ PC-wise).

- Over 16.63 crore voters include 8.4 crore male; 8.23 crore female and 11,371 third-gender.

- 35.67 lakh first-time voters are registered to exercise their right to franchise. Additionally, there are 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.

- 41 helicopters, 84 special trains and nearly 1 lakh vehicles have been deployed to ferry polling and security personnel.

- Webcasting will be done in more than 50 per cent of the polling stations along with the deployment of micro observers in all polling stations.

- 361 observers have already reached their constituencies, days before the polls. They serve as the eyes and ears of the ECI to exercise utmost vigilance.

- A total of 4,627 flying squads, 5,208 statistics surveillance teams, 2,028 video surveillance teams and 1,255 video viewing teams are deployed to strictly and swiftly deal with any form of inducement of voters.

- A total of 1,374 inter-state and 162 international border checkposts are keeping a strict vigil on any illicit flow of liquor, drugs, cash and freebies. Strict vigil is being maintained at sea and air route.

- There are over 14.14 lakh registered voters aged 85 plus and 13.89 lakh Persons with disabilities (PwD) in 102 PCs who have been provided the option to vote from the comfort of their homes. The optional Home Voting facility is already receiving tremendous appreciation and response.

- Those aged 85 plus and PwD voters, who decide to come to polling stations, will be provided with all facilities like pick and drop, signages, braille signage on EVM, volunteers. PwD voters can also book wheelchair facilities via ECI's Saksham App.

- Assured minimum facilities like water, shed, toilets, ramps, volunteers, wheelchairs, and electricity are in place to ensure that every voter, including the elderly and PwD, can cast their vote with ease.

- Model polling stations are being set up across the 102 PCs with local themes. More than 5,000 polling stations will be completely managed by women including security staff at over 1,000 polling stations by PwDs.

- The ECI has also provided 12 alternative documents other than Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) for identity verification at polling stations. If a voter is registered in the electoral roll, voting can be done by showing any of these documents.

--IANS

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Hyderabad, April 18 (IANS) Union Tourism and Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday exuded confidence that BJP will win 12 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

The state BJP chief called upon party leaders and workers to ensure that the party wins the maximum number of seats in the state.

Kishan Reddy was speaking after accompanying party candidate Eatala Rajender to file nomination papers from the Malkajgiri seat.

He said that the Congress party came to power in Telangana by accident. He also remarked that as long as Rahul Gandhi is the leader of Congress, the BJP will have no problems.

He also claimed that the Centre allocated Rs 10 lakh crore to Telangana during the last 10 years. A day before filing the nomination, the state BJP chief released the report to the people.

He stated that Telangana received Rs 2.03 lakh crore towards its share in central taxes. The Centre also spent Rs 6.02 lakh crore on various development and welfare schemes in the state.

Union Minister Reddy, who is seeking re-election from Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, also released a report, listing the development works undertaken in the constituency and the state during the last five years.

He also highlighted the development of national highways, railway projects, rail manufacturing unit in Kazipet, PM Mitra Textile Park in Warangal, new fertiliser plant set up in Ramagundam, funds given to Hyderabad Metro project under Viability Gap Funding, Sri Konda Laxman Bapuji Horticulture University set up in Siddipet district, Sammakka Sarakka National Tribal University coming up in Mulugu, Bibinagar AIMS, Hyderabad IIT, National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research, distribution of free ration launched during Covid-19 pandemic and fertiliser subsidy for farmers.

The union minister also explained the works taken up for modernisation of railway stations in his constituency.

He said airport-like amenities will be provided at Secunderabad, Kachiguda, Nampally and Begumpet railway stations. A new railway terminal is being built at Cherlapally.

He said MMTS phase-II works were completed and services were launched. The services will be extended to Yadadri with the Centre bearing the entire cost of the project.

Kishan Reddy also mentioned the launch of four Vande Bharat trains from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the regional ring road around Hyderabad and proposed outer ring rail, road projects for traffic decongestion and other projects.

--IANS

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Kolkata, April 18 (IANS) Much before the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule on March 16, the Diamond Harbour constituency in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district was the most talked about seat in the state. And it continues to remain so with polling scheduled on June 1, the last day of the seven-phase elections starting Friday.

The main reason for the public curiosity about this seat is its two-term sitting MP and Trinamool Congress General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has been renominated this time as well.

