34-36 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs to be built in Delhi: Pankaj Singh (IANS Exclusive)

Kolkata, Jan 28 (IANS) The popularity of the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, as a national campaigner for the BJP seems to be increasing.

Adhikari is scheduled for a two-day visit to New Delhi from Tuesday to campaign on behalf of the party for the forthcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

BJP sources said Adhikari’s sustained campaign in West Bengal over the atrocities on minority Hindus in neighbouring Bangladesh in the recent past and the huge mobilisation of the crowd in programmes led by him on this issue, have impressed the party’s national leadership and he has become a favourite for national campaigning.

“Although not on a scale like in West Bengal, the problem of settlement of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators is also there in Delhi to an extent,” he said.

In such a situation, Adhikari’s campaign programmes in New Delhi will be quite significant,” said a state committee member of BJP in West Bengal.

Besides Adhikari, fashion designer-turned-politician and party MLA Agnimitra Paul is also in New Delhi to campaign for the Delhi Assembly polls.

Previously, Adhikari campaigned for the BJP in the Assembly polls in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura and Chhattisgarh.

Party insiders said that besides participating in the campaigns for Delhi Assembly elections, the leader of the opposition might also have a meeting with the top leadership of the party on the current political situation in West Bengal, especially in the wake of the recent verdict by a special court in Kolkata on the rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August last year.

“Like the Bangladesh issue, the leader of the opposition had been persistently campaigning on two other burning issues in the state namely the R. G. Kar rape and murder as well as the recent deaths of a woman and a newborn at a state-run medical college and hospital in West Midnapore allegedly due to administration of expired Ringer’s Lactate there,” the party’s state committee member in West Bengal said.

–IANS

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New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) In a stunning blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s boastful 2023 claim in a video has resurfaced and gone viral following the party’s devastating loss in the Delhi Assembly elections, including his own crushing defeat in the New Delhi constituency. Kejriwal had then said: “You cannot defeat us in this life; you’ll need another birth to defeat us in Delhi,” referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP at the time.

Now, those words of Kejriwal appear to be bitterly ironic as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surges ahead with 48 seats out of 70, while AAP is trailing with just 22 seats.

Needless to say, the AAP had been eyeing a hat-trick in Delhi, and now it faces a humiliating and crushing defeat. As the BJP is set to achieve a historic victory after 26 years of remaining out of power in Delhi, the atmosphere at the AAP headquarters is one of dejection and gloom. At the same time, however, the BJP’s celebration is in full swing. The poll results have shattered Kejriwal’s earlier big claims, proving that the BJP has once again asserted its dominance in the national capital.

In a tweet on X, Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal, who was once close to Kejriwal, commented: “Ahankaar Ravan ka bhi nahi bacha thaa (Even Ravan, with all his arrogance, couldn’t save himself)”, mocking Kejriwal’s arrogance in the face of this crushing defeat.

In the high-profile New Delhi constituency, Kejriwal lost his seat to BJP’s Parvesh Verma by a significant margin, marking a personal and political blow to the AAP leader. It wasn’t just Kejriwal who suffered; his trusted aides also faced defeat. Manish Sisodia, once considered Kejriwal’s political heir, was defeated in Jangpura. However, Kejriwal’s other aide and successor as Chief Minister, Atishi, was leading her BJP rival Ramesh Bidhuri in Kalkaji after trailing for a long time.

With the BJP’s vote share standing at 47.01 per cent and the AAP at 43.16 per cent, the outcome of this election has exposed AAP’s vulnerabilities. The party, which once dreamed of a stronghold in Delhi, must now face the sobering reality that the BJP has reclaimed its dominance in the capital.

–IANS

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Chennai, Feb 12 (IANS) AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu opposition leader, K. Palaniswami (EPS) said on Wednesday that the student body of the party will stage a protest in Chennai against the DMK government’s alleged failure to prevent recent incidents of sexual offences against women and children in the state.

EPS said that former minister B. Valarmathi and the party’s student wing leader Singai G. Ramachandran would lead the protest near Valluvar Kottam in Chennai from 10.30 a.m on February 18.

The protest would also put pressure on the DMK government to crack down on those involved in such offences with an iron fist, Palaniswami said.

Edappadi K.Palaniswami who is also the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu alleged that murders, dacoity, robbery, and kidnapping, among other crimes, have become common ever since the DMK government came to power in addition to the sexual offences on women and children.

“The law and order situation in Tamil Nadu has deteriorated due to these incidents,” he said.

The AIADMK general secretary said that sexual offences against women and children were taking place in the state due to the inefficient DMK government, adding that parents of school-going children are worried about the sexual assaults taking place across the state.

A few days ago, a 13-year-old girl from a government school in Bargur, Krishnagiri district accused three of her teachers of rape. The alleged crime, which took place in the first week of January, came to light only on February 3, when schoolteachers visited the girl’s home to investigate her prolonged absence from school.

During their visit, the girl disclosed the sexual assault, which reportedly occurred inside a toilet on the school campus. Following her revelation, the school’s headmistress and the block education officer filed a complaint, leading to the arrest of the three accused teachers on February 4.

Superintendent of Police P. Thangadurai stated that the police, along with the Child Welfare Committee, visited the girl at her home before taking her to a One-Stop Centre at Krishnagiri Government Medical College Hospital for support.

The accused teachers have denied the charges but were suspended pending investigation. A preliminary internal inquiry by the School Education Department found no other students or teachers with complaints against them.

Krishnagiri District Collector Dhinesh Kumar confirmed that the girl is being provided mental health support by psychiatrists and psychologists.

In another incident of a teacher sexually assaulting a student, Tamil Nadu Police on February 9 arrested a science teacher at a government school in Yercaud, Salem, for sexually abusing ten girl students.

The accused, Ilayakannu (37), was arrested by Yercaud Police on February 9 and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

Ilayakannu, who taught science to students in classes 10 and 12, allegedly assaulted ten girls.

The incident came to light when one of the victims gathered the courage to inform the school’s headmistress and demanded action against the teacher.

The headmistress immediately reported the matter to officials of the Education Department and the District Child Protection Unit.

An inquiry team visited the school and conducted investigations with the students.

Preliminary inquiries confirmed that the teacher had abused ten students. Based on the complaint filed by the District Child Protection Unit, the Kondalampatti All Women’s Police Station registered a case under the POCSO Act and arrested Ilayakannu.

–IANS

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