The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has expressed anguish over fire tragedy in Surat. He has also asked Gujarat Government and local authorities to provide all possible assistance to those affected.
“Extremely anguished by the fire tragedy in Surat. My thoughts are with bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. Have asked the Gujarat Government and local authorities to provide all possible assistance to those affected”, the Prime Minister said.
The Central Government vide notification dated 23rd May, 2019 has banned the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and all its manifestations under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 with immediate effect.
The notification states that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and its formations like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India or Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Hindustan and their manifestations have committed acts of terrorism, promoted acts of terrorism and have been engaged in radicalisation and recruitment of youth(s) for terrorist activities in India.
A day after Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi was re-elected with a thumping majority, the process of putting in place the new government began, with Ministers of the Union Cabinet meeting and passing a resolution to dissolve the 16th Lok Sabha and tendering their resignations.
Prime Minister Shri Modi called on President Shri Ramnath Kovind and handed over his resignation, along with that of the Union Cabinet. The resignations were accepted and Shri Modi has been asked to continue till a new government.
The NDA will also be holding a meeting of its parliamentary party at Parliament House on Saturday evening to elect Shri Modi as its leader. All NDA leaders and elected Members of Parliament will be attending this meeting, which will be addressed by Shri Modi.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Shri Modi met with and thanked staffers at the PMO for their efforts in the past five years and described it as a “learning experience” for him as well.
Senior officers of the PMO, including Principal Secretary to the PM Shri Nripendra Misra, National Security Advisor (NSA) Shri Ajit Doval, Additional Principal Secretary Shri P.K. Mishra, and Secretary Shri Bhaskar Khulbe, felicitated the Prime Minister on his victory in the recently concluded election.
Lok Sabha elections won, it’s now mission Rajya Sabha for the Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP set to achieve numbers in upper house by November 2020, the NDA government will secure another 19 seats from as many as 14 states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, helping it go past the halfway mark of 123 and get 125 seats, making it the first government to reach majority in the upper house in nearly 15 years. Most of its seats will come from Uttar Pradesh where it has 310 MLAs in the 403-member assembly. It will also gain 6 seats in Tamil Nadu thanks to its new ally the AIADMK, three in Assam, two in Rajasthan and perhaps one in Odisha — the last one with the help of a friendly party, the BJD.
The BJP and the National Democratic Alliance led by it are looking to overcome a minority status in the upper house of parliament — something that scotched the previous NDA government’s efforts to push through key laws.
The NDA’s majority in the Rajya Sabha would help in easy passage of legislations in Parliament, something that has proved to be a major hurdle in recent years. Key bills on issues such as Triple Talaq, the motor vehicles act or amendments to the citizenship act could not be passed as the NDA couldn’t get the requisite numbers.
Last year, the BJP overtook the Congress for the first time in the history of the Upper House; the total number of NDA MPs in the upper house stands at 101 in the 245 seat House. It also enjoys the support of three nominated members, Swapan Dasgupta, Mary Kom and Narendra Jadhav and at least three independent MPs, taking the total tally to 107. KTS Tulsi, a UPA-nominated member, will also retire early next year, giving the NDA a chance to appoint a nominee of its choice.
It will also gain one seat each in Karnataka, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand while it will lose seats in states such as Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A big victory in the Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand assembly polls later this year can further bolster the BJP-led NDA’s lead in the Upper House of Parliament by November 2020. If the NDA reaches the majority mark in 2020, it will get nearly four years in the Rajya Sabha to further its legislative agenda.
The BJP Parliamentary Board passed a resolution thanking voters for their support and hailing Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s leadership. In the resolution, the party described the victory as a positive mandate in support of Shri Modi’s pro-poor policies, clear stand on national security and its mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. It said, the work of the government boosted India’s profile in the world.
The highest decision-making body of the party expressed confidence that under the leadership of Shri Modi a strong, prosperous, developed and inclusive India will be built when India will celebrate 75 years of independence in 2022.
The party also criticised the opposition for its efforts to spread confusion over the electoral process saying the people have rejected their negative agenda. It also thanked people of West Bengal for supporting the party despite violence targeting BJP workers.
As the BJP returned to power with an overwhelming majority, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi dropped the word ‘Chowkidar’ prefix on his Twitter handle.
In a tweet, he explained that ‘Now, the time has come to take the Chowkidar Spirit to the next level. Keep this spirit alive at every moment and continue working for India’s progress. The word ‘Chowkidar’ goes from my Twitter name but it remains an integral part of me. Urging you all to do the same too!’
Shri Modi who had started using the prefix chowkidar around the time the election campaign began, praised those who followed him.
“The people of India became Chowkidars and rendered great service to the nation. Chowkidar has become a powerful symbol to safeguard India from the evils of casteism, communalism, corruption and cronyism,” he wrote in another tweet.
During the election campaign Shri Modi urged BJP supporters to adopt the chowkidar’s spirit to safeguard the country.
Most of his cabinet ministers, BJP chief ministers and other senior leaders of the party has also started using the prefix chowkidar in their Twitter handles after Shri Modi did so. Thousands of BJP supporters also followed suit.
BJP president Shri Amit Shah said that BJP’s good performance in the Lok Sabha polls as “victory of India” and said it is people’s mandate against the Opposition’s propaganda and personal attacks as well as their total rejection of politics of dynasty, appeasement and casteism. In a series of tweets, Shah said this victory is a “win of people’s confidence in Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi”.