Diamond Harbour was in the news since the beginning of the year after Nawsad Siddique, the lone All India Secular Front (AISF) representative in the West Bengal Assembly, expressed his desire to contest the seat, which has a substantial number of minority voters.

Given that Siddique is a popular face among the minority population in the state, a perception was formed that if he contests, Siddique could give a tough fight to Abhishek Banerjee. However, that possibility fizzled out after the AISF fielded Majnu Laskar from Diamond Harbour.

Interestingly, the BJP announced its candidate for the seat quite a few days after naming its nominees for the 41 other Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. On Tuesday, the party announced Abhijit Das, popular as Bobby, as the BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour. The delayed nomination seems to be part BJP's strategy considering Bobby’s long association with Diamond Harbour.

Besides contesting against Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour in 2014, Bobby was the BJP’s organisational district president for quite some time. He also has the experience of working as the co-convener of the party’s state election management team.

The CPI-M has fielded its young face and student leader Pratik Ur Rahaman, who has been associated with Diamond Harbour since his college days as a leader of the party's student wing, the SFI.

Rahaman is focussing more on door-to-door campaigns, raising issues of corruption, particularly the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case in the state.

Going by recent electoral history, including the 2021 Assembly elections, Diamond Harbour has been a Trinamool stronghold since 2009, when veteran politician late Somen Mitra won from here on a TMC ticket, ending decades of CPI-M domination.

In 2019, Abhishek Banerjee was re-elected by a margin of over 3.20 lakh votes. In the 2021 Assembly elections, the Trinamool swept all seven seats under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency.

A booth-wise analysis shows that the consolidation of minority votes in favour of Trinamool in both 2019 and 2021 led to landslide victories for the ruling party.

However, with the AISF candidate in the race now and the CPI-M fielding a strong candidate, both representing the minority community, it needs to be seen how far the Trinamool gains from the consolidation of minority votes this time.

Diamond Harbour was traditionally a red bastion from 1967 to 2009, handing the CPI-M 13 victories in a row.

The constituency has given the Lok Sabha some of the most respected Parliamentarians such as Jyotirmoy Basu, Amal Dutta, and Samik Lahiri.

However, the equation changed in 2009 when Somen Mitra won, and the trend continued since then with Abhishek Banerjee scripting back-to-back victories in 2014 and 2019, and the Trinamool sweeping the Assembly polls.

--IANS

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Kolkata, March 16 (IANS) The Kolkata Police said on Saturday that the officers of its Anti-Rowdy Section (ARS) have arrested three persons and recovered cash worth Rs 54 lakh from them following night-long operations at two business hubs in the city hours before announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

A senior official said that on late Friday night, the ARS police officers raided a particular residence at the business hub of Posta in central Kolkata and seized an amount of Rs 24 lakh from two persons.

The police officers questioned the two accused persons about the source of funds and when they were unable to give any satisfactory answer they were arrested.

Similarly, the city police official said an amount of Rs 30 lakh was recovered from another person at a residential flat under Bowbazar police station in central Kolkata early Saturday morning.

The accused person also could not give any satisfactory answer either on the source of the funds or the purpose for which he was carrying it. Therefore, he was also arrested.

The police have started a detailed investigation about the sources of the funds and the purpose for which the three arrested persons were carrying them before the Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

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Longwood (Florida), March 16 (IANS) Diksha Dagar got off to a modest start with a 3-over 74 in the opening round of the 2024 IOA Golf Classic on the Epson Tour. Diksha had just one birdie against four bogeys and was lying T-86 at the Par-71 Alaqua Country Club. It is a three-round 54-hole event.

Diksha, using her time in between her other international engagements on the Ladies European Tour, where she has had two Top-10 finishes recently, stayed on Florida after playing the Aramco Team Series last week.

Diksha, a multiple winner on her domestic Tour, the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, and a two-time champion on the LET, will be playing at least two events right and probably a few more later in the season.

Cydney Clanton, a three-time Epson Tour champion, navigated the course with the best in round rolling in five birdies and an eagle on her way to a 6-under 66. The round was bogey-free till she missed green and failed to hole a testy par putt.

Lindsey McCurdy, Dewi Weber and Jessica Peng with rounds of 66 each will be starting their second rounds one shot behind Clanton.

The tight, tree-lined course was challenging but does offer birdie opportunities as it showed on the first day. The first round was suspended due to darkness but the start of the second round will not be affected.

--IANS

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