J-K Cong spokesperson resigns over former minister Lal Singh's participation in Bharat Jodo Yatra
Jammu (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Congress spokesperson Deepika Pushkar Nath on Tuesday resigned from the party, citing its decision to "allow" former minister Lal Singh to join the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra which will enter the Union territory later this week.
Nath said she is leaving the party on ideological grounds as Singh was responsible for sabotaging the 2018 Kathua rape case by "brazenly defending" rapists of an eight-year-old nomadic girl.
Singh, a two-time MP and three-time MLA, had switched from Congress to BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the PDP-BJP government which collapsed in June, 2018 after the national party pulled out of the alliance.
Several months before the fall of the government, Singh resigned from BJP and floated Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) following an uproar over his participation in a rally in support of the Kathua rape accused in January 2018.
He had defended his participation in the rally stating that he was there to "defuse the situation".
"In view of Ch Lal Singh's proposal of joining @bharatjodo & @INCJammuKashmir allowing the same, I am left with no other option but to resign from @INCIndia(.) Lal Singh was responsible in sabotaging the Kathua rape case in 2018 by brazenly defending rapists.
"Lal Singh divided the entire region of Jammu & Kashmir to protect the rapists and @bharatjodo is ideologically opposite. On ideological grounds, I cannot share the party platform with such a person," Nath wrote on Twitter.
A lawyer by profession, Nath took the parents of the victim to the high court at Jammu for monitoring of the investigation and also guided them to approach the Supreme Court for seeking transfer of the trial to Pathankot (Punjab).
Earlier in the day, AICC in-charge of J&K Rajni Patil told reporters here that any leader who believes in the ideology of Gandhi is welcome to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Responding to a question that Singh's joining the yatra might have a wrong impact, Patil said, "We are only focussed on our leader's march. If he believes that Gandhi is bridging the gap between different religions and castes, he is welcome."
On the hoisting of national flag at Lal Chowk by Gandhi on January 30 when the yatra is scheduled to end, she said "the tricolour always flutters high in our party office there".
"We are not moving with RSS agenda... We will unfurl the tricolour, which Gandhi is carrying from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, at our party office in Lal Chowk (instead of Clock Tower)," she said.
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Mamata accuses BJP of trying to 'rig' Bengal polls, alleges central forces acting at its behest
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused the BJP of trying to "rig" the West Bengal assembly elections, alleging that central forces and election observers were acting at the behest of the saffron party.
The BJP, however, dismissed her allegations, accusing her of "trying to create confusion sensing public anger against the TMC".
Visiting several polling booths in her Bhabanipur assembly constituency where voting is underway, Banerjee alleged that democratic norms have been severely compromised by the authorities this assembly election.
The Bhabanipur assembly segment is Banerjee's political bastion, where she is locked in a prestige battle against Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, in what is being seen as a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where he had defeated her in the 2021 assembly polls.
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"BJP wants to rig this election," she told reporters.
Stating that elections are held in West Bengal in a peaceful manner, Banerjee asked, "Is there goonda raj here?"
West Bengal has had a tradition of poll-related violence with the Calcutta High Court having ordered CBI investigations into post-poll violence after the 2021 assembly elections.
Alleging that TMC workers and leaders were facing atrocities at the hands of police and CAPF personnel, Banerjee said her party cadres "were ready to die".
The TMC supremo, who usually steps out of her Kalighat residence in the afternoon on polling day to cast her vote at Mitra Institution School, went out before 8 am and visited several polling stations in the constituency, including those in the Chetla area of south Kolkata.
She later sat outside a polling station at Chakraberia in Bhabanipur and spoke to reporters, alleging irregularities and accusing the BJP of trying to influence the polling process through central forces and observers.
"Several observers have come from outside and are acting as per the BJP's directions. People are supposed to cast their votes -- can voting take place like this?" Banerjee said.
She also alleged that all TMC party flags had been removed beforehand and claimed that outsiders were interfering with the polling process.
"They are not allowing the councillor of ward number 70 to step out. They are picking up all our boys. Abhishek and I stayed awake the entire night," she said.
Banerjee further claimed that some people from outside the state were trying to create disturbances in the constituency and sought immediate intervention from the Election Commission.
The BJP, however, dismissed her allegations, claiming that the ruling party was trying to create confusion after sensing public anger against it.
Adhikari said the CM will lose the election.
The LoP offered prayers at two temples in the constituency's Khidirpur area.
Adhikari said people are coming out in large numbers to vote, with the Election Commission making proper arrangements for ensuring free and fair election.
"Does not matter, she will lose," Adhikari told reporters about the TMC chief venturing out on polling day early in the morning in a departure from her practice of going out only in the afternoon to cast her vote.
The party's de facto second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee, on the other hand, asserted that the TMC will win with a higher number of seats than in 2021.
The Diamond Harbour MP, after casting his vote at Mitra Institution, accused the poll observers of highhandedness in different places.
"But these things will not matter, we will win by a higher number of seats this election," he told reporters.
Voting is underway in 142 constituencies in the second and final phase of the West Bengal assembly elections amid unprecedented security arrangements.
Polling began at 7 am with voters lining up outside booths across Kolkata, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Hooghly and Purba Bardhaman -- districts that together form the political and electoral core of the state.
The outcome of this phase is expected to be crucial as it covers south Bengal, considered the TMC's traditional stronghold, where the BJP is seeking major inroads.
Polling will continue till 6 pm.
The first phase of the assembly elections on April 23 had recorded a turnout of 93.19 per cent -- the highest ever in the state.
Counting of votes will take place on May 4.
