News18 Daybreak |Congress' Priyanka Gandhi Takes The Political Plunge and Other Stories You Need to Watch Out For
Priyanka Gandhi’s entry and ‘Mission 30’, Congress’ plan for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections
After years of speculation, Priyanka Gandhi has finally taken the plunge into active party politics as Congress appointed her as the poll-in-charge for Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka will be directly up against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister CM and BJP star campaigner Yogi Adityanath.
'Surprise move': Congress’ trump card comes only days after the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party announced unprecedented alliance, a move seen as a snub to the national party. Congress’ previous ally in state, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, also broke ties with the party to join the BSP-SP alliance.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi had at the time said that the party will be fight alone for the 80 parliamentary seats in the state and that he had a surprise in store.
He said, She said: A flood of reactions followed the news of Priyanka’s appointed, with several Congress leaders including Delhi Congress chief Shiela Dikshit who said that the move “will pose a great threat to the opposition”. Meanwhile, many BJP leaders took digs at this recent move with BJP UP in-charge JP Nadda even accusing the party of “dynasty politics”.
Other Polls Plans: Congress has also chalked out a core strategy - ‘Mission 30’ strategy for the upcoming polls, in which it will galvanise campaigning around the seats where it had secured above or near 1 lakh in the 2014 elections.
Piyush Goyal given Finance Minister days ahead of Budget, Centre expected to woo electorate for one last time with pre-election measures
In another defining move, the party also announced Jyotiraditya Scindia as the party-in-charge for the campaigning in Western UP.
Almost a week ahead of the Budget, the BJP-led government announced the appointment of Piyush Goyal as the interim Finance Ministerwhile Arun Jaitley remains in the US for medical treatment. This is Goyal’s second stint as the Finance Minister. It is likely that he will be presenting the budget will be the BJP-led Centre’s last attempt to woo the electorate.
In depth: The government is expected to announce several pre-election measures in this year’s budget including a Universal Basic Transfer Income and universal income transfer scheme for farmers. The Centre is also mulling over an increase in tax exemption limit from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh a year.
Background: The Centre has already exceeded the annual budget deficit target and has little room for spending in the current year, having forgone some tax revenue on goods and services following the three election defeats in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
New CBI Director to be selected today, Rakesh Asthana and interim director Nageswar Rao appointment’s still in a muddle
A high-powered selection committee will meet today to select the new CBI Director. after the panel ousted Alok Verma from the job earlier this month. The Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, on Monday had recused himself from hearing a plea challenging the appointment of M Nageswara Rao as the interim CBI director. The plea that had been filed by NGO Common Cause contested the appointment saying that it was "illegal, arbitrary, mala fide and in violation of the Delhi Police Special Establishment (DPSE) Act".
Meanwhile, another petition has been submitted against the appointment of former deputy Rakesh Asthana, who had also been divested of his powers following the feud with Verma over bribery charges, as Director General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
The crisis in the CBI ranks began when Alok Verma accused Rakesh Asthana of accepting bribes from Hyderabad-based businessman Moin Qureshi. Asthana then raised counter-charges against Verma on the same grounds.
Railways is set to become the first government department to implement the 10 per cent quota for the general category poor, providing around 23,000 jobs in the next two years, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.
Day Two of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Amethi while Smriti Irani replaces ailing BJP chief Amit Shah in Bengal meetings
Congress president Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi ahead of the upcoming elections. Wednesday, the first day of his visit, saw Gandhi renewing his attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale aircraft deal in his meetings around several villages.
On day two of the visit, Gandhi is expected to meet people at the Bhuaemau guest house where Sonia Gandhi is also put up, after which he will attend programmes in various villages. Meanwhile, BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani will replacing the unwell BJP president Amit Shah at the rallies in West Bengal’s Nadia and South 24 Parganas today.
Congress-JDS(U) coordination committee to meet today, Lok Sabha seat sharing expected to be in the list of agendas
The Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JDS) coordination committee meeting is set to take place in Bengaluru at 5pm on Thursday. The meeting is likely to initiate a discussing on the sharing of seats between the coalition partners for the upcoming elections, sources have told CNN News18. The meeting will take place against the backdrop of a political crisis stirred by allegations of poaching by Bharatiya Janata Party.
ISRO to launch India’s first ever student-made satellite and DRDO’s imaging satellite today
ISRO will launch India’s first ever student-made satellite – the KALAMSAT and DRDO's microsat R today. The satellites will be carried by a new variant of India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket and the launch will take place at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
What You May Have Missed
Nine arrested by Maharashtra ATS for alleged ISIS links, large quantities of chemical seized
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Wednesday arrested nine people including a 17-year old for their alleged links with the banned terror outfit ISIS. The ATS had earlier found that out about the formation of a new terror outfit by the name of Ummat EMohammadiya. The suspects were then nabbed in a two-day bust that took place in Thane’s Mumbra district and Aurangabad district had. ATS officer’s suspect that the large quantities of chemicals seized from the suspects were to be used for a chemical attack in huge public gatherings.
Congress decides to go solo in Andhra Pradesh for 2019 polls, dashing expectations of TDP alliance
Andhra Pradesh- in-charge Oommen Chandy on Wednesday confirmed that the Congress will contest alone in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, dashing all expectations of a tie-up with the ruling Telugu Desam Party. "The TDP allied with us only at the national level, so we will have no truck (with it) in the state," he maintained,” he said and confirmed that the party will be contesting for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Railways to become first gov dept to implement quota
Railways is set to become the first government department to implement the 10 per cent quota for the general category poor. In a press conference, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the railways plans to provide around 4 lakh jobs in the next two years of which 23,000 will be given under the EWS quota. The first phase of fresh recruitment of 1,31,328 posts shall be initiated in the month of February-March, 2019. The EWS quota which was recently passed in the Parliament accords 10% reservation to the economimcally weaker sections in the general category.
Talk show host Karan Johar speaks out on Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul controversy, takes responsibility
Karan Johar has finally spoke out on Hardik Pandya & KL Rahul's controversial appearance on his talk show. "I have to say that I feel very responsible because it was my show, it was my platform. I invited them as guests and so the ramifications and repercussion of the show are my responsibility,” ET now quoted him as saying. Cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were suspended by the following outrage over the ‘sexist’ and ‘misoginyst’ comments made on Johar’s talk show.