The Delhi Chief Minister will also lead a march to the Parliament on April 22.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will address an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rally against the BJP’s land acquisition bill at Jantar Mantar and will also lead a march to Parliament on April 22.

This will be the first protest march undertaken by Mr. Kejriwal in his second stint as Delhi Chief Minister. He had earlier made a brief appearance alongside his one-time mentor Anna Hazare during the latter’s rally against the NDA government’s proposed amendment on land bill.

“It has been decided that he will address the rally and might also lead a march to Parliament with other senior party leaders. The finer details are still being worked out,” a party spokesman said on Friday.

In a resolution passed by the party’s National Council on March 28, AAP had decided to hold a protest against the Bill outside Parliament on April 22 and had formed a committee to address the issue.

Hajipur(Bihar), Apr 1 (PTI) Union Minister Giriraj Singh has again kicked up a major row with racist remarks, wondering if Congress would have accepted Sonia Gandhi’s leadership if she was not white-skinned, a statement condemned by the party which asked the Prime Minister to dismiss him and apologise to the nation.

“Had Rajiv Gandhi married a Nigerian woman and if she was not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have then accepted her leadership?,” he told journalists yesterday.

Various women leaders also attacked Singh, who is minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises, saying it reflected his racial mindset and attitude towards women.

The Minister, who had courted controversies in the past with remarks during Lok Sabha elections like people opposed to Narendra Modi can go to Pakistan, also mocked Rahul Gandhi’s absence from the political scene and likened it to the “missing Malaysian airliner”.

“Imagine a situation, if Congress was in power instead of us and had Rahul been the Prime Minister, and if for some reason, the PM had disappeared for more than 47 days.

“Absence of Congress Vice President is similar to that of the missing Malaysian airliner that still has not been located. The same way the Congress leader was not present in the budget session. No one in Congress is ready to speak. This is unfortunate for the Congress and a joke for the country,” he said.

When asked about his controversial comments, Singh, who was in Delhi today, refused to comment. As his remarks snowballed into a major controversy, the BJP leader said if his comments have hurt Gandhi, he regretted them.

“If Soniaji and Rahulji have been hurt by my remarks, I express my regret,” he said even as he maintained that his remarks were “off the record” and suggested that media was blowing it out of proportion.

But a furious Congress was unrelenting in its attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must dismiss such a minister and apologise to the nation, an AICC statement said.

The statement, issued by Randeep Singh Surjewala, Incharge Communications of AICC, said the party “strongly deprecates and condemns the intemperate and distasteful remarks…bordering on insanity”.

“It appears that continuous quest to appease Prime Minister has made him lose his balance. Such remarks are reflective of lack of moral fibre in BJP and its cadre,” the party said.

“I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept him in the cabinet only to make such statements and probably BJP does not have a better leader for Bihar,” senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said.

Another Congress leader Manish Tewari said it was for Modi to reflect as to what kind of “elements and bizarre creatures” are there in his government. .

PATNA, BIHAR: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday that there was no “cloud of uncertainty” over the merger of old Janata Parivar splinter groups and that it was on track.

“The merger vehicle of Janata Parivar is on track and the vehicle is on the run,” Mr Kumar told reporters after a conclave on skill development in Patna.

“I think the merger will not take much time,” he said.

“The date of the next meeting regarding the merger will be decided soon in which everything will become clear,” Mr Kumar said.

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Mr Kumar, during his recent stay in Delhi, had met Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been authorised to decide modalities for the merger of the Janata Parivar. RJD chief Lalu Prasad and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala are in a bid to speed up the process.

“On March 27, I, Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav, and Mulayam Singh Yadav held detailed talks on merger issue,” Mr Kumar, who is playing a significant role in the amalgam exercise, said.

The coming together of splinter parties of the old Janata Parivar before Assembly poll in Bihar later this year would be a decisive factor to give BJP a strong challenge.

Asked about infighting within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mr Kumar, who had a lucheon meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday, exuded confidence that things would be sorted out mutually by them.

On a question on his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Kumar said he had a talk with the Prime Minister on needs for development of the state.

“The discussion was good. The Prime Minister heard everything and promised to look into them,” said Mr Kumar.

