After the crisis broke out in the Congress in Rajasthan, sources on Wednesday said that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi here and give an explanation of the happenings, including the boycott of the CLP meet in Jaipur by the MLAs loyal to him.

Sources said that he will remain in Delhi till September 30. A section of the Congress leaders was again pushing for Gehlot’s name for the post of president. The decision can be taken by this evening, the sources said, adding, “The ongoing Rajasthan crisis will also be settled in the next two days.

Sachin Pilot, who is facing stiff opposition from the Gehlot camp for the post of CM, is already in Delhi. So far Pilot has been maintaining a silence, which is being considered serious. According to sources, the decision regarding the post of CM can also be taken soon.

The Congress on Tuesday served show-cause notices to Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal, party chief whip Mahesh Joshi and RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore for holding a parallel meeting of party legislators in Jaipur.

The notice issued to Dhariwal said that he, being Parliamentary Affairs Minister, has committed “grave indiscipline” by hosting a parallel MLAs meeting at his residence and thus “pressuring MLAs not to attend the official meeting”.

“As Parliamentary Affairs Minister, hosting the unofficial meeting confused the Congress MLAs as to which one was convened officially,” the notice reads.

The notice that has sought response within 10 days also noted that Dhariwal’s action (parallel meeting) came even when senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken repeatedly clarified that they have come to speak to each MLA “individually and impartially” to make a report to be submitted to Sonia Gandhi.

Similarly, the notice addressed to Joshi stated that he, as Chief Whip, has conducted a “grave indiscipline” by boycotting the official CLP (Congress Legislature Party) meeting and by participating and convening parallel meeting of the MLAs at the time when officially appointed observers were waiting for the official meeting to start.

“As Chief Whip your presence at the unofficial and illegal meeting confused the MLAs as to which one was convened officially,” added the notice.

The observers have not named Gehlot in their reports and notices. According to sources, the high command is trying to settle the situation and avoid further controversies.

Along with this, the high command is on a strategy to keep all possibilities open. The name for the nomination for the president’s post is likely to be finalised on Wednesday.

In a big blow to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered to stop her government’s Duare Ration scheme.

“In view of our discussion supra we are constrained to hold, in fine, that Duare Ration Scheme is ultra vires the National Food Security Act, 2013 and is therefore a nullity in the eye of law,” the high court said in its order.

The scheme, launched in November 2021, was part of the Trinamool Congress’s election manifesto in the West Bengal Assembly election last year.

The order also mentioned that if the NFS Act is amended by the Parliament for doorstep delivery of food grains, only then such a state can bring such a scheme.

Just after the implementation of the election manifesto by TMC government, a petition was filed against the Duare Ration scheme at Calcutta High Court in 2021, terming it to be illegal. However, a single bench had found nothing to be illegal in the scheme and let it continue. The order was challenged.

Under the scheme, vehicles carrying rations reach people’s neighbourhoods and are stationed 500 metres from their residences. The people could collect their rations from these vehicles.

Malappuram (Kerala) : The 21st day of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ resumed from Pandikkad here with massive turnout in this district on Wednesday.
The 18th day of Kerala leg of Yatra will halt at Wandoor at 10.30 am and resume at 5 pm to reach Nilambur in Malappuram at 7 pm.
While speaking at a public meeting on Tuesday evening, Rahul said “India’s women are our biggest strength. But they are being treated as ‘objects’ by the BJP. A most disgusting example is the murder of Ankita in Uttarakhand. BJP’s CM bulldozed all evidence to protect the accused. We will not allow BJP to treat women as second-class citizens.”
Over 19 days in the state, the Yatra will cover 7 districts over 450 kms, before it commences in Karnataka on October 1.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a five month, over 3,500 km-long foot march from Kanyakumari to Srinagar. It is part of the party’s national mass outreach program aimed at highlighting social polarisation, economic inequalities and political centralisation.
(agencies)

New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) India added 3,615 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,45,79,088, while the active cases declined to 40,979, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll climbed to 5,28,584 with 22 fatalities which includes eight deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.09 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 98.72 per cent, the ministry said.

A decline of 1,378 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.  The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year.

On the birth anniversary of late singer Lata Mangeskar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate a crossing named after the nightingale of India.

The Lata Mangeshkar Chowk will be inaugurated by CM Yogi in Ayodhya on Wednesday as a gift to her fans.

A 40-foot-long Veena has been installed at the crossing as a key attraction. It weighs around 14 tonnes.

In a major development, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has said that it can join the opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, provided the alliance partners are ready to project Mayawati as their Prime Ministerial candidate.

BSP national spokesperson Dharamveer Chaudhary said that the “ultimate decision, however, will be taken by Behenji (Mayawati)”,

Chaudhary added that if the opposition parties reach out to BSP in a respectful manner and apprise the party chief of their agenda, there is no harm that the party would see in aligning with them.

“The opposition parties have no leader of Mayawati’s stature. She is a big leader with a pan-India appeal,” he said.

Asked about the possibility of an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav, Chaudhary said: “Mayawati ji is a much bigger leader than Akhilesh Yadav. She has been the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, while Akhilesh has held the post only once. She also is a large-hearted eader and forgives the mistakes of others. If Akhilesh accepts her as a leader with a clean heart, we will welcome him with flowers.”

Notably, the BSP was kept out of the meetings of the opposition parties called by TMC and NCP when they were to decide their candidates for the President and Vice President posts.

Mayawati had expressed her anger in public in a tweet on the opposition’s behaviour.