Congress wins MP bypolls; BJD bags Bijepur in Odisha

BHOPAL/BHUBANESWAR, Feb 28: The Congress retained two assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) trounced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha’s Bijepur in bypoll results announced on Wednesday.

The Congress candidate in Mungaoli, Brajendra Singh Yadav, defeated the BJP’s Bai Sahab Yadav by a margin of 2124 votes while Mahendra Singh Yadav, the Congress candidate in Kolaras, beat the BJP’s Devendra Jain by a margin of 8086 votes.

“This victory is of the power of the people (Jan bal) of Madhya Pradesh against BJP’s money power, muscle power and ministers’ power (Dhan bal, bahu bal aur mantri bal),” said senior Congress leader and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.

In Odisha’s Bijepur, the BJD defeated the BJP by more than 41,000 votes. The BJD’s Rita Sahu, widow of deceased Congress MLA Subal Sahu, bagged 102,871 votes while Ashok Panigrahi of the BJP got 60,938 votes, said returning officer Tapiram Majhi. The Congress, which held the seat for the last three terms, lost its security deposit.

“Humbled by love & trust of the people of #Bijepur for giving @bjd_Odisha a massive victory. BJD lives in the hearts of the people of #Odisha,” tweeted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The bypolls in Madhya Pradesh assumed significance because they are the last electoral test before the state goes to the polls at the end of the year. The Congress is attempting to end the BJP’s three-term rule in the state and is upbeat after winning two assembly bypolls and civic body elections in the past year.

State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan conceded the party’s defeat but said the Congress had won its traditional seats. However, the narrow margin of the victory suggested that BJP got votes in the names of development and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he added.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had earlier in the afternoon indirectly conceded the party’s defeat by saying, “Congress had won both the seats in 2013 assembly elections even when there was a BJP wave.” Both seats are in the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Scindia.

“Money flowed like anything from their side and they tried to use every trick and manipulation to win the election. The entire cabinet was camping in the constituencies. The credit for the victory also goes to every worker and leader of the Congress who worked hard for victory of the party,” Scindia added.

The victory of the Congress led to jubilation at the state Congress office in Bhopal and other districts with beating of drums, raising of slogans and distribution of sweets.

Chouhan led the BJP campaign and deployed an army of his ministerial colleagues to crisscross the constituencies and woo voters. He also promised five years’ development in five months. Meanwhile, Scindia asked people to endorse the development works he ensured in the constituencies.

During the campaign, the Election Commission found statements made by Chouhan, minister for sports and youth welfare Yashodhra Raje Scindia and minister of woman and child development Maya Singh as violation of the model code of conduct.

Summer arrives early, IMD forecasts intense heat this year

NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Summer seems to arrived early across India with maximum temperatures already hovering around 2-5 degrees Celsius above normal in many parts of the country on February 28 — the day the IMD picked to predict an intense summer across India, implying a greater threat to human and crop health.

The early onset of summer also means a higher probability of heat waves developing earlier than expected, IMD said. On Wednesday, the agency issued a heat wave warning for Mumbai, Raigad and Ratnagiri for Wednesday and Thursday.

Heat waves don’t just impact human health; they also affect crops, deplete water resources and put pressure on the power system because of the spike in demand for cooling. The above-average temperatures could affect winter crops, including staple wheat, in the absence of precautionary measures, experts warned. “Wheat is susceptible to a condition called terminal heat if, during maturing and harvesting stage, temperatures rise abnormally,” said Dr R Nagesh, a retired scientist from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

“There is a danger of productivity losses.”

A sustained heat wave is bad news for farmers across the country who are already battling an agricultural crisis.

The National Disaster Management Authority describes a heat wave as a period of abnormally high temperature. IMF’s own criteria says a heat wave need not be considered till the maximum temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius or, if it is lower than that, when the maximum temperature is 5-6 degrees Celsius more than the normal temperature. On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, 5.5 degrees above normal. This was the third successive day of heat-wave conditions in the city (the maximum temperature was higher at 37.8 degrees on February 27), which perhaps explains IMD’s move. Other parts of Maharashtra were hotter. The highest temperature in the state was recorded at Bhira (41 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees above normal).

Heat waves normally occur between March and June, although some have been recorded even later.

In Delhi, heat wave conditions normally develop in the beginning of May, when maximum temperatures breach the 40 degrees Celsius threshold. That looks likely to happen earlier this year with the northern plains already heating up. “The maximum temperature in the northern region has already touched 36.2 degrees C on February 27,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior IMD scientist said. “ The maximum and minimum temperatures in February were about 3 degrees C above normal.”

“It is likely that heat wave conditions will hit the region earlier than expected,” he added.

The core heat wave zone spreads over Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana and the meteorological subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, and Madhya Maharashtra in Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh in Andhra.

This summer too will be hotter, IMD said, with mean temperatures between March and May being 1 degree Celsius above normal.

A draft IMD report noted that 2017 was India’s 4th hottest year, and the 4th consecutive record-breaking year, mostly because of record-breaking temperatures in the January- February period, classified as winter.

