On December 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay the foundation for the new Parliament of India. Along with the structure of the Parliament, five more statues of notable individuals like Ambedkar built inside the building is expected to be repositioned.  

The project of the construction of the new structure of the Parliament was won by Tata Projects Limited at Rs 861.90 crores. 

The plan of the parliament includes the building to be triangular and a 3 km long Rajpath structure from the Rashtrapati bhavan to the India Gate and a central secretariat. The future structure of the Parliament is planned to have separate offices for the MPs and other party members which will be equipped latest technological devices that would encourage paperless operations. 

The new structure of the 93-year old building will also have a constitution hall where there will be a lounge for the committee rooms, library, dinning room and to showcase the the heritage and pride of India. 

Sumitra Mahajan, speaker of the Lok Sabha had also spoken to the M Venkaiah Naidu, Miniter of Union Urban Development about the construction of a new Parliament in 2015. The existing structure was found to be less spacial and obsolete. In the proposal, the speaker had mentioned that ever since the structure was created in 1927 the number of security and staff, the parliamentary and media operations have increased to a large extent. There has been a need for the new structure of the Parliament of India. 

Apparently, the event of the laying of the foundation stone is scheduled on December 10 but it also depends on the Prime Minister’s availability. Including the 16-feet statue of Mahatma Gandhi is proposed to be installed opposite of Gate 1 of the building. 

On 27th November, Om Birla, the current Lok Sabha speaker will conduct a high-level meeting with Hardeep Singh Puri, the Urban Affairs Minister for the construction of the new Parliament House.

It is also decided that amid the construction of the Parliament, the governmental operations will not be halted. The Central Public Works Department also stated that after the completion of the building, the older structure will be used for ther functions. 

The construction of the structure is planned to be completed by October 2022 in the span of 21 months.

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On one side, the government is spending crores on the campaigns to draw public towards the polling booth and on one side, the goons hired by the BJP are trashing those efforts. The residents of Tara Jivapur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district witnessed this weird attack on democracy happened. They alleged that three men who claimed to be from the BJP had “forcefully” applied ink to their fingers and gave them Rs 500 on Saturday in a bid to prevent them from voting in Sunday’s seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections.

One of the villagers told news agency ANI: “They were from BJP and asked us if we’ll vote for the party. They told us now you can’t vote. Don’t tell anyone.”

Taking note of the allegations, Chandauli SDM K R Harsh said villagers are eligible to vote and action will be taken against the accused based on the complaint.

“Complainants are present at the police station. We will take action as per the complaint they file. They are still eligible to cast votes as elections hadn’t begun then. They will have to mention in the FIR that ink was forcefully applied,” he told ANI.

Chandauli is among the 13 Lok Sabha seats in which polling began on Sunday morning. Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey is seeking reelection from Chandauli.

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Another phase of elections completed. This phase sealed the fates of candidates fighting for 95 seats across 11 states. A former prime minister and four union ministers are in the fray in this phase of Lok Sabha polls. The high turnout of 66% was quite strange as this phase, just like the first phase, was marred with violence, and inaccuracies in voting mechanism.

Voting was also held in 35 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 Assembly bypolls in Tamil Nadu. In TN, polling was held in 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats. The election in Vellore seat was cancelled on Tuesday by the EC following recovery of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently. Besides Tamil Nadu, polling was held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in UP, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry.

Polling in Chhattisgarh witnessed violence with an ITBP jawan suffering minor injuries after Naxals triggered an IED blast in Rajnandgaon district.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported in some areas of Bengal.

Voters in Uttar Dinajpur district’s Chopra under the Raiganj constituency reportedly put up a road blockade, complaining about the absence of central forces at the polling stations, the sources said. Police fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells to control a mob, after stones were pelted at them and bombs were hurled by unknown persons in Chopra, a senior EC official in the district said. At least three persons were detained by police in this connection, he said.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) candidate from Raiganj Md Salim claimed that his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur in Uttar Dinajpur.

Bihar recorded 25.6 per cent voting in five Lok Sabha seats till noon amid reports of EVM malfunctioning and poll boycott delaying start of polling in some booths. Voting was delayed due to EVM malfunctioning at a polling station at Masuria in Banka town, two polling booths under Kahalgaon assembly segment in Bhagalpur, and another two booths in Purnea.

Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23.

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The dance of democracy begins. The first phase of poll is over. It covered total 91 constituencies across 20 states and Union Territories. Apart from that, voting is underway in 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, 32 in Sikkim and 28 seats in Odisha. North East states like Nagaland and Meghalaya recorded turn-out more than 70% till 5PM. Let’s see what happened today.

