Rajnath Singh, Munda, Sonowal, Khattar among BJP observers to pick new CMs
New Delhi, Dec 8: The BJP on Friday appointed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda as central observers for the election of its legislature party leaders in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh respectively.
The legislature party leaders will become chief ministers of the three states and the meetings to elect them may take place over the weekend. There is a view within the party that its leadership may usher in fresh faces at the helm of these states.
Singh will be joined by the party's vice president Saroj Pandey and its general secretary Vinod Tawde as central observers for Rajasthan amid an intense buzz within the BJP that the leadership will bring in a new leader, ignoring the claim of two-time former chief minister Vasundhara Raje.
The choice of Singh, one of the senior most BJP leaders, is likely to help build a consensus around the leadership's chief ministerial choice among MLAs, a number of whom are seen as supporting Raje.
Khattar will be joined by the party's OBC Morcha head K Laxman and its secretary Asha Lakra for the Madhya Pradesh legislature party meeting, while Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and BJP general secretary Dushwant Kumar Gautam will be central observers for Chhattisgarh along with Munda.
In Madhya Pradesh where the BJP scored its biggest victory among the three states with a two-thirds majority, current Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's stake has gone up with the win but there is a view that the party leadership is looking at a leadership change after his 18-year uninterrupted stint in power except for 15 months after the 2018 assembly polls.
The BJP is looking to hand over the reins to an OBC or tribal leader in Chhattisgarh, sources said, adding that ST leaders like Lata Usendi, Gomati Sai and Renuka Singh are natural contenders for the top job besides state party president Arun Sao and bureaucrat-turned-politician O P Choudhary, both from backward castes.
The party will like to pick at least one woman chief minister at a time Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been highlighting women voters' support to the BJP and often speaking of the need for women-led development.
Two of three observers for Chhattisgarh are from tribal communities while Gautam comes from the Scheduled Castes.
The BJP has won the three states in the recently held assembly elections with thumping margins, brushing aside the challenge from the Congress in each of them.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