Mr Kumar said he acquainted the Prime Minister with the “loss” that Bihar would accrue due to recommendations of 14th Finance Commission and demanded to compensate it.

Mr Kumar also said that he put forward the demand for giving special category status to Bihar to spur its industrial growth.

The chief minister of Bihar said he requested the Prime Minister to make special financial assistance available to Bihar at the earliest.

Terming as “unconstitutional and illegal” AAP’s National Council meeting where they were ousted from a key panel, dissidents Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan today did not rule out taking legal recourse against their removal.

Attacking Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his “dictatorial” tendencies and for “ruthlessly stifling” voices of dissent, Bhushan told reporters after the meeting that all options were open to them to challenge the decision.

It is true that we can move the court, Election Commission or call another meeting of the NC. All options are open,” he said.

Providing “inside details” of the meet, which witnessed turbulent scenes, the two leaders accused Kejriwal of instigating the NC members against the dissident leaders in an “orchestrated performance” and of inaction when certain members were being heckled.
They alleged that Kejriwal during his speech threatened to resign if they were not removed from the national executive.

“He gave a dramatic speech for around one hour and it was full of allegations against us. He threatened to resign if we were not removed. He also accused Shanti Bhushan of anti-party activities without taking his name. Then 10 people including MLAs like Kapil Mishra stood up and started shouting slogans calling us traitors. The drama went on for 5-7 minutes during which he (Kejriwal) stood like a statue,” Yadav said.

Yadav said that the party convenor left soon after the speech, citing “official engagements” after making Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai the chairman of the meet. Within seconds Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia “moved the resolution” to remove them.

“Sisodia said 167 members have moved the resolution and voting on that began without even getting it seconded by any other person. We asked Rai to allow a debate and to make arrangements for secret vote, but he did not react,” he said.

Yadav pointed out the “irony” of a party, “that has born out of the Jan Lokpal movement”, not allowing its internal Lokpal L Ramdas inside the meeting citing possibilities of “confrontation”.

Bhushan, who was particularly aggressive during the press conference, slammed the “hooliganism” saying that he had an “inkling” that the meeting was going to be “stage-managed” going by the “activities” of the last three days.

“Every MLA was directed to bring 50 people to the meeting. They engaged in hooliganism and those who tried to stop were booted out. Is this why we made the party through out blood and sweat? This is a grave hour of crisis for the party,” the senior lawyer said.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM or MIM for short) has queered the pitch somewhat for the Congress by announcing its decision to field its candidate for the April 11 assembly by-election to the Bandra East constituency. Predictably Congress candidate Narayan Rane’s son MLA Nitesh Rane slammed the MIM accusing them of being a B team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena. He added that the minority community is wise enough to understand these developments and remarked “wait and watch” for future developments.

Speaking to newspersons here at Vidhan Bhavan premises, MIM MLA from Aurangabad Imtiaz Jaleel disclosed that the party has decided to field Siraj R. Khan as its candidate for the by-election. Khan had contested the October 2014 assembly elections and had polled 23,976 votes and had come third.

Meanwhile, Sena who has fielded Trupti Sawant, widow of late Sena MLA Prakash Bala Sawant who filed her nomination papers yesterday. Narayan Rane is expected to file his nomination papers today.

Sources disclosed that both the Sena and BJP have joined hands together against the Congress. With the entry of its arch rival Narayan Rane into the poll fray, the Sena has upped its campaign with cadres vowing to teach Rane senior a lesson at the poll hustings yet again. It may be recalled that Narayan Rane had lost the October 2014 assembly election from Kudal assembly seat to Sena’s Vaibhav Naik by 9,000 votes. In October 2014 assembly elections to Bandra East constituency, Congress candidate Sanjeev Bagadi polled 12,229 votes and came a distant fourth behind the MIM candidate. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate in Tasgaon-Kavthe Mahankal assembly constituency, Suman R.R. Patil will also file her nomination papers today.

The AAP National Executive is meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday to decide on the fate of its two senior leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav even as attempts are being made for reconciliation of both the camps.

The AAP National Executive is meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday to decide on the fate of its two senior leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav even as attempts are being made for reconciliation of both the camps.

