You are asking about the impact of the budget but take a look at the election results in Rajasthan remarked a Bharatiya Janata Party minister when asked to comment on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley s budget speech that was delivered on Thursday.The Union minister was referring to the crushing blow dealt to the ruling BJP by the Congress in three bye-polls in Rajasthan whose results were also declared on Thursday. The Congress wrested the Mandalgarh Assembly seat and the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats from the BJP with huge margins.The results took the shine off Jaitley s last full-fledged budget which was clearly aimed at shoring up the BJP s support base in rural areas that have not responded positively to the Narendra Modi government s policies as seen in the recent Gujarat Assembly elections.Predictably the bye-poll results have left the Congress upbeat. The party was quick to http://kkfirstcry.host-sc.com/ declare that the electoral outcome was a clear pointer to the growing disillusionment of people with the Modi government. Though it is still early to say whether the results reflect the mood across the country there is no doubt that they have dampened the spirits of the ruling party.BJP ministers put up a brave face in public saying the results were on expected lines. But privately party MPs pointed out that the defeat could not be dismissed as a temporary phenomenon. After all they said the BJP had swept Rajasthan in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls virtually pushing the Congress out of the race. The fact that the Congress had bounced back with a huge margin was a matter of concern for the BJP rank and file especially since bye-polls are usually won by the incumbent.Party members were particularly worried with these results for another reason. They said that it showed that the BJP s communal agenda has its limitations and cannot always guarantee a win. Over the last four years Rajasthan has come to be viewed as the new Hindutva laboratory of the BJP and its ideological mentor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The state has witnessed an increasing number of hate crimes against the Muslim minority while concerted efforts have been made to propagate the RSS worldview in schools and colleges since Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje came to power in 2013. Poll budget The Modi government s last full-fledged budget before the next Lok Sabha polls was also the subject of animated discussion. The effort it made to appease the rural poor small and medium enterprises and farmers has fuelled speculation that the 2019 general election could be advanced to be held along with Assembly elections in Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh due at the end of this year. Arun Jaitley announced everything in his budget speech except the date of the next election said a BJP minister. Maybe he forgot to read the relevant paragraph. There has already been considerable chatter in recent weeks that Modi could call for early general elections. Now there is a growing belief among some BJP leaders that the Rajasthan bye-poll results could propel the party leadership to choose this option instead of allowing anti-incumbency to build up further.The possibility of an early poll has added to the woes of ruling party MPs who are not happy at the prospect of their five-year term being cut short. Not everybody is sure of winning their seat again. Worse there is no certainty that the BJP will even give them a ticket in the next election. Last time many of us won because of Modiji s appeal said a worried BJP Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. This time we are not sure as many state governments are facing anti-incumbency. (Photo credit: PTI). Promises not enough While admitting that Modi s charisma remains undiminished there is no certainty that the budgetary sops announced on Thursday will reach the intended beneficiaries by the time the elections are called.Even as BJP leaders led by Prime Minister Modi BJP president Amit Shah and Jaitley ably assisted by party spokespersons extolled the virtues of the budget on Thursday the party rank and file was not impressed. Farmers do not get carried away with grand announcements said a BJP minister. They will only be impressed when they actually get the benefits of these schemes. He said that the government will have to first put in place the necessary infrastructure and the delivery mechanism before people can benefit from various schemes which is not possible in the short time available to them. A senior BJP minister said though serious attempts have been made to address agrarian distress there is no clarity about the availability of the funds. It is the same story he said with regard to the ambitious health scheme unveiled by Jaitley which promises Rs 5 lakhs a year for each of the targeted 10 crore families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.The Congress was quick to pan the budget with former finance minister P Chidambaram pointing out that its proposals are a big let down . Given the picture painted in the economic survey he said it was expected that