Elections in Andhra Pradesh were, however, marred with violence with the cadres of TDP and YSRCP in different parts of the state. Reports said that there were at least 15 different incidents of clashes between the workers of these parties.

One worker from the ruling Telugu Desam Party and one from the YSR Congress were killed in a clash in a village in Tadipatri Assembly constituency in Anantapuram district.Besides clashes between the rival parties, the elections in Andhra Pradesh were also hampered by multiple reports of EVM malfunctions. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu alleged that 30 percent EVMs malfunctioned and sought re-polling at all the locations that reported glitches in the voting machines. State’s Chief Electoral Officer, however, denied that 30 percent of the EVMs had malfuncted. Naidu even shot off a letter to the Election Commission.

In Maharashtra, Naxalites attacked a police team returning after the close of polling in Atapalli in Gadchiroli. Three commandos of the police were injured in this attack. The injured were taken to Nagpur by air life. The Naxalites also fired on helicopters carrying the injured.

There was an incident in which a 91- year old Khajan Singh Saini was unable vote as his name was not in the voters’ list in Shahpur town, Muzaffarpur. Villagers in that village tell that there are more than 400 such people who are not in the voters’ list across 3 wards of Shahpur town only.

In Uttar Pradesh, voter turnout till 5:00 PM in Kairana was 60.3 percent, Meerut 60.5 percent and Bijnor 61.5 percent. In Meghalaya, 75% people came for voting whereas in Nagaland, that figure was 73% till 4 PM.

Phase 2 will be conducted on April 18. This phase will cover a total of 97 constituencies spread across 13 states.

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Recently, our Prime Minister gave his one of the last speeches of his tenure. It was a good speech, technically, but the content was the same old political jibes and slurs. Modi’s speech was filled with satires on Congress and the latest ‘United Opposition Alliance’. He even compared his 55 months governance with 55 years of Congress government.

Modi was replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the Parliament. He used his hour-long speech to cover points about the first time voters, middle class, traders, the poor, farmers, successes, initiatives, and above all, satires on Congress.

The Opposition wanted answers on key national issues like unemployment, farm crisis, and the Rafael fighter jet deal. The answers by Modi only involved mockery and digging out the buried cases in the past. He started with the changed definition of BC as ‘Before Congress’ and AD as ‘After Dynasty’. BC is the time where nothing happened and AD is the period where everything happened. Thus, comparing the Congress rule of more than half-century to his tenure of 5 years. The points which were put forward by him, like sanitation coverage, LPG connections, electrification, etc., are debatable. Lowering the standards and inflating the numbers did exaggerate the results but the ground reality hasn’t changed.

On misusing the Constitutional Institutions, Modi again compared his reign with that of Congress’. He even said that they manipulated institutions several times for their benefits. So, bending the Institutions has become a competition. What our Prime Minister should understand is that wrong is wrong and it should not depend on the frequency. It is like justifying the robbery in terms of money gained.

Modiji even called the leaders of the ‘United Opposition Alliance’ as the traitors as they had worked with Vajpayee and with him in the past. He even tagged them as ‘maha-milavat’ government. Thus, a government with no original or pure substance. He even pointed out the coalition government of UPA was ineffective. He later completed this point by saying that they are not going to be elected to the Parliament.

On Rafale jet deal, Modi said that Congress didn’t want the Air Force to become stronger and thus, they are opposing the government. He also said that Congress party is astonished as this is the first time when a defense deal is completed without any corruption. As if setting up a JPC means relinquishing the strength of the armed forces.

Modi’s speech was quite predictable. The key ingredients of every Modi-speech are satires on Congress, digging up their past, dwarfing the previous governments’ achievements, and thus, confusing from the main question. In this speech, the questions were unemployment, rural distress, Rafale Jet deal, and the failure of Make in India. In our PM’s answer, among these points, which points did he cover? He ducked 3 out of 4 points and claimed that other parties didn’t want Air Force to become stronger. Only turns and twists with no displacements, Modiji’s speech didn’t give the final outcome.

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The government at center and state have fought several elections, promising the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The magnitude of concern showed for the birth-place of Lord Rama is inversely proportional to that of the birth-place of Lord Buddha. Sidharth Nagar is the birth-place of Lord Buddha and it is struggling for attention from the government.

