BJP's Kurseong MLA to contest as Independent candidate against party's Darjeeling LS nominee
Kolkata, Mar 25: BJP's Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma on Monday announced that he would contest as an Independent candidate in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat against the party's nominee Raju Bista.
Sharma, while speaking to PTI over the phone, said he would remain within the BJP while contesting as an Independent and the party can take any disciplinary action it desires but he does not intend to sever ties with the party on his own.
"Bista is not my candidate. We do not want an outsider. It is unfortunate that the BJP could not find any 'Bhumi Putra' (son of the soil)," Sharma said.
He said this was the fourth time that a person not hailing from the Darjeeling hills was nominated by the BJP, and such candidates "do not raise the real issues of the people".
"This is a slap on the face of the 17 lakh voters of Darjeeling hills," he added.
The BJP MLA from Kurseong, who is a vocal supporter of the creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland, highlighted the historical success of the BJP in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat since 2009.
However, he criticised the party for consistently selecting candidates with no ties to the Darjeeling hills.
Reacting to the development, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "The decision to re-nominate Raju Bista is final and the party is unified over the matter. Bista will win the polls with a bigger margin."
He, however, refused to comment on Sharma's decision to contest as an Independent candidate.
While the demand for Gorkhaland dates back over a century, the statehood movement gained momentum in 1986 under Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader Subhash Ghisingh.
The movement resulted in numerous deaths and culminated in 1988 with the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. The region witnessed several bouts of violent agitations thereafter, with the latest being a 104-day-long shutdown in 2017.
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Karnataka Cabinet ratifies decisions on internal reservation for SCs
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka Cabinet has ratified its earlier decisions on internal reservation for Scheduled Castes and approved key modifications to streamline recruitment, including withdrawal and reissue of notifications and adoption of a 400-point roster system.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil on Thursday said the Cabinet reaffirmed its commitment to implementing internal reservation within the 15 per cent SC quota and expediting long-pending recruitment across departments.
"The Cabinet ratified decisions taken in earlier meetings (April 16 and April 24) and made modifications regarding reservation policies," Patil said.
He said the government will implement internal reservation within the 15 per cent quota for Scheduled Castes in specified proportions and revise recruitment notifications accordingly, with a 400-point roster to be followed.
If fewer than three roster points for SC arise in recruitment, then all 101 Scheduled Caste communities will be allowed to compete under SC general, he said.
Patil added that recruitment notifications issued without incorporating internal reservation will be withdrawn and reissued in line with the revised policy.
"If the Supreme Court approves 24 per cent reservation for SC/ST, six per cent backlog posts will be filled," he said, noting that urgent steps will be taken to fill 56,432 approved posts.
The latest decision follows the Cabinet's April 24 resolution that cleared a revised internal reservation formula within the overall 15 per cent SC quota, paving the way for long-pending government recruitment. The government had approved 5.25 per cent reservation each for the "right-hand" and "left-hand" groups, and about 4.5 per cent for other Scheduled Castes, including nomadic communities.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had then said the categorisation was worked out proportionately within the constitutional ceiling. "From tomorrow onwards, the recruitment process will begin with the issuance of notifications," he had said after the April 24 Cabinet meeting.
He also noted that the SC quota was fixed at 15 per cent and ST at three per cent in line with the 50 per cent cap laid down in the Indra Sawhney case, while pointing out that the Supreme Court had permitted internal reservation within constitutional limits.
