Nikki Haley beats Donald Trump in Washington DC for first primary victory
Washington, Mar 4: Indian-American presidential candidate Nikki Haley has won her first Republican nominating contest by defeating rival Donald Trump in Washington DC, injecting new life into her campaign ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday contest.
Haley, 51, received 1,274 votes (62.9 per cent) against 676 votes (33.2 per cent) received by her main rival and former President Trump.
Haley will receive all 19 Republican delegates who were up for grabs in Washington DC, giving her 43 delegates nationwide - well behind Trump's 247.
The contest took place over the weekend in a downtown hotel just steps away from the heart of DC's lobbying hub.
With this, Haley has created history by becoming the first woman ever to win a Republican presidential primary. She is also the first Indian-American to have won either the Democratic or the Republican primaries. The three other previous Indian
American presidential aspirants Bobby Jindal in 2016, Kamala Harris in 2020 and Vivek Ramaswamy in 2024 had failed to win even one primary.
Haley, the former US envoy to the UN, lost in South Carolina, her home state. But she is the first woman to win a Republican primary in US history.
The former South Carolina governor's victory came after she was crushed by Trump in caucuses in Missouri and Idaho and at a Republican convention in Michigan on Saturday.
"It's not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos," Haley's campaign national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said.
However, the Trump campaign said the results showed that Haley is being crowned "Queen of the Swamp."
"Tonight's results in Washington DC reaffirm the object of President Trump's campaign he will drain the swamp and put America first," said Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign's Press Secretary.
"While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders who want to protect the failed status quo. The swamp has claimed their queen," she said.
"Trump will fight for every American who is being let down by these very DC insiders and devastated by Joe Biden's failures," Leavitt said.
Trump, 77, is likely to face 81-year-old incumbent US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 election.
Trump has dominated every other early nominating contest and is poised to rack up more delegates on Super Tuesday on March 5.
Haley has for weeks pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday when 15 states and American Samoa will hold nominating contests.
Super Tuesday is an important new phase of presidential primaries when the early contests are over and voters from multiple states cast ballots in primaries timed to occur on the same date.
Primaries on Tuesday may offer the final opportunity for Haley's quixotic and lacklustre effort to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
Haley's victory, though a first, did not come as a major surprise. Many in Washington believed the District represented her best, and perhaps only, chance to win a primary.
Trump's hold on the capital's Republicans, which counts roughly 22,000 registered voters, has never quite reflected his dominance across the country. Trump won the primary in 2020, running uncontested, but finished third in the 2016 cycle, CNN reported.
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Stalin lashes out at Centre, calls union budget a 'revenge' against country
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday launched a sharp attack against the ruling BJP at the Centre over the 2024-25 Union Budget, calling it a 'revenge' taken by the saffron party against the country and warned it will face more electoral defeats since it was committing "mistake after mistake."
Explaining his decision to boycott the Niti Aayog meeting scheduled in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Stalin said he was 'compelled' to speak in the people's forum, seeking justice due to the "discriminatory attitude" towards Tamil Nadu reflected in the budget.
The state's pleas for disaster relief to the tune of Rs 37,000 crore and Chennai Metro Rail's second phase were not heeded to, he said in a statement.
Further, the BJP runs "the government with political motive".
"The budget presented on July 23 is evidence of this. In the recently held parliamentary elections, the people of various states defeated the anti-people BJP. The Budget presented by Union Finance Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) seems like a vengeful act against the States and people who boycotted the BJP. Instead of preparing a budget for the welfare of all Indians, she has prepared a budget to take revenge against those who voted for the INDIA bloc," he alleged.
The Union BJP government was disregarding Tamil Nadu continuously.
The Centre has held up funds that should have been released as usual for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, he said and alleged the former is 'adamant' that it will release funds only after agreeing to implement the NEP.
On the announcement that the stamp duty levied by the states will be reduced, he said it was done so without consulting the states. The GST system has already taken away the right of taxation powers away from the states.
"When they have not even disbursed the GST compensation of Rs 20,000 crore to Tamil Nadu, who gave them the authority to alter the tax levying system of the states. The middle-class is suffering without any concession in income tax for the last 10 years. The Union Government is patting their own back for announcing a meagre tax benefit of up to Rs 17,500 per year to individual taxpayers under the NTR (New Tax Regime) when majority can't avail that too," the CM said.
"This is not just a budget taking revenge on Tamil Nadu—it is a budget that takes revenge against entire India! This is a 'save the government budget' of BJP to remain in power. As the voice of the people of Tamil Nadu, in fact, as the voice of all the Indian people, let me say something--You (BJP) are committing mistake after mistake. You will suffer more and more defeats. Just as both houses of the Indian Parliament are in outrage, the hearts of Indian people are also raging against you. The BJP must answer," Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said.