“Today’s result is India’s mandate against Opposition’s propaganda, lies, personal insinuations and baseless politics. It is also people’s mandate who have chosen development and nationalism and rejected casteism, dynasty and appeasement,” Shah said.
Asserting that this win is a victory for the whole of India, he said, “It is the victory of the hopes of youth, the poor and farmers. This grand victory is a triumph of people’s confidence in Prime Shri Minister Narendra Modi’s development work and strong leadership.”
Conveying his greetings to party workers on behalf of Prime Minister Shri Modi, Shri Shah said it was the relentless efforts of the party workers which strengthened the BJP at every booth of the country.
Veteran BJP leader Shri LK Advani congratulated Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for BJP’s ‘unprecedented’ poll victory. In his statement Shri Advani said heartiest congratulations to Shri Narendrabhai Modi for steering the BJP towards this unprecedented victory in the elections.
He also praised the efforts of Party President Shri Amit Shah and said Shri Amitbhai Shah as the BJP President and all the dedicated workers of the party have put in enormous effort in making sure that the message of BJP reaches every voter of the country.
It is such a wonderful feeling that in a country as large and diverse as India, the electoral process has been so successfully completed and for that, my compliments to the electorate and all the agencies involved.
May our great nation be blessed with a bright future ahead.
After Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modi is the third prime minister of the country who has been able to retain power for a second term with full majority in Lok Sabha.
As counting goes on across the country on Thursday, trends show the Modi-led BJP would be easily able to cross the halfway mark of 272 seats in the 17th Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014, the BJP had won 282 seats out of total 543 in Lok Sabha.
Jawaharlal Nehru won around three-fourth of the Lok Sabha seats in the first elections in the country during 1951-52. Subsequently, he was able to win 1957 elections as well as 1962 elections with full majority.
While the Congress hegemony was insurmountable in 1951, various other political strands such as Bhartiya Jana Sangh, Kisaan Mazdoor Praja Party, Scheduled Caste Federation and Socialist Party had started to take shape by then.
The Congress was able to win 364 out of 489 seats during 1951-52 elections. The party polled around 45 per cent of the total votes then.
In 1957, when Nehru was up for re-election, India was going through a difficult phase as the PM was battling the right wing inside and outside his party after passage of the Hindu Marriage Act in 1955.
The country was facing many language disputes. Consequently, after establishment of States Reorganisation Committee in 1953, many states were formed on the basis of language. The country was also feeling the heat due to food insecurity.
However, among all this, Nehru was able to win a spectacular victory of 371 seats in 1957 elections. The Congress’s vote share even increased from 45 per cent in 1951-52 to 47.78 per cent in 1957.
In 1962 elections, Nehru won again bagging 361 seats out of total 494 seats in Lok Sabha.
After 20 years of Independence, the Congress’s hegemony in the country’s politics finally started breaking down in 1967 when it lost six state assembly elections. Out of this six, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal was lost by the Congress for the very first time.
However, in 1967 elections, Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi was able to get 283 seats out of total 520 seats. This was Indira’s first electoral victory in general elections.
In 1969, Indira expelled the old guard of the party, which were called as Congress (O). This section of Congress was led by Morarji Desai.
It was during this time that Indira coined the slogan “Garibi hatao”, which found a wide emotive appeal among the Indian voters. As a result, she was able to increase her tally to 352 in 1971 elections for her second term.
In between 2010 and 2014, with UPA government facing multiple allegations of massive corruption scandals, the BJP decided to appoint the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as their Prime Minister candidate for 2014 general elections.
With a promise of development (vikas) across India, Narendra Modi won his first ever general elections with full majority in 2014 with 282 seats.
Union Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said “Congratulations to the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, all the NDA and BJP workers for achieving this miraculous win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Our gratitude to the people of India for reposing their faith in the BJP/NDA. Aspirational India does not accept Royalties, Dynasties and caste based parties.”
Shiv Sena praised on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi as the BJP-led NDA appeared to be retaining power comfortably, saying nobody would be able to pose a challenge before him for the next 25 years. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party had often criticized the BJP in the last five years but eventually sealed a fresh alliance with it ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Sena MP Shri Sanjay Raut said that people had given a befitting reply to opposition parties who created “an atmosphere of illusion” against Modi over issues such as the Rafale fighter jet deal. “The entire country is `Modi-may’ (in thrall of Modi),” said Raut.
Lucknow is a stronghold for the BJP and it is seat which sent Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the Parliament. Home Minister and former BJP president Shri Rajnath Singh had comfortably won the Lucknow seat in 2014 and is confident of his re-election this time around as well. His main opponent on the seat is a newcomer, SP’s Poonam Sinha, wife of Congress leader and actor Shatrughan Sinha. SP is hoping to lure Kayasth voters by fielding Sinha, but the community has long supported BJP in Lucknow. The SP-BSP combine had asked Congress to not put up a candidate on the seat, but the grand old party has fielded the spiritual guru Acharya Pramod Krisham.
Both Congress and SP would be hoping to attract the sizable minority vote in Lucknow, but Singh’ secular and clean image has won him support from Muslims in Lucknow seat as well.
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