the budget would be bold and radical with adequate provision of funds but this was not the case. An upbeat Sushmita Deb Lok Sabha MP and Mahila Congress chief summed the budget up in one line This budget is an admission by the BJP that it is losing. ALSO READ Murmurs of discontent among NDA allies over election-year budget UP Budget may hit Rs 4.25-trn mark as Yogi BJP prepare for 2019 LS polls With spendthrift Budget India takes a wrong turn Andhra Pradesh: TDP s by-election win puts friends and foes on back foot Budget 2018: BJP ally Chandrababu Naidu unhappy over raw deal to Andhra span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday said that the party and the Centre would soon be extending the olive branch to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N Chandrababu Naidu to resolve his concerns in a mutually beneficial to both parties. Responding to Naidu s expression of disappointment over the Union Budget proposals for 2018-19 not addressing the needs of Andhra Pradesh Madhav said There seems to be some kind of unhappiness we will talk it out. TDP is an old ally of the BJP. We will talk it out with them and will tell them we are committed to the interests of Andhra Pradesh. Madhav further said We at the BJP are committed not only to address the TDP s concerns with regard to the Budget proposals but also all other issues of concern that it may have. We will convince Mr Naidu and the TDP not to think of severing their ties with the BJP or the NDA. They are a valuable ally. Madhav s response came days after a disappointed Naidu summoned an emergency meeting of his party to decide on the future course of action with regard to the TDP s association with the Bharatiya Janata Party. An upset TDP pitched its senior leader and union minister Y S Chowdhary to tell the media in no uncertain terms that it was unhappy over no monetary allocation for Andhra Pradesh on many issues such as Polavaram project funding for the new state capital of Amravati making Visakhapatnam a zonal railways headquarters and clearance for the Kadappa steel plant project. Chowdhary had February 1 warned that the TDP had three options before it namely (1) either try and continue the alliance (2) make their MPs resign and (3) simply terminate association with the BJP and the NDA. He said that the TDP executive would in all probability meet on Sunday to take a final decision on the matter. It has been reported that TDP MPs have been called to Vijayawada for a meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. Last week Naidu had issued an ultimatum to the BJP about chart its own course if the BJP did not wish to continue with the alliance. The TDP is the BJP s largest political ally in southern India. Its warning came shortly after another disgruntled ally the Shiv Sena publicly slammed the BJP for treating its allies improperly and threatened to sever the partnership. The TDP is of the view that the 2018 Budget proposals are anti-people and corporate friendly and a betrayal of the interests of Andhra Pradesh. It has said that its concerns are of a serious nature and need to be addressed effectively and promptly. The TDP which has been an ally of the BJP and a member of the NDA between 1998 and 2002 and again since 2013 to the present is reportedly looking at a political alternative in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. It is being reported that the party and Chief Minister Naidu have already carried out an assessment of the pros and cons of a split with the BJP. Meetings have reportedly been taking place between the leaderships of the two parties but as of now the options are few and far and if the TDP s demands are not met it could withdraw its members from the union cabinet as a first step. To improve his vote share Naidu is eyeing the sizeable minority vote in the state. Last time the Muslim vote had gone to the YSR Congress as the Congress party was seen as a weak rival to keep the BJP away. The BJP is reportedly concerned about gaining a toehold in South India. It wants to have allies in Karnataka Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. ALSO READ Mayawati blames BJP RSS for Maharashtra violence Mayawati accuses BJP RSS of instigating Bhima-Koregaon violence Middle-class also benefited from budget: BJP RSS meet in MP stresses need to woo tribals Dalits Focusing on BJP got us our Gujarat Election 2017 predictions right: Sujit Nair span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not think the recent setback in the Rajasthan bypolls reflects a shift in the electoral mood National General Secretary Ram Madhav said on Saturday. We have dismissed Congress from Himachal we have secured 50 percent voter support in Gujarat. The mood is not shifting but sometimes in the byelections setbacks happen but we will certainly analyse Rajasthan results Madhav said. The party lost two assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat to the Congress Party in the recent bypolls.In the wake of the defeat Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje took responsibility for the same.The Chief Minister took to Twitter and said Our efforts shall continue and we will keep the welfare of the