NEWS

Terming media reports as baseless, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ruled out any role of Prashant Kishor in finalisation of Congress tickets in the forthcoming assembly elections.

“There is no question of it. Kishor has no say in the matter,” said the Chief Minister, amid reports of resentment brewing in the Punjab Congress over his newly appointed principal advisor Prashant Kishor deciding on the tickets.

There are set norms and patterns for ticket allocation in the Congress, which are followed in all elections in all states, said Captain Amarinder, adding that Punjab was no exception. There is a state election committee set up by the high command ahead of any Assembly poll, which considers all the names and decides on the final candidates, he pointed out, adding that the shortlisted names are then sent for scrutiny to the Screening Committee, comprising top party leadership, including the Congress president. The final decision is taken by the Central Election Committee, with no individual having any role to play, he added.

The Goa Forward Party formally exited the National Democratic Alliance on Tuesday-- one and a half year after it withdrew support from the Pramod Sawant led BJP government, following the sacking of its ministers—and alleged that the ruling party was no longer the same after former chief minister and defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s death. It wrote a letter to Amit Shah announcing “the termination of our participation in the NDA.”

“Under the late Manohar Parrikar, the BJP used to be a party with a difference, and under Pramod Sawant it is a different party—an anti-Goan party,” party supremo Vijai Sardesai said in his letter to Union home minister Amit Shah.

As Madhya Pradesh is battling a massive Covid-19 wave, anomalies are being reported from various parts of the State. Shortage of staff due to the Covid-19 pandemic has forced authorities to take the help of a gardener to collect samples of people at the government civil hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Sanchi, the constituency of state health minister Prabhuram Choudhary.

The incident came to light on Monday when a viral video showed the gardener, Halke Ram, collecting swabs of people for testing at the hospital in Sanchi, a world heritage site located 50 km away from Bhopal.

Halke Ram who is a daily wage employee said he was assigned the task of sample collection by the BMO as the health staff is infected with the virus.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has warned officers in the districts in a very strict manner about the rising Covid-19 infection in the State. He said, “There should not be any confusion, there will not be any lockdown. We will not let the public die, there should be no complaint of shortage of beds and all the preparations should be made beforehand.”

Adityanath recently held a high-level review meeting regarding the growing cases of coronavirus in the State. He has given priority to the implementation of the strategy for effective prevention of the infection. His full emphasis was on the coronavirus infection spread and preparations before it spreads further. He also confirmed that the fight against coronavirus would have to be fought vigorously with full preparation as there was no scope for negligence in this struggle. The Chief Minister has emphasized that last year the government was successful in controlling the Corona infection, in a similar way this time also the government will be successful in the fight against the pandemic.