PTI

New Delhi, October 19

The Congress will get its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years on Wednesday after more than 9,500 votes cast to choose between senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are counted to cap the election contest, the sixth in its 137-year-old history.

The counting of the votes cast on Monday will begin at 10 am today at the AICC headquarters here. All sealed ballot boxes from the 68 polling booths set up across the country have been brought here and kept in a "strong room" at the party office.

While Kharge is considered the firm favourite with his perceived proximity to the Gandhis and a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.

The sealed ballot boxes will be opened before the candidates' agents and the ballot papers will be mixed repeatedly.

Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry has expressed satisfaction with the party's presidential polls process, saying it was "free, fair and transparent". He has also said it was a secret ballot and no one would get to know who voted for whom.

Of the total 9,915 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates that formed the electoral college to pick the party chief in a secret ballot, over 9,500 cast their ballot at PCC offices and the AICC headquarters, Mistry said at a press conference after the polling ended on Monday.

The Congress has claimed that its internal democracy has no parallel in any other party and it is the only one to have a central election authority for organisational polls.

It is the sixth time in Congress' nearly 137-year-old history that an electoral contest is deciding who would take up the mantle of the party's president as successor to Sonia Gandhi.

It was way back in 1939, when an electoral contest decided who would be the Congress president, and Mahatma Gandhi's candidate P Sitaramayya had lost to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Then in 1950 came the Congress' first post-Independence election for the post of party president when Purshottam Das Tandon and Acharya Kripalani faced off. Surprisingly, Tandon, seen as a Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel loyalist, won the contest, trumping the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's choice.

In 1977, following the resignation of Dev Kant Barooah as party president in the wake of the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, K Brahmananda Reddy defeated Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Karan Singh in the party's polls for AICC chief.

The next election that needed a contest came 20 years later in 1997 when Sitaram Kesri squared off in a triangular contest with Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. Except for Maharashtra and parts of Uttar Pradesh, all state Congress units had backed Kesri. He posted a landslide victory, getting 6,224 delegates' votes against Pawar's 882 and Pilot's 354.

The fifth contest came in 2000 and this was the only time a Gandhi family member was challenged in the elections with Jitendra Prasada taking on Sonia Gandhi. Prasada suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Gandhi, who garnered over 7,400 votes. Prasada had reportedly polled a paltry 94 votes.

The current polls are historic as the new president would replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving party president who has been at the helm since 1998, barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi had taken over.

The Nehru-Gandhi family has been at the helm of the party for about 40 years since Independence. The five family members to take on the mantle of the Congress president included Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Electors in the Monday's Congress presidential polls had been asked to put a tick mark against their candidate in the ballot paper after Tharoor's team took up with the party's top poll body the issue of its earlier directive that voters write "1" to reflect their preference. This, the team said, might lead to confusion.

The political journeys of the two dramatis personae in the Congress presidential elections have been disparate.

Kharge is a grassroots politician and hardcore loyalist of the Gandhi family, while Tharoor, a social media pioneer and often outspoken, joined the Congress only in 2009 after a long stint at the United Nations.

Ahead of the polling, Kharge had said he would have no shame in taking the advice and support of the Gandhi family in running the party affairs, if he becomes its president.

Tharoor, on his part, took a veiled dig at some senior leaders supporting Kharge, saying that some colleagues were "indulging in 'netagiri' and telling party workers that they know who Sonia Gandhi wants elected".

 New Delhi, 18 October (HS): The Central Government has opposed the petition in the Supreme Court seeking a Uniform Civil Code. The union Law Ministry in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court said that the petition should be dismissed with fine, as the PIL for Uniform Civil Code is not maintainable.

New Delhi (HS): Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court has refused to cancel the bail granted to Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, accused in the railway tender scam case. The court directed Tejashwi Yadav to speak publicly in the future. Special Judge Geetanjali Goel gave this order.

Lucknow,(HS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's 'Brand UP' to make a mark of its own in the world. Chief Minister's efforts are turning out to be fruitful to give Uttar Pradesh a separate identity on the global stage. A 31-member delegation from the US met Chief Minister Yogi. This is the second major meeting of the chief minister with a foreign delegation within 24 hours.

This meeting is being seen as a big success of the government for advanced infrastructure with huge investment in the state before the Global Investor Summit-23 (GIS-23).

Yogi meeting the 31-member delegates of the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USIPF) is considered very important. 'US Forum' will make way for the USA to invest in Uttar Pradesh. This delegation will brand the Chief Minister's '3-T Concept' in the US.

For the proposed Global Investor Summit in Lucknow in January 2023, the Yogi government is trying to bring investment from all over the world, they have set a target of investing ₹10 lakh crore from all over the world in this summit. During this meeting, ministers of Yogi government Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, Rakesh Sachan, Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra and others were involved.

Hindusthan Samachar/ Dilip Shukla/ Mugdha

Kohima,(PTI) Preparations were in full swing in Nagaland for the famed Hornbill festival, which will be held with much grandeur this time after two years of subdued celebrations, an official said on Tuesday.