Officials in Mumbai cited unique conditions for heat wave conditions forming in the region. “The heat wave conditions are for isolated parts of the Konkan coast, including Mumbai, due to a lower-level anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra, which is pulling warm easterly to north-easterly winds over Mumbai and surrounding areas. The easterly winds are also not allowing the sea breeze (cool westerly winds) to settle over the city fast enough,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.

There is an increase in the frequency and duration of heat waves according to IMD officials. The rise in average temperatures that is fuelling the heat waves is attributed to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and warming of sea surface temperatures.

The National Disaster Management Authority reported recently that heat wave deaths have dropped significantly in recent years partly because of early warnings.

However, experts say the cost of heat waves go beyond fatalities and include health care costs and the loss of productivity.

“When people are exposed to very high temperatures, they start developing a temperature and the body’s heat-regulation mechanism and circulation fails; people can die if they are not cooled down immediately,” said Dr Dileep Mavalankar, director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar-Public Health Foundation of India.

It isn’t just Mumbai and the North, Hyderabad has seen an increase of 3-4 degrees C from normal in the minimum temperature during January and the first week of February. “We entered summer in the second week of February and the maximum temperatures are gradually rising. It is quite common to have a deviation of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius during this period, but the deviation will go up to four to five degrees in the peak summer season in May,” an official in the IMD control room in Hyderabad said, asking not to be identified.

Responding to the IMD forecast, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee held an emergency meeting with the ministers and officials of the agriculture and irrigation department.

LeT militants held in Kashmir ‘got arms training in Pakistan’

SRINAGAR, Feb 3: Police arrested last week two young Kashmiri men who had travelled to Pakistan on valid visa allegedly for weapons training at camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, underscoring the movement of militants through routes they would avoid.

According to police, Abdul Majeed Bhat from Kreeri and Mohammad Ashraf Mir Nilla of Pattan, both places in northern Kashmir’s Baramulla district, were taken into custody at the Wagah-Attari border post in Punjab when they returned from Pakistan.

“They were on our radar for the past five months. We had information from since they entered Pakistan and joined militant training,” Baramulla senior superintendent of police Imtiaz Hussain said on Saturday.

The duo allegedly confessed to undergoing arms training in Pakistan during questioning.

“They revealed they had undergone terrorist training in Pakistan along with large number of Pakistani boys and most of them from Balochistan, some as young as 10,” a police statement said.

Taking the train to Pakistan is not a new strategy for militants, but often avoided as the risk of detection is extremely high.

“This is not the first time … Two militants who had undergone training in similar circumstances have been killed in the past,” Hussain said.

Most militants prefer the treacherous mountain trails to travel to and from Pakistan. However, it has become equally dangerous to walk the off-roads as the Indian military has intensified border patrol and security in the past several years.

As cross-border movement has become difficult, most of the active Kashmiri militants have been trained in the jungles of the state. Young Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, whose killing in the summer of 2016 triggered unprecedented unrest in the Kashmir Valley, was not trained in Pakistan, neither did his predecessors.

“In the past couple of years, police unearthed several modules that lure young boys to Pakistan to get trained and join militancy,” Hussain said.

Suspected militants Azharuddin alias Qazi from Kupwara and Sajad Ahmad alias Babar from Sopore, had allegedly gone to Pakistan on valid visa for arms training. They were killed on February 4 last year in Sopore.

Another suspected militant, Abdul Rashid Bhat, who had travelled to Pakistan on a visa, was arrested last July.

Police said a youth named Suhaib Farooq Akhoon of Baramulla went to Pakistan last August and was trained at a Lashkar camp. He is said to be active in the Valley now.

The authorities asked parents to report to police any prolonged absence of their children.

Thankfully, the NDA govt has only one more year: Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI, Feb 1: Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the government on Thursday over the Union Budget, saying only promises were made in the past four years and “thankfully” just one year of the NDA dispensation is left.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said four years of the NDA regime are over but it continues to only promise farmers about fair price to their produce.

He alleged the government came out only with fancy schemes during this period and did not provide employment to the country’s youths.

“4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price. 4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets. 4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go. #Budget2018,” he said on Twitter.

Not possible to double farmers' income by 2022: Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI, Feb 1: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it is not possible to double farmers' income by 2022 until the agricultural growth is 12 per cent.

"The government says farmers' income will be doubled by 2022. But it's not possible until the agricultural growth is 12 per cent. Until we achieve that ... It is just a hollow assurance," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad quoted Singh as saying after a meeting of opposition parties here.

"The fiscal deficit seems to have increased," the former prime minister said.

Earlier in the day, Singh said it was to be seen how the government would fulfill its promises.

"I do not think I can blame the budget for being motivated by scoring points in elections, but what worries me is that the fiscal arithmatic is at fault," he told NDTV.

When questioned if the budget was reform-oriented, the former PM said the word reform has been used and abused too many times.

"I don't want to comment on it," he said, asking whether the farm crisis is a thing of the past and if not, what is the strategy to deal with it.