About Sidharth Nagar

Sidharth Nagar is a district in Uttar Pradesh. It is near the India-Nepal border. It is known for the ruins of Shakya Janapada is one of the most backward districts in India. This is the center of trafficking scams as the district shares its border with Nepal. Siddharth Nagar is also near to the city of “The CM” – Gorakhpur. It has a high rural population with agriculture being the source of bread for the families.

Siddharth Nagar is completely opposite to what the Siddhartha or Lord Buddha desired. Its citizens are living in trenches of poverty. The civic amenities are almost dysfunctional in the city. Black-outs are quite frequent in the city despite claims of electrification by our Prime Minister. Recently, two AK-47 rifles went missing from near the India-Nepal border. Siddharth Nagar is always in the headlines due to wrong reasons only.

Siddharth Nagar – Deflating Government’s claims

Despite the presence of BJP governments in the center and state, the development didn’t reach Siddharth Nagar. It deflates all the claims of Modi and Yogi governments. The frequent blackouts deflate the scheme of 100% electrification claim of the government. The uncontrolled trafficking of weapons and people gives a glimpse of law and order in the district. Siddharth Nagar also failed miserably in civic amenities. According to a story done by Amar Ujala, there are streets which sink in darkness post dust due to unavailability of street lights. Public toilets are only on paper with open defecation a dark reality. Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan hasn’t reached Siddharth Nagar yet. In spite of these flaws, the government is focussing on cattle safety as it is evident in the instructions given by the Deputy of District Magistrate.

Buddhists are not in high numbers and cannot be categorized as a vote-bank. Due to this, the government is treating the birth-place of their Lord Buddha in such a way. No promise ever made for the development of Siddharth Nagar. It could become one of the major tourist attraction due to its historical significance. Due to negligence that potential seems a lost cause.  The citizens of Siddharth Nagar have lost all hopes with the government and now they just want them to provide basic amenities. Even for that too, cows have become the priority.

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The BSP-SP alliance hammer the final nail in the coffin of Congress in UP as they finalize on seat proportion. They will contest on 38-38 seats each out of 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Their only concession for the Congress is to spare the two seats — Amethi, which is Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, and Sonia Gandhi’s seat Raebareli. Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav announced they were leaving two seats for “other parties” but didn’t elaborate.

On this grand alliance, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that it would bring anarchy, corruption and political instability in the state.

“This is a coalition of casteist, corrupt and opportunistic mindset that doesn’t want development and good governance. Public knows everything and this unholy alliance will be given a perfect answer,” says Yogi Adityanath.

BSP-SP rivalry needs no mention. Nearly 25 years ago, the Samajwadi Party, then led by Akhilesh Yadav’s father Mulayam Singh, and the BSP had an acrimonious falling out after their shaky coalition government in Uttar Pradesh crashed. The two parties parted as sworn enemies in 1995 after Samajwadi workers roughed up Mayawati at a guest house in Lucknow for pulling out of their coalition government.

“For the sake of the nation, we decided to rise above the Lucknow guest house incident and again come together,” Mayawati stressed, a clarification aimed at PM Modi, who had at a recent rally in Agra scorned her for “forgetting” that episode while allying with the Samajwadi Party.

Akhilesh Yadav added emphatically: “I want to tell all my workers, any insult to Mayawatiji is a personal insult to me.”

The syrupy new found love among ‘bua-bhatija’ has only one motive – keeping BJP at bay. Since UP alone accounts for 80 seats, every party knows that it is the ‘king-maker’ state. Performing well in UP clears the road to form the majority. Both BSP and SP knows that tackling BJP individually would be quite dangerous. So, they are uniting their forces and giving BJP a run for their money. Let’s see if this ‘mahagathbandhan’ is ductile or brittle and how it would fare after the 2019 polls.

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Union Minister Harsimarat Kaur Badal today took potshots at Congress President Rahul Gandhi, asking what drug he had before coming to parliament, While opposition leader had accused Panjabis of being “Nashedi”(Drug addict).
This statement came after a less diplomatic, but more dramatic speech of the Congress president. At the last moment of the speech pointing Ms Badal, Rahul said: ” Ye Akali Dal Ki Neta muskura kar mujhe Dekh Rahi thi” (This Akali Dal leader was watching me smiling.) and after his speech he hugged PM Narendra Modi. BJP, media, social media took it as an opportunity.
Responding him in media Kaur ironically asked if Rahul has drugged! And suggested to him that parliament is a place to debate serious issues of the country, not for drama, Otherwise, he may move to Mumbai. She added that actually, she was laughing at Rahul’s deed, same the parliament was doing at the moment and later, the whole world laughed. She alleged that Rahul Gandhi does spit and run politics. Actually, he has not potential to listen to the answer of PM.
Excogitative fact is that 7 out of 10 youth were addicted to drugs as per Rahul statement during NSUI program at Punjab University. Then BJP – Akali Dal alliance government had well played upon Rahul’s statement and propagated it as an attack on the pride of youth of Punjab.
Backing his statement Congress National spoke person Randeep Surjewala quoting Punjab High court in a press conference said “the survey conducted by various agency mentioned that after Nagaland, Punjab ranks second in the country for drug abuse. Seventy per cent of boys and girls in Punjab in the age group of 19 to 24 are exposed to the abuse of drugs.”

