CAA: Amit Shah to address rally at Hubballi on Jan 18
Bengaluru, Jan 8: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a huge rally at Hubballi on January 18 as part of the party's nationwide outreach programme over the Citizenship Amendment Act, the BJP's Karnataka unit said on Wednesday.
Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Anurag Singh Thakur will also address a couple of rallies in the state in favour of CAA, the party said.
More than one lakh people are expected to attend Shah's rally in Hubballi, BJP state general secretary Mahesh Tenginkai told reporters here.
While Thakur, who is the Union Minister of State for Finance, will address rallies on January 11 at Belagavi and Chikkodi, Joshi, who is Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, will address rallies at Kalaburagi and Yadgir on January 11 and in Raichur district on January 12.
Tenginkai claimed thousands of party workers have already knocked on the doors of as many as 4.65 lakh houses spread across 253 mandals and 21,000 booths as part of the outreach programme.
"There has been a tremendous response. Remaining 37,000 booths will be covered in the next coming days," he added.
Ravi Kumar, another general secretary, said elected members of the party starting from gram panchayats, to MLAs, MLCs and MPs have been directed to stay put in their respective constituencies and visit 100 houses on January 11 and 12 in a special effort to reach out to all sections and strata of society.
"In order to further intensify our campaign, we have planned bike rallies by Yuva Morcha workers in taluk headquarters, Bharat Mata Poojan by Mahila Morcha workers and intellectuals meet in district headquarters," a BJP statement said, quoting him.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