Congress trounces BJP in Rajasthan bypolls, Trinamool wins in Bengal

NEW DELHI, Feb 1: The Congress snatched two Lok Sabha and one assembly seat from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in high-stakes bypoll fights in Rajasthan on Thursday, delivering a jolt to chief minister Vasundhara Raje ahead of state elections later this year.

The Congress won the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats by 196,496 and 84,414 votes respectively. In the Mandalgarh assembly seat, the Congress won by almost 13,000 votes. Despite a high-voltage campaign led by the CM, the BJP couldn’t take the lead in any of the 17 assembly segments.

“Well done Rajasthan Congress! Proud of each and every one of you. This is a rejection of the BJP by the people of Rajasthan,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress won thumping victories in the Noapara assembly and the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat but the spotlight was stolen by the BJP, which leapfrogged the CPI(M) to second place and increased its voteshare in both seats.

In contrast in Rajasthan, the BJP saw a strong swing against it and failed even in urban areas, considered a party stronghold where the Congress scripted a revival.

Raje had led the campaign and ministers along with party workers, booth-level operatives and local functionaries were deputed but appeared to have failed in the face of massive infighting and anger among farmers, Rajputs and government workers.

“Our efforts shall continue and we will keep the welfare of the people of Rajasthan at the forefront,” Raje tweeted.

The defeats will raise more questions about the leadership of Raje, who is battling rising cow vigilante attacks, protests by farmers, doctors strike and resentment over low hikes in government salaries. In addition, the dominant Rajput community is angry with the BJP over the recently released Bollywood film Padmaavat, which they feel insults them.

Sources said changes at the organisation level are expected as the party will try to stem the rising resentment against it. State BJP president Ashok Parnami said as much as a press conference on Thursday evening, stating that the party would remove shortcomings.

The results will buoy the Congress, which won just 21 seats in the last assembly elections and drew a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“The bypoll result clearly shows the undercurrent…what people think… In this bypoll not just rural, urban and farmers supported the party, but the youth, which was misguided by BJP, came with Congress,” said Congress state chief Sachin Pilot, who led the campaign.

The party had performed well in the local body elections last year and Thursday’s showing will boost Pilot, himself a former MP from Ajmer.

In West Bengal’s Uluberia Lok Sabha seat, the Trinamool won by a margin of around 474,000 with 61% of the vote and the BJP came second with 23%. The ruling party’s votes rose by about 200,000 while that of the BJP by around 160,000. Crucial rural polls in the state are scheduled this summer.

“The results prove people have voted overwhelmingly for the waves of development that Mamata Banerjee unleashed,” said Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

The gains came at the expense of the CPI(M) and the Congress, which is set to lose its deposit. Uluberia comprises Dhulagarh, where communal clashes in December 2016 helped the BJP launch a high-pitched campaign. In the Noapara assembly seat, the saffron party cornered 38,711 votes, 15,132 more than what it got in the 2016 assembly polls. The Trinamool candidate won by around 63,000 votes.

“The results prove CPI(M) and Congress are non-existent in Bengal and BJP is the only alternative to Trinamool. The results will only improve with time,” said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha, who was also a former president of Bengal BJP.

Need to work together: Sonia Gandhi to opposition parties on joint strategy in Parliament

NEW DELHI, Feb 1: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today urged the opposition parties to adopt a common strategy to take on the BJP and work together on issues of national importance.

"Need to work together on issues of national importance, adopt common strategy both inside and outside Parliament," said Sonia Gandhi.

The UPA chairperson's comment came during a meeting of opposition leaders to plan a joint strategy for the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament.

The meeting, held at the Parliament Library Building, is seen as part of efforts to galvanise support of all 17 parties which had come together during the presidential and vice presidential polls against the ruling party.

Senior Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was one of the attendees of the meeting, dismissed speculations that the meeting was a precursor to UPA-III, saying there is only a broad consensus among the non-NDA parties to oust the present government.

Azad said that Gandhi cautioned the opposition leaders against the ideology of hate and communal and caste violence.

Gandhi also raised the issue of "Aadhaar misuse" by the Narendra Modi government to "breach" privacy of citizens. She said Aadhaar was meant for welfare schemes but is being misused by the government.

"She also raised the issue of economic health of the country, which she said, remained precarious.

"Another point she raised was that of unemployment which is a matter of great concern for the entire nation and the government is not doing anything in this regard," Azad said.

Gandhi said the price rise of the essential commodities in general and of petrol, diesel and gas in particular is another matter of great concern for the nation.

Azad said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi also stressed that although in different states different parties are in power or in opposition and is a clash of interests is bound to be there, but "when the states issue would emerge then we would find a solution to that".

"But as an opposition we are whole then those who are not in NDA, that means those who do not follow the NDA's ideology and they would want that the government should go out. And for that we shall work together," Azad reported Rahul Gandhi as saying.

Azad said a group of seven parties has already been formed and it would decide the future course of action.

The meeting was attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, senior party leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge; NCP chief Sharad Pawar; National Conference president Farooq Abdullah; RJD's Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, TMC's Derek O'Brien, CPI national secretary D Raja and SP's Ramgopal Yadav.