While Yadav has offered an olive branch to the party’s top brass saying the question of Arvind Kejriwal staying as National Convener has never been an issue while Bhushan has said that he was “firm on ethics”. Ailing Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, who had yesterday said he was “hurt and pained” by the “ugly battle” in the party, will not be present for the meeting today. Bhushan and Yadav will attend the meeting.

Just before the NE committee meet, Ashish Khetan, a key member of AAP’s Delhi unit, which is demanding stern action against Yadav and Bhushan, softened his stand after having lashed out at the duo in tweets yesterday.
“I should not have commented about Bhushans in public. We’ve fought for many public causes together and will hopefully continue to work as a team. Have deleted my tweets.

I am accountable to every last volunteer & will forever work to strengthen the party,” Khetan said in tweets today. The current crisis has the party split into three with one set of leaders firmly behind Kejriwal, the second being Yadav and Bhushan and the third, which has little say, comprising leaders who prefer not to take sides and are seeking a compromise.

“It never should be forgotten what both have done for the party in the past. Going by their credentials, it is very hard to believe that they were involved in anti-party activities,” said a senior party leader and member of the NE just before attending the meeting. Another member added, “Still, if the committee finds some clinching evidence, then it should give a chance to both, by serving a show-cause notice to them.”

However, another party leader said, “Everything is crystal clear and now time demands strict action against the duo, to set a precedent for the future.” “Deliberately maligning the image of the leader, in whom the 2 crore people of the state have shown immense faith, is incriminating,” said the leader, adding that Yadav and Bhushan should be ousted not only from the Political Affairs Committee, but also from AAP’s primary membership. Currently, AAP has 21-odd members in it’s national executive committee and barring a few, like Kejriwal, all are likely to be present for the meeting.

Even as BJP attempts to convince its estranged ally Shiv Sena to join the government, there is pressure from the rank-and-file of the ruling party not to commit itself to any alliance with the latter for the forthcoming municipal corporation and zilla parishad elections across Maharashtra, which will begin in March next year.
The matter was discussed at length at a BJP meeting after which party sources said the mood in the party was that it should not cede political space it has gained to the Shiv Sena and that any alliance should be “need-based”.
“After the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections this year, the political equations have drastically changed. The BJP is not only the number one party in the state, but it is also expected to do much better in the polls for civic bodies. Now, will the Shiv Sena accept BJP’s political growth?” a senior BJP functionary said.
At present, BJP has a strong presence in the BMC and several local bodies and zilla parishads across Nagpur, Bhandara, Pune Navi Mumbai, among others.
The development comes a day after BJP leader and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called on Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and held two-hour long meeting during which they discussed the power-sharing proposal.
Both sides are still working on the proposals. “Although we have not reached a final conclusion, the talks between Sena and BJP are still going on. I would like to reiterate that BJP wants Sena to join the government in Maharashtra,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Saturday.
A Sena leader said, “The BJP has offered us one-third representation in the government with 10 berths. We have insisted for deputy chief minister’s post and home minister’s portfolio.”

New Delhi: Caught in rough weather due to internal differences, AAP will hold its National Executive (NE) meeting next week to finalise the agenda for its National Council meeting on March 28, party sources said.

The meeting of the 21-member NE, which includes top members of the party like its chief Arvind Kejriwal and beleaguered leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, will be held in the middle of next week to decide as to what issues the party will take up in the National Council meeting scheduled on Saturday.

But it is not clear whether Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal will attend the meeting, sources said.

The issues to be taken up would all depend on the outcome of the ongoing negotiations over the next few days between the two warring camps of the party. Both the sides are trying to iron out their differences on several critical issues.

The outcome of the negotiations will have a bearing on the drawing up of the agenda for the National Council meeting.

“We are hopeful of reaching a conclusion because both the sides are making efforts. However, adjustments are being done on several critical issues by the two camps in an attempt at reconciliation,” said a party leaders.

The last two meetings of the NE — held on February 26 and March 4 — were stormy affairs with the second of these witnessing the ouster of Bhushan and Yadav from AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, its highest decision-making body.

The AAP National Council has over 300 members and has to meet once a year. The last NC meeting took place in February last year.

PTI