Florida Guv Ron DeSantis falls behind two Indian-Americans in New Hampshire GOP poll
Washington (PTI): Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once considered a chief rival of former president Donald Trump, has fallen behind two Indian-American presidential candidates in the latest GOP polls in the crucial early primary state of New Hampshire, a CNN survey showed.
According to the CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, Trump continues to be the first choice of 39 per cent of likely GOP primary voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
"That lags a bit behind his performance nationally, where Republican primary polling routinely finds Trump with majority support," the news channel reported.
Surprising is the continued sliding down of DeSantis. He has fallen behind two Indian-American candidates -- entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. While Ramaswamy's popularity continues to rise, Haley is fast catching up.
Ramaswamy now is next to Trump with 13 per cent support, closely followed by Haley at 12 per cent and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at 11 per cent, CNN reported.
"DeSantis' decline stems from a sharp drop-off among moderates, from 26 per cent backing him in July to 6 per cent now. He fell a smaller 8 points among conservatives," the opinion poll said.
According to the CNN poll, Ramaswamy's increase is concentrated more among those who are not registered Republicans (up 16 points since July with that group while holding relatively steady among registered Republicans) and among younger likely voters (he's up 28 points among those younger than 35 and 11 points among those in the 35-49 age group while holding about even among those aged 50 or above).
Haley's increase is a bit larger among those with more formal education (up 11 points among those who have completed some postgraduate work and 15 points among other college graduates) and among moderates (she gained 18 points with the group) while her support among conservatives is roughly even with July, the poll showed.
The Trump campaign cheered the poll results saying that "Ron DeSantis has plummeted to the fifth place in the Granite State".
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Karnataka BJP targets Priyank Kharge for sharing ''AI-generated image'', demands apology
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP has hit out at IT Minister Priyank Kharge, accusing him of spreading fake news by circulating a "malicious AI-generated image" to attack the prime minister and mislead the public about a court order.
They also accused Kharge of mocking the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' initiative and demanded an unconditional apology from him.
Kharge has since deleted the post with the image in question, which referred to the 2017 Unnao rape case.
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He said that while the image in the post may have been AI-generated and was shared due to an inadvertent oversight, "your reputation precedes you, @BJP4Karnataka".
The Delhi High Court recently suspended the jail term of expelled BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is serving life imprisonment in the Unnao rape case, saying he has already served seven years and five months in prison.
The Karnataka BJP claimed that the self-proclaimed "fact-checker" Priyank Kharge was caught spreading fake news.
"Despite holding the IT & BT portfolio, he circulated a malicious, AI-generated image to attack PM @narendramodi and mislead the public about a court order," it said.
"He shamefully mocked the 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' initiative -- a crucial scheme for empowering India’s daughters -- using lies to twist its meaning for cheap politics," the BJP alleged.
Accusing Kharge of ignoring facts, the BJP further hit out at him, saying the relief was a court order, which the CBI is challenging, and not a government decision.
"His (Kharge) post violates his own government's Hate Speech Bill by using communal imagery to ridicule a judicial process. Instead of upholding the truth, Priyank Kharge resorts to lies and communal incitement. We demand an unconditional apology and immediate legal action against this misinformation," a post by the state BJP on Friday said.
Reacting to the post, Kharge slammed the party, accusing it of continuing to honour and shield perpetrators.
"The larger issue remains: the BJP continues to honour and shield perpetrators. Why has no action been taken against the POCSO accused in Karnataka? And why is this leader still projected as a mentor and a 'guiding light’ for your party? Would you like me to fact-check it for you?” he added.