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After Karnataka setback, BJP relied on these by-elections for breather. But, it seems that the united Opposition would definitely keep them on toes till 2019. The communal polarization card is not working, as proved by Kairana poll’s verdict. Pitting traditional regional opposite parties is also not working. BSP-SP again supported each other in Noorpur. Let’s review the bypoll results and their impacts.

Assembly Seats

Palus-Kadegaon

In Maharashtra’s Palus Kadegaon Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Vishwajeet Patangrao Kadam was elected unopposed.

Ampati

Congress secured Meghalaya’s Ampati Assembly seat. Miani D Shira, daughter of Mukul Sangma won the seat by a margin of 3191 votes, making the Congress the single largest party in the state.

Chengannur

CPI(M)-led LDF’s Saji Cheriyan secured a win in Kerala’s Chengannur Assembly seat against Congress and BJP. The margin of victory was 20000.

Jokihat

Embarrassment for Nitish Kumar and another feather in the cap for young Tejashwi Yadav. RJD candidate Shahnawaz Alam won the Jokihat Assembly seat in Bihar. Shahnawaz Alam defeated the JD(U)’s Murshid Alam with a margin of over 4,000 votes.

RR Nagar

The Congress has won the RR Nagar seat in Karnataka. Congress candidate Muniratna won with a margin of over 41,000 votes over BJP rival Tulsi Muniraju Gowda.

Noorpur

The Samajwadi Party has won the Noorpur Assembly bypoll by 6,211 votes. SP candidate Naeemul Hasan enjoyed the support of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the AAP.

Shahkot 

Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi won the Shahkot assembly bypoll in Punjab. He defeated Akali Dal’s nominee Naib Singh Kohar by a margin of over 38,000 votes.

Tharali

Some cheer for BJP as it retained the seat. BJP’s Munni Devi Shah defeated Congress’ Jeetram by over 1,900 votes.

Silli and Gomia

JMM retained these seats. The bypolls were necessitated following the conviction of the JMM MLAs Yogendra Mahto and Amit Mahto.In Gomia, JMM’s candidate Babita Devi defeated AJSU nominee Lambodar Mahto by 13,00 votes. In Silli, JMM’s Seema Mahto defeated AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto by 13,000 votes.

Maheshtala

Trinamool Congress’ Dulal Das wins Maheshtala assembly bypoll in Bengal by 62,827 votes.

Lok Sabha Seats

Palghar

BJP won Palghar against friend-turned-foe Shiv-Sena. BJP’s candidate Rajendra Gavit wins Palghar by 29572 votes.

Kairana

Tabassum Hasan, today became the first Muslim MP from the most populous state in the 16th Lok Sabha. Hasan from RLD defeated her nearest BJP rival Mriganka Singh by a huge margin of over 46,000 votes.

Bhandara-Gondiya

In Bhandara-Gondiya seat, which the BJP had won in the 2014 elections, the NCP’s Madhukar Kukade has won over its nearest rival of BJP’s Hemant Patle.

Nagaland

Tokheho Yepthomi, fielded by the ruling People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA), wins over his lone rival of the opposition NPF for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland.

Litmus Test for BJP?

The jinx continued. While Shah has emphasised that bypolls happen on local issues, the fact that BJP has lost its third consecutive by-election in Uttar Pradesh because of the Opposition coming together means the 2014 performance in the state will be tough to repeat in 2019. Coming soon after the Karnataka setback, this loss will have an impact on party morale.

It would be foolish to assume that the Opposition won’t be united till 2019 as they are receiving ample of success. Similar model would soon be applied in the coming polls by the regional stalwarts. The direction of the wind has changed and BJP is definitely not on the windward side. There is still time to bring humbleness and make allies which would keep the Opposition at bay.

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