BJP’s Venkaiah Naidu is vice president after cross-voting in record election Former Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu broke records on his way to getting elected India’s 13th Vice President on Saturday evening, defeating Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi by 272 votes amidst cross-voting and highest ever polling in VP election. Naidu got 516 votes while Gandhi secured only 244, ensuring the NDA candidate the highest victory margin in 30 years. BJP sources maintained that Naidu was expecting 502 votes but benefitted by about 20 votes due to cross-voting. The late alignment of Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) with the BJP in Bihar may have swelled Naidu’s margin while cross-voting, absent voters and invalid voters ate away Gandhi’s base. Naidu struck a humble chord after the final result and highlighted agriculture- a much-debated issue in current politics. - Hindustan Times, August 6, 2017
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will hold a review meeting with the city's health officials in the wake of the death of several infants at a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur. Medical superintendents of state government-run hospitals, senior health department officials will be present in the meeting, to be held on august 16, where the chief minister will undertake a stock-taking exercise. The medical superintendents have been asked to prepare status reports on stock of medicines, diagnostic equipments, which will be reviewed in the meeting, a Delhi government spokesperson said. At least 30 infants died in a span of 48 hours since august 10 at the baba raghav das medical college at Gorakhpur, which coincided with an alleged shortage in supply of liquid oxygen. The yogi Adityanath government has, however, rejected suggestions that the deaths were linked to the shortage.-The Times of India, August 13, 2017
New Delhi: Days ahead of the August 23 Bawana by poll, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today claimed that no other government had worked for rural Delhi the way his regime had. Addressing a rally at Bawana in north Delhi, he also listed out the measures initiated by his government in the last two-and-a-half years for the rural areas. Referring to Kailash Gahlot, the recently-appointed transport minister, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief said he specifically chose him, so that the issues related to the rural areas could be addressed more efficiently. Gahlot represents the Najafgarh constituency, a rural area of the national capital. The by poll at Bawana was necessitated after AAP's Ved Prakash resigned as the local MLA and subsequently, quit the party to join the BJP. Kejriwal said his government had been working for over two years to ensure that the land-related rights of the people of rural Delhi were not violated and the matter was now before the Centre. Listing out the work done by his dispensation, he said the compensation amount for land acquisition was hiked from Rs 53 lakh to Rs 3 core after the AAP came to power in Delhi. The Times of India August 17, 2017
AIADMK rebel faction leader and three-time chief minister O Panneerselvam was on 21th August 2017, Monday sworn in as deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu, as part of the merger deal cobbled up by the warring groups of the ruling party. He will also be the co-ordinator of the steering committee, which would oversee the day-to-day functions of the party. The ‘united’ party has also announced that it is initiating proceedings to remove party general secretary VK Sasikala from the post – one of the preconditions put forward by the OPS camp for the merger. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated O Pannerselvam and others who took oath on Monday. “Centre assures all possible support to CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and Dy CM O Pannerselvam for the growth of the TN,” Modi said. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Panneerselvam. The former chief minister is back in his home turf of finance, a portfolio he had held since 2011 when the J Jayalalithaa government was sworn-in. The Times of India. – Financial Express, August 22, 2017
Even as the Punjab and Haryana High Court came down hard on Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday, the BJP leadership is unlikely to act against him. Asked if a replacement was being considered, Anil Jain, BJP general secretary in-charge of Haryana, told The Sunday Express that “there is no such consideration”. Jain had a meeting with party president Amit Shah earlier in the day. Senior party leaders said the focus, at the moment, is on restoring peace, and preventing any untoward incident on Monday, when the court is set to pronounce its sentence. “Right now, the entire focus is on maintaining peace,” said a party leader. In fact, how the situation is handled on Monday may be the key deciding factor. The Indian Express August 27, 2017
