Haryana polls: BJP MP Naveen Jindal's mother files nomination from Hisar as Independent
Hisar, Sep 12: The BJP's Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal's mother Savitri Jindal, who was an aspirant of a poll ticket from the party for the Haryana Assembly elections, filed her nomination from the Hisar seat as an Independent on Thursday.
On the last day of the filing of nominations, 74-year-old Savitri, the wife of noted industrialist late O P Jindal, entered the fray against Haryana Minister and sitting MLA from Hisar Kamal Gupta.
Forbes India has listed her as the richest woman in the country this year having a net worth of USD 29.1 billion.
Polling for the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and the results will be declared on October 8.
After filing her nomination, she said, "I have pledged to serve Hisar for its development and transformation. The people of Hisar are my family and Om Prakash Jindal had established my relationship with this family."
"The Jindal family has always served Hisar. I am fully dedicated to living up to the expectations of the people and maintaining their trust," Savitri Jindal.
When the BJP fielded Kamal Gupta from the Hisar Assembly segment, Savitri Jindal was asked by reporters if her contesting the seat against the ruling party would not amount to rebellion.
"It won't be considered so. I had only campaigned for my son (Naveen Jindal in the Lok Sabah polls). I have not taken any membership (of the BJP)," she had said.
Savitri Jindal was elected as an MLA from the Hisar seat twice. She became represented Hisar in the Haryana Assembly for the first time in 2005 as a Congress MLA. She was reelected from the seat in 2009 and was made a minister in the Singh Hooda government in 2013. She quit the Congress in March this year when her son Naveen Jindal also left the party and later joined the BJP.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