The festival will be held from December 1 to 10 at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama, around 12 km from state capital Kohima, said advisor for Tourism and Art & Culture H Khehovi Yepthomi.

Yepthomi chaired a coordination meeting with the tribal hohos on Monday on the preparations for the festival, the annual tourism promotional event of the state government that brings together the Naga tribes. This will be the 23rd edition of the festival, which began in 2010.

The celebrations were disrupted in 2020 and 2021, but this year’s Hornbill Festival will be a grand affair with new ideas and concepts, Yepthomi said.

In 2020, the festival was celebrated virtually for three days due to the pandemic, while last year the festival was called off midway after the killing of civilians at Oting in Mon district.

The Hornbill Festival, which has achieved global fame, promotes the rich and colorful culture of Nagaland and its tribes, Yepthomi said.

Asking the tribal hohos or organisations to start repairing their morungs (huts) in Kisama, and prepare for the festival, he said everyone should contribute towards its grand success.

Kisama Heritage Village is designed to resemble the map of Nagaland with tribal morungs allocated as per their geographical locations, he said.

With the Tikhir tribe getting recognition as a major tribe, a space has been earmarked for them to set up the 18th morung, he added.

At present, Nagaland has 18 recognised major tribes.

The seven tribal hohos under Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) did not attend Monday’s meeting alleging negligence towards them during the festivities. They have also declared that they would not participate in the Hornbill Festival.

Yepthomi said the government will speak to ENPO functionaries on the matter soon. “We hope they will join the celebrations,” he said. PTI NBS SOM SOM

New Delhi,(PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday carried out raids in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in connection with a case registered to probe the "emerging nexus" between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers.
The raids were carried out at 50 places which covered residences of noted gangsters, officials said.
The NIA had registered the case on August 26 after it identified some of the "most desperate gang leaders and their associates based in India and abroad" who were spearheading and carrying out terror and criminal activities.
On September 12, the agency had conducted raids in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi after taking over cases from the Delhi Police. Those covered under the raids also included gangsters involved in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.Six pistols, a revolver and a shotgun were seized along with ammunition during those raids besides drugs, cash, incriminating documents, digital devices, details of benami property and threat letters.Many gang leaders and members, who fled from India, are operating from foreign countries, including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia and Australia, the officials said. PTI SKL CJ.

Varanasi (UP),(PTI) A Varanasi court on Monday turned down seven applications for becoming a party in the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case. Hearing the case, district judge AK Vishvesha rejected the plea of seven people. It will give its verdict on three other applications, that it heard during the day, on the next date of hearing on October 21, government counsel Mahendra Pandey said.

The people who had filed applications for becoming a party include former mahant of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Kulpati Tiwari, Hindu Sena national president Vishnu Gupta, weaver Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, president of regional Brahmin Mahasabha Ajay Kumar Sharma among others, Pandey said.

While some of the applicants prayed for becoming a party in the case seeking permission for regular worship of deities whose idols are located on an outer wall of the mosque, others said they had detailed information about the case which is why they need to be made a party, Pandey said.

 PTI

New Delhi, October 18

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday will address the 90th Interpol general assembly that will be attended by delegations from 195 member countries comprising ministers, police chiefs of countries, heads of national central bureaus and senior police officers.

The general assembly will be held from October 18 to 21 here.

Modi will address the 90th Interpol general assembly on October 18 at around 1.45 pm in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

The meeting will be attended by delegations from 195 Interpol member countries comprising ministers, police chiefs of countries, heads of national central bureaus and senior police officers.

The general assembly is Interpol's supreme governing body and meets once a year to take key decisions related to its functioning.

The meeting is taking place in India after a gap of about 25 years, it was last held in 1997. 

 New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed concern over India's high import bill for edible oil, fertilisers and crude oil, and said there is a need to work in a mission mode to make the country self-reliant and reduce import dependence.

With international energy prices soaring after the war in Ukraine, India will spend a record Rs 2.5 lakh crore to subsidise fertilizer for farmers. Another USD 120 billion is spent on importing crude oil and the two together are the biggest drain on exchequer.

Addressing PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 event here, Prime Minister released the 12th installment of the cash support that the government had launched ahead of the 2019 general elections, and launched a scheme to brand all subsidised fertiliser under one brand 'Bharat' to eliminate product differentiation and confusion multiple brands cause in the minds of farmers.

 New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) Senior bureaucrat S Kishore has been re-employed as the chairman of Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for a period of one-year beyond his retirement in January next year to January 31, 2024, a Personnel Ministry order said on Monday.

He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of West Bengal cadre belonging to 1989 batch.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved re-employment of Kishore as chairman, Staff Selection Commission in the rank and pay of Secretary to the government of India on contract basis for a period of one year beyond the date of his superannuation (31.01.2023) i.e. up to 31/01/2024 or until further orders, it said.