Tejashwi becomes RJD's national working president
Patna (PTI): RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, younger son and heir apparent of the party's founding chief Lalu Prasad, was on Sunday named national working president, in a development that puts a seal of approval on his position in the line of succession.
The 36-year-old leader, who has enjoyed two short tenures as the deputy chief minister of Bihar and is currently the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, was named for the top party post at the RJD's national executive committee meeting held at a city hotel.
Talking to reporters, RJD principal national general secretary Abdul Bari Siddiqui said, "The decision obviously had full approval of Lalu Prasad, without whose assent no decision can be taken in the party. It was a unanimous decision".
"Lalu Prasad ji, who has nurtured the party by touring every nook and corner of Bihar, is now unable to do the same because of old age and ill health. So, even though he would continue to be the national president, it will now be incumbent upon Tejashwi Yadav to expand the party's base, within the state and also outside", said Siddiqui.
The national executive meeting was attended, among others, by Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister herself, and eldest sister Misa Bharti, the MP from Pataliputra, who was also said to have been vying for the working president's post.
Knives had been out for the young leader ever since the party was drubbed in the recently held state assembly polls, winning only 25 seats of the 243-strong House.
Yadav, who was the "chief ministerial candidate" of the Mahagathbandhan, was said to have played an instrumental role in giving tickets to RJD aspirants and deciding seat-sharing arrangements with alliance partners, including Congress and the Left.
Addressing the national executive meeting, Yadav insisted that the cadres focus on the positives, pointing out "our alliance garnered 1.90 crore votes in the elections. Never before in the RJD's history have so many people voted for an alliance headed by us".
Taking potshots at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), the RJD leader said, "He was with us till a couple of years ago and the INDIA bloc was conceptualised on Bihar's soil, with leaders across the country agreeing to bury their differences for defeating the BJP".
"Had chacha (uncle/Nitish) not done a volte face and returned to the NDA just ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-led coalition would not have been able to muster a majority, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have been denied another term in office," claimed Yadav.
He added, "Today, in politics, you are left with two options. You either fight Narendra Modi, or you fall at his feet. My path is clear as the blood of Lalu ji flows in my veins. Chacha has chosen to prostrate before Modi, and all of you must have seen his pictures".
The allusion was to a number of occasions, most recent being the swearing in of the new NDA government in Bihar in November last year, when the JD(U) supremo was caught on camera trying to touch the feet of the PM, who is just a few months his senior.
Yadav also took a veiled dig at his elder sister Rohini Acharya, who has been blaming him and his close aides, like Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav, for the RJD's poll debacle.
"There are many people who made no contributions to the party's well-being. But they have lots of ambitions, and they are trying to come up with their own analysis of the party's poor show in polls, which were held immediately after the SIR", said Yadav.
"Nonetheless, Tejashwi is keen to take along all those who remain committed to the party and infuse new vigour in the organisation. Siddiqui ji very aptly mouthed the lyrics of two famous songs, 'Ham honge kamyab ek din' and 'chhodo kal ki baatein, kal ki baat purani, naye daur mein likhenge mil kar nayi kahani'," said the young leader.
Acharya, who had received much public adulation a few years ago when she donated a kidney to her father, who was in need of a transplant, failed to win the Saran Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 elections.
After the assembly polls, she alleged that Yadav and his cohorts grew livid upon her insistence that accountability be fixed for the debacle, and accused her of "donating a filthy kidney", "in exchange for crores of rupees".
She also claimed that abuses were hurled at her and a slipper was flung to hit her, which left her horrified and made her give up politics for good and snap ties with her family.
A doctor by qualification who chose to become a homemaker, settling down with her husband based in Singapore, Acharya, nonetheless, frequently comes up with comments on the goings on in the RJD on her social media profile.
Besides Acharya, another child of the proverbial "first couple" of the RJD, elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, has been estranged. He was expelled from the party several months ago by his father, but understandably at the behest of his younger brother, who is said to have grown uneasy with his volatile temperament.
Tej Pratap Yadav has since floated his own outfit, Janshakti Janata Dal.
Several senior leaders of the NDA had turned up at a feast he threw earlier this month on the occasion of "Makar Sankranti", triggering speculations that he might be thinking of aligning with the BJP-led coalition, which his father has always fought tooth and nail.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar, four others killed in plane crash
Baramati (PTI): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board an aircraft were killed after it crashed near the Baramati airport in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Wednesday.
The 66-year-old leader’s death has not only left a vacuum in the BJP-led state coalition government, but also cast a shadow on the future of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he headed.
His uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar said the plane crash was an accident which shouldn't be politicised.
The "black box" (comprising the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder) from the aircraft, will be analysed after recovery to determine the cause of the accident, an official said.
Ajit Pawar had taken off from Mumbai in the morning to address four rallies in the day in Pune district for the February 5 zilla parishad elections.
The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
The government released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Pawar's death.
The aircraft, a Learjet, was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance it did not give any read-back' to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway.
In aviation parlance, a go-around is a standard procedure where a pilot discontinues a landing attempt and initiates a climb to fly another approach. It is used when a landing cannot be completed safely due to factors like poor weather, an unstable approach, or traffic on the runway. It is a proactive safety measure rather than an emergency.
A readback is a crucial safety procedure where a pilot repeats back the essential parts of a message or instruction received from Air Traffic Control (ATC). It acts as a "closed-loop" communication system, ensuring that the controller's instructions were heard and understood correctly by the flight crew.
The 16-year-old chartered aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures Pvt Ltd, crashed while attempting a second landing approach at Baramati airport which is an uncontrolled airfield where traffic information is typically provided by instructors and pilots from local flying training organisations.
V K Singh, owner of VSR Ventures, said the pilot apparently could not see the runway and carried out a "missed approach", a standardised procedure in such cases.
Terrifying eyewitness accounts have emerged from the site of the aircraft crash as residents near the Baramati airport described a scene of chaos as the plane appeared to lose control before erupting into a series of big explosions.
An eyewitness described watching the aircraft circle the airport, noting it appeared 'a bit unstable' before its final approach. According to her, the plane 'hit the ground hard and exploded' upon impact, with the blast being heard in homes throughout the area.
Later, the Civil Aviation Ministry, quoting the person manning the Air Traffic Control at Baramati, issued a statement about the sequence of events indicating that the flight encountered visibility issues during its landing attempt despite reports of calm weather.
The statement said that at 8.18 am, the aircraft first established contact with Baramati air traffic control after being released by the Pune approach at 30 nautical miles (around 55 km) inbound to Baramati.
The crew was advised to descend at their discretion under Visual Meteorological conditions and were also informed that winds were calm and visibility was approximately 3,000 metres.
Upon reaching the final approach for the runway, the crew reported that the runway was not in sight and initiated a go-around to reposition for a second attempt on the runway.
After initially stating the runway was still not visible, the crew reported "runway in sight" just seconds later and the ATC cleared the aircraft to land at 8.43 am.
However, the crew did not provide the mandatory readback of this final clearance and at 8.44 am, exactly one minute after the last communication, ATC personnel observed flames erupting near the threshold of the runway.
Emergency services reached the scene immediately following the explosion and the wreckage was located on the left side of the runway.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is currently analysing why the crew struggled to maintain visual contact with the runway despite the reported 3,000-metre visibility.
According to eyewitnesses, the force of the explosion was so great that parts of the aircraft were hurled through the air, landing near residential structures. "The plane tilted before coming down. We saw the explosion and it was frightening," an eyewitness said.
Another eyewitness reported that the aircraft appeared to be losing control from an altitude of approximately 100 feet above the runway.
"The way the plane was coming down, we felt it was going to crash... As we rushed towards it, we saw flames, followed by four to five consecutive blasts, which prevented us from going anywhere near the aircraft".
Pramod Madurikar, a witness at the scene, said the victims were identified shortly after the crash and were shifted to ambulances. Fire brigade personnel reached the spot shortly.
The aircraft was trying to land amid poor visibility, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu told reporters in Pune.
VSR Ventures’ fleet includes seven Learjet 45 aircraft (including the one involved in the crash), five Embraer 135BJ aircraft, four King Air B200 aircraft and one Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, the statement said.
Superintendent of Police, Sandip Singh Gill, said that after the crash, there was a fire. "People onboard were immediately taken to the hospital," he said.
Ajit Pawar is survived by wife Sunetra, a member of the Rajya Sabha and two sons, Parth and Jay.
His Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had contested the recent municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in alliance with his uncle Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP).
President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other leaders expressed grief over Pawar's demise.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who reached Baramati and met Ajit Pawar’s family members, described the NCP leader’s tragic death as unbelievable, and said he had lost a good friend.
Maharashtra government declared a three-day state mourning till January 30, during which the national flag will be flown at half-mast on all buildings.
Ajit Pawar’s last rites will be held with full state honours on Thursday in Baramati.
Modi and Shah are expected to attend the funeral, which will be held at Vidya Pratishthan ground at 11 am, the Nationalist Congress Party said.
