Congress fields ex-CM Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi, Ajay Maken from New Delhi
New Delhi: Ending months of speculation over a possible tie-up with AAP, the Congress on Monday fielded three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit from North-East Delhi and former Union minister Ajay Maken from New Delhi, as it announced names of candidates for six Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.
The Congress also fielded J P Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, Arvinder Singh Lovely from East Delhi, Rajesh Lilothia from North-West Delhi and Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi.
Dikshit, who took over from Maken as the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief earlier this year, was last a member of Parliament from 1984-89 from Kannauj. She was the chief minister of Delhi for three terms between 1998 and 2013.
Dikshit will take on BJP's sitting MP Manoj Tiwari and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Dilip Pandey.
Interestingly, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal has not been named from the Chandni Chowk seat from which he has been fighting from since 2004. After two terms, Sibal had lost to Union minister Harsh Vardhan in 2014.
Sibal had said last month that he will "certainly contest" from Delhi's Chandni Chowk seat in the Lok Sabha, irrespective of whether there is an alliance between his party and AAP.
Another interesting pick by the Congress is former DCC chief Lovely from East Delhi where he will take on AAP's Atishi. The BJP is yet to declare its candidate from the seat.
Lovely has held important portfolios such as a minister in Delhi. He had briefly joined the BJP, but returned to the Congress fold in 2018.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the South Delhi seat. In the 2014 national election, the BJP won all seven seats in Delhi.
Talks for an alliance between the Congress and AAP broke down over AAP's insistence that the grand old party should agree to share seats in Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab apart from Delhi.
The AAP has already named its seven candidates in the national capital and party's West Delhi candidate Balbir Singh Jakhar had also filed his nomination papers on Thursday.
The other six candidates who are expected to file their nominations soon are Chandni Chowk candidate Pankaj Gupta, East Delhi candidate Atishi, North West Delhi candidate Gugan Singh, South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha, North East candidate Pandey and New Delhi candidate Brajesh Goel.
The BJP on Sunday fielded its four sitting MPs from Delhi -- Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North-east Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi.
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Oracle lays off around 12,000 employees in India, another round likely within a month
New Delhi (PTI): US-based IT firm Oracle is believed to have laid off approximately 12,000 staff in India, with another round of layoffs expected within a month, impacted employees said on Tuesday.
Globally, the company has fired around 30,000 employees.
"In India, around 12,000 employees have been laid off. The company is planning another mass layoff within a month," said two people impacted by the retrenchment, including one from the company's human resource department.
The company has approximately 30,000 employees in India, including those affected by the layoffs.
Oracle declined to comment on the development.
Oracle, in an email sent to staff, said the employees were informed about certain organisational changes and "because of these changes, a decision has been taken to streamline the operations, and as a result, unfortunately, the position you currently hold will become redundant".
The company has offered 15 days' salary to each employee who has completed a year of service in India, in addition to one month of unpaid wages till termination date, leave encashment, gratuity based on eligibility and pay for a one-month notice period.
Oracle has also offered a two-month salary as a top-up.
However, the severance package is available for those who voluntarily and amicably resign from the company.
An ex-employee of Oracle, Merugu Sridhar, said that he was laid off in September for protesting against the 16-hour work shift that the company has in India.
"I contacted my friends and those who are in human resources. They shared that most of the Indians working in the US with the company have been impacted because the local laws there are very strict when it comes to the retrenchment of their citizens," Sridhar said.
