MP: Ahead of polls, Kamal Nath rolls out red carpet for Bageshwar Dham sarkar in home turf Chhindwar
Chhindwara, Aug 5: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Saturday welcomed Bageshwar Dham's head priest Dhirendra Shastri in his pocket borough Chhindwara by performing his "aarti" along with his MP son Nakul Nath, a gesture viewed as soft Hindutva ahead of assembly elections.
Notably, Shastri, an advocate of Hindutva, is on a visit to Chhindwara on an invitation extended by Nath senior.
Nath and his son performed "aarti" of the 27-year-old preacher after he alighted from an aircraft.
En route to his preaching venue, thousands lined up on both sides of the road and showered flower petals on Shastri, who returned the gesture by greeting people with folded hands.
Before starting his sermon this evening, Shastri said Kamal Nath had visited him in Bageshwar Dham, his home base at Chhattarpur, in February and invited him to Simariya village to take darshan of Lord Hanuman.
The preachings of Shastri are often laced with controversial statements and demands for the establishment of Hindu Rashtra.
Kamal Nath had installed the over 101-foot tall idol of Lord Hanuman in Simariya 15 years ago, believed to be the tallest at that time in the country.
In a bid to turn the tables on the ruling BJP, the opposition Congress is trying to remodel its image by reaching out to Hindu voters ahead of assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, due later this year.
In June, Hindutva outfit Bajrang Sena merged with Congress in the presence of Kamal Nath, who had led Congress to victory in the last assembly polls.
Bajrang Sena leaders are said to be close to former minister Deepak Joshi, who had quit BJP to join Congress.
BS members had presented a mace and memorabilia to Nath and raised slogans of Jai Shriram.
In the 2019 general elections, the Congress managed to retain the Chhindwara seat with a reduced margin while the BJP went on to win the rest 28 Lok Sabha seats in MP.
Kamal Nath was first elected from Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in 1980. Since then, he won this seat eight times. He has lost only a bypoll from Chhindwara. In 2019, his son Nakul Nath won the Chhindwara LS seat.
Chhindwara falls under the Mahakoshal or Jabalpur division which comprises eight districts including Jabalpur, Katni, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Mandla, and Dindori.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress won 24 seats while the BJP 13 seats out of the 38 Assembly segments in this region. One seat was pocketed by an Independent candidate with a Congress leaning.
Overall, the Congress had won 114 of 230 seats in that election while the BJP finished second with 109 seats.
The Congress went on to form a coalition government with the support of Independents, BSP, and SP under Kamal Nath. However, that government collapsed after nearly 18 months when a string of MLAs of Congress joined the BJP led by former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, which paved the way for the return of BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister for another term.
राहुल गांधी हिंदुत्व को खतरा बताते हैं। कमलनाथ और उनके बेटे हिंदू राष्ट्र बनाकर ही मानने की बात करनेवाले बागेश्वर बाबा के चरणों में नतमस्तक हैं और छिंदवाड़ा में उनका कार्यक्रम करवा रहे हैं। क्या इसका मतलब कांग्रेस भी अब हिंदू राष्ट्र के आह्वान के साथ है?
— Sushant Sinha (@SushantBSinha) August 5, 2023
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Cash-discovery row: Delhi HC withdraws work from Justice Yashwant Varma
New Delhi(PTI): The Delhi High Court on Monday "with immediate effect" withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma, who is subject to an inquiry after the purported discovery of a large stash of cash following a fire at his official residence, till further orders.
The high court issued a notice on the development.
Another note attached to the causelist of the day on the high court's website said the court master of division bench-III, which was headed by Justice Varma, would assign dates in matters listed before Monday.
"In view of the recent events, the judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma is withdrawn with immediate effect, till further orders," the note, with the registrar (listing) as the signatory, said.
The note was issued by the registrar following a notice of Delhi High Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had previously asked Justice Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court.
Justice Varma was heading a division bench, which was dealing with cases of sales tax, goods and services tax, company appeals and other appeals of the original side.
The roster handled by the division bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar has now been allotted to a division bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.
Now the division bench-III will be headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh.
The Supreme Court on March 22 uploaded on its website the inquiry report of Chief Justice Upadhyaya -- complete with photos and videos -- over the alleged discovery.
CJI Khanna has constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Varma aside from ordering an in-house inquiry following a report from Justice Upadhyaya.
Justice Upadhyaya's report to the CJI contains material with regard to official communication that says "four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes" were found from the judge's Lutyens home.
Justice Varma has strongly denounced the allegations in the cash-discovery row and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom of his residence either by him or any of his family members.
In his response to the high court chief justice, Justice Varma said the allegation of cash discovery from his residence clearly appeared to be a "conspiracy to frame and malign him".
