NEWS

The Election Commission has asked the Madhya Pradesh CEO to lodge a criminal case against three IPS officers and others whose alleged role in the use of black money during the 2019 general elections came to the fore after the I-T department raided close aides of former chief minister Kamal Nath. The Commission has also asked the Union Home Secretary to initiate "appropriate departmental action" against the IPS officers and also asked the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary to undertake a "similar action" against a state police service officer.

The poll body said it was recommending action after it "deliberated" upon a report sent to it by the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) intimating it about the Income-Tax Department's "search operations in Madhya Pradesh and its findings of extensive use of unaccounted cash during the General Elections 2019." The CBDT is the administrative authority for the I-T Department. An EC statement said the CBDT report informed the Commission about certain entities and individuals who were engaged in "unauthorised and unaccounted cash contributions to individuals on behalf of a certain political party, which was reported to be corroborated during searches against persons by the tax department." While the EC did not name the party, it has been widely reported that the CBDT report referred to the Congress party.

Upping the ante against the BJP, senior Trinamool Congress leader Bratya Basu on Tuesday said that his party will extend its hand of friendship to anyone who is not getting due respect in the saffron camp. Claiming that the BJP indulges in "politics of disruption and division", the state science and technology minister said the TMC, unlike the saffron party, believes in growth and positivity.

"We are ready to extend our hand of friendship to those who are not getting their due respect in the BJP, which is a party of the fascists," Basu told a press meet at TMC headquarters here. He slammed the saffron party for expelling old-timers like Jaswant Sinha, and sidelining LK Advani, "all because they spoke their minds".

Lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her remarks that the BJP was 'spending money' to bring in a party from Hyderabad to her state to divide Hindu-Muslim votes, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Muslim voters were not her 'jagir' (property). Rebutting Banerjee's comments, Owaisi tweeted, "So far you've only dealt with obedient Mir Jaffers & Sadiqs. You don't like Muslims who think & speak for themselves.

You've insulted our voters in Bihar. Remember what happened to parties in Bihar that kept blaming their failures on "vote cutters".. Muslim voters aren't your jagir." While addressing a rally in the poll-bound state on Tuesday, Banerjee had slammed the saffron party for allegedly trying to import AIMIM in Bengal to sharpen the communal polarisation and divide the Hindu-Muslim votes among themselves. She also alleged that the BJP was spending crores of rupees to bring in AIMIM.

Hours after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the Aam Aadmi Party will contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections in 2022 and promised 'clean politics', state cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh on Tuesday slammed the accusations and termed him as a 'habitual liar.'

The UP minister alleged Kejriwal's "inefficient administration skills" were exposed during the Covid-19 crisis. Speaking to the media, Singh said, “It was hard to imagine how he (Arvind Kejriwal) turned out the hapless people of UP, Bihar and Jharkhand from Delhi during the trying times of the coronavirus crisis."

"It was the Yogi government who receive them, provided them free ration, gave them sustenance allowance and got them tested for the covid-19 for free,” he said.