people of #Rajasthan at the forefront as Democracy is ultimately for and of the people. I congratulate the winning candidates and welcome them to this celebration of Democracy. She further said We have worked tirelessly over the years with the people of #Rajasthan as our centre of attention and shall work harder with renewed fervour and dedication taking our beautiful State to new heights. The polling in all the constituencies took place on January 29.All the three seats fell vacant after the deaths of Ajmer MP Sanwar Lal Jat Alwar MP Chand Nath and Mandalgarh MLA Kirti Kumari.All the three leaders were from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced that it will contest the February 27 Assembly elections in Nagaland. The Nagaland unit of the party led by its state President Visasolie Lhonugu met the party s General Secretary Ram Madhav in New Delhi to discuss the matter the party s state media cell said. After a thorough deliberation it was agreed upon that the Bharatiya Janata Party would contest the election for the cause of solution in the state as per scheduled read the statement. Bharatiya Janata Party is for early solution to the present Naga Political issue and BJP will be part of the system to implement all the agreements held between the government of India and the negotiating parties. The decision comes just days after 11 political parties including the BJP and the ruling Naga People s Front signed a bond to not contest the elections till the Naga peace talks conclude. The agreement came in the aftermath of an appeal from the Core Committee of Nagaland Tribal Hohos and Civil Organisations calling on political parties to stay away from elections and instead insist on a resolution to the peace process first. The next day however the BJP issued a clarification http://cs.amsnow.com/members/kkfood/default.aspx saying that its representatives in the state did not have the authority to sign the bond and also suspended the two people who were at the meeting.After the Election Commission issued a notification for the Assembly polls political parties and civil society groups called for a 12-hour dawn-to-dusk bandh in the state. The Core Committee of Naga Tribal Hohos and Civil Organisations had called Thursday s strike. The bandh was near total in five districts but failed to find support in six other districts. While the strike was effective in Dimapur its impact was minimal in the state capital of Kohima.The Naga peace talksFor decades Naga rebel groups have been fighting for Nagalim or Greater Nagaland. The Centre has been in talks with NSCN(IM) the largest Naga rebel group since 1997 when the group signed a ceasefire.In 2015 these talks got a boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a framework agreement with the NSCN(IM). While details of the framework agreement have not yet been made public it is believed to acknowledge the uniqueness of Naga history and culture in exchange for NSCN(IM) s respect for the primacy of the Indian constitution .In December the Nagaland Assembly had asked the Centre to find a solution to end the crisis before the elections. Earlier in January various organisations in the state had urged Modi to defer the Assembly elections in the state. ALSO READ BJP Cong win nine seats each in MP urban body elections BJP reaches 100 mark in Gujarat with support of Congress rebel BJP strategy meet on North-east elections concludes MP s BJP MLAs using farmers funds for study tour: Congress Rahul says Gujarat poll results gave massive jolt to BJP span.p-content div id = div-gpt line-height:0;font-size:0 A case has been registered against a Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA for allegedly spreading hatred between two communities.The leader in question is Goshamahal MLA T. Raja Singh who was booked on February 1 after a video surfaced wherein a person purported to be the MLA was seen delivering a hate speech.In the video Singh had allegedly said every Hindu should carry weapons like lathis and attack other communities members if they said anything wrong.He made the comment in the wake of Uttar Pradesh s Kasganj district violence.According to the police the MLA has been booked under sections 295-A (Maliciously insulting the religion or the religious belief of any class) and 505 (2) (Statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.Clashes broke out between two communities in the district on January 26 after one person died and two were injured during illegal Tiranga Yatra rally taken out in Kasganj on Friday and provocative slogans were raised during the same.(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a massive BJP rally in Bengaluru on Sunday that marks the conclusion of the party s 90-day Nava Nirman Parivarthan yatra across poll-bound Karnataka said a party official on Saturday. Modi will arrive in the city on Sunday afternoon and address the rally at the Palace grounds in the evening. Thousands of our cadres from across the state and people from the city will participate in the event the official told IANS. Though Modi was scheduled to address the rally on 28 January on the conclusion of the three-month yatra that began in Bengaluru on 1 November it was put off to 4 February owing to his pre-occupation with other engagements. File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI As the budget session of Parliament was beginning on 29 January and the Union Budget was to be presented on 1 February Modi could not attend the rally on last Sunday as he was busy then recalled the party functionary. Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the rally at the sprawling venue in the city centre where the party is expecting at least one lakh people to attend and listen to Modi s speech. We have invited thousands of youth especially techies and executives of IT and biotech companies in the city to personally listen to Modi s speech though it will also be telecast live on news channels and available on YouTube asserted the official. The party s state unit has opened an online registration and is using the social media including Facebook Twitter and WhatsApp to personally invite the youth techies educated class and prominent citizens to the venue assuring them of seating arrangements. About 30 000 people from across the city have responded expressing interest in attending the rally and listen to Modi s speech. We hope most of them will turn up as elaborate parking facility has been made for their vehicles at the venue added the official. In the run-up to the state election due in late April and early May the BJP conducted the yatra criss-crossing nearly all the 224 constituencies of the Assembly across the state after its national president Amit Shah flagged it off. The yatra held with a view to bringing the Bharatiya Janata Party back to power in the southern state on the plank of transforming Karnataka through development was led by its state unit president and former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and party s other state leaders. Besides Shah party s central ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal who are in-charge of the BJP poll campaign in Karnataka Ananth Kumar DV Sadananda Gowda and Ananthkumar Hegde who hail from the state and the party s all-state leaders will participate in the rally and address the public. As the pro-Kannada organisations have withdrawn their call for a Bengaluru shutdown on Sunday for the prime minister s intervention in the sharing of the Mahadayi river water with Goa state the party s organisers are betting on a huge response to the rally from the public on a weekend. Click here to follow live updates on Prime Minister Narendra Modi s rally in Bengaluru Hukum Singh a veteran politician and Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Uttar Pradesh s Kairana died of breathing problems in Noida s JP Hospital on Saturday. The 79-year-old had been in hospital for a month The Indian Express reported.Singh was elected an MLA in Uttar Pradesh seven times and has served as a minister in the state before becoming a Lok Sabha member in 2014.Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences on Twitter saying: Anguished by the demise of MP and veteran leader from Uttar Pradesh Shri Hukum Singh Ji. He served the people of UP with great diligence and worked for the welfare of farmers. My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this hour of grief. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath will attend Singh s last rites in Kairana on Sunday.Anguished by the demise of MP and veteran leader from Uttar Pradesh Shri Hukum Singh Ji. He served the people of UP with https://www.viki.com/users/kkmobikwik/about great diligence and worked for the welfare of farmers. My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 3 2018 Bharatiya Janata Party leader and member of Parliament (MP) from Kairana Hukum Singh passed away at the JP Hospital in Noida ANI reported on Saturday. He was 79. File image of BJP leader Hukum Singh. Image courtesy: News18 India TV reported that he had been undergoing treatment at the hospital for a month and that he had been facing breathing difficulties. Last year he had stirred up a major controversy by claiming that 346 families had to flee Kairana in Uttar Pradesh because of threats from a particular community and also released a list of Hindus who had to leave the town. However he later claimed that the exodus was not communal in nature. After his death on Saturday prominent political leaders expressed their condolences. Anguished by the demise of MP and veteran leader from Uttar Pradesh Shri Hukum Singh Ji. He served the people of UP with great diligence and worked for the welfare of farmers. My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this hour of grief. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 3 2018 Deeply saddened at the demise of Shri Hukum Singh ji. My prayers are with the family in this hour of grief. May his soul rest in peace. Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 3 2018 Shocked to learn about the sudden demise of Sh. Hukum Singh ji (Lok Sabha MP Kairana - Uttar Pradesh). Condolences for the bereaved family and prayers for the departed soul. Big loss for the @BJP4India family. Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) February 3 2018
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