Centre wants me to appoint Sajad Lone as CM: J&K Governor
Jammu and Kashmir, Nov 27: Amidst controversial dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik said that “the central government has wanted me to appoint Sajad Lone as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir”.
Despite efforts of other political parties like PDP which claimed stake to form the government with the support of National Congress and the Congress and another bid from the People’s Conference which has only two members along with the BJP and 18 MLAs from other parties on Wednesday night, the Governor has abruptly dissolved the Assembly.
Malik said that he did not want to go down in the history as a dishonest man.
Shortly after the Governor’s decision, Sajad Lone sent a Whatsapp message to the Governor claiming his stake to form the government with the support of BJP and 18 other MLAs, but he did not divulge the names of other MLAs.
Earlier, Malik had said that he was completely apolitical as there was no political pressure or interference from the Centre. The Governor had also said that PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah could have easily contacted him if they were serious about forming a government.
He said People's Conference leader Sajad Lone had also claimed that his two MLAs were being threatened. The dissolution has paved the way for a fresh election in the state amid speculation that it could be held with the Lok Sabha polls due early next year.
The President rule was imposed in the state on June 19 for a 6-month period following the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti after the saffron party withdrew its support to the PDP. The state assembly was also kept in suspended animation so that political parties could explore the possibility of forming a new government.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
