Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal was in Surat on Friday for a thanksgiving road show as AAP scored seats in civic body polls, denting the Congress. The results on Tuesday signalled AAP’s entry into Gujarat politics with 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation. The ruling BJP swept the polls across six municipal corporations in Gujarat, winning 483 out of 576 seats. In Surat, the BJP retained power by winning 93 of 120 seats, but the remaining seats were won by AAP, even though the latter lost its deposits on 59 seats. The Congress, which had won 36 seats in the Surat polls the last time, was reduced to zero. Cautioning AAP winners not to get lured by the saffron party, Kejriwal in Surat said: “If we are 27, they (BJP) are 93. Numbers don’t matter. Every man in our party is enough for 10 rivals. People of Surat have given you the role of opposition. Don’t let the rivals do anything wrong.” AAP, contesting the Gujarat civic polls for the first time, had fielded 470 candidates and except for Surat lost its deposits everywhere else.
‘Covid China’s Biological Warfare’
Indresh Kumar, RSS national executive member, has alleged that Covid-19 was an anti-human bio-weapon launched by China “to assert its supremacy”. He also gave a call to bring Lahore and Karachi under India. The RSS leader said this while addressing a gathering at the launch of a book on the life of Haryana’s first CM, the late Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, in Rohtak on Wednesday.
“It is quite clear that Covid was launched as a bio-weapon by China. That is why the virus, which originated in China, did not spread in Chinese towns and provinces in close vicinity, but spread widely in India, USA and European countries located thousands of kilometres away from China,” Kumar said.
Lakha trying to be Political Force In Punjab
Although Punjab Assembly elections are about a year away, the rise of gangster-turned-activist Lakha Sidhana is worrying the political parties in the state.
Lakha is on the run as he is wanted by the Delhi Police for the violence at Red Fort during the farmers’ agitation on Republic Day. But he held a massive rally at Mehraj village in Bhatinda, sending a political message.
His close aides made a political pitch for him by giving a call that people should reject the Congress, SAD and AAP and elect people like Lakha who only talked about Punjab. The rally gave clear indications that Lakha was eyeing to play a major political innings in the Assembly polls in 2022.
Top police sources told The Sunday Guardian that many radical groups are sensing an opportunity to recover the lost political ground on the issue in the state and, hence, have come together on one platform and started rallying behind Lakha and Deep Sidhu.
Lakha had unsuccessfully contested 2012 Assembly elections from the Rampura Phul segment on a PPP ticket, the party launched by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, which later merged into the Congress.
Praise for Meghalaya Assembly Building Work
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during his visit to Meghalaya on Thursday praised the efforts of the state Assembly and the government to complete the construction of the new assembly building soon.
The Meghalaya assembly is currently functioning in the central library auditorium in Shillong, ever since the old British era building was devastated in a fire in 2001.