by admin | May 25, 2021 | News

Tejashwi Yadav
The mandate favoured Mahagathbandhan, but the Election Commission’s result was in NDA’s favour, says RJD leader
NEW DELHI – RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has made serious allegations of fraud in the counting of postal ballots saying polling officials had acted like a “prakoshth” (cell) of the BJP. “The mandate favoured Mahagathbandhan, but the Election Commission’s result was in NDA’s favour,” he alleged in Patna during a press conference soon after being elected leaders of the Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance of his own party as well Congress and Left parties.
He said 20 candidates of Grand alliance have been defeated by narrow margin of 10 to 50 votes. This was done through indiscriminate invalidation of postal ballots. “In so many constituencies, postal ballots were counted in the end and not at the beginning of counting which is the norm. Moreover, there were seats where as many as 900 postal ballots were invalidated,” he alleged.
He said the option of postal ballots is used by educated people, mostly government employees. “Invalidation of one, two, ten or even 50 postal ballots is understandable. But how come how come bulk of votes, from 700 to 900 be declared invalid, that too without explaining to the candidates,” he asked.
“We demand recounting of postal ballots in all such constituencies and the process be videographed,” Yadav asserted.
He said his alliance will write to the Election Commission and point out the “discrepancies”.
Yadav mocked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD-U has been relegated to the third position in terms of seat tally, and wondered whether the latter would “heed his conscience and give up his attachment to the chair”.
Asked whether the Mahagathbandhan would try to muster numbers to form its own government, he said, “We will go to the people who gave the mandate. If they express such a wish we will act accordingly.” Quoting election data, he claimed the NDA got only 12,270 votes more than the Grand Alliance.
“We got support of the people but NDA achieved poll victory through dhan, chhal and bal (money, deceit and muscle),” alleged Yadav.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar could not stop this 31-year-old. They could not stop the RJD from becoming the single-largest party,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Grand Alliance is reported to be in touch with at least two of its former allies who are now in the NDA camp. The RJD has ended up with 110 seats and needs 12 more to get to the winning number in the Assembly, which, sources said, it can get if it gets the AIMIM (with five seats) and two NDA partners, the Mukesh Sahani-led Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), on its side.
Though Sahani himself lost from Simri Bakhtiarpur, his party VIP and Manjhi’s HAM(S) have four seats each. The two parties were with the Mahagathbandhan and had switched over to the NDA just before the elections.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi at a election rally in Bihar
But AIMIM’s wait for victory in Bihar ended in October 2019 when the party opened its account in the state assembly by winning the Kishanganj seat
Mumtaz Alam | NEW DELHI
Despite massive crowds in rallies and favourable exit polls after voting, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led grand alliance or Mahagathbandhan (MGB) fell short of only 12 seats from the simple majority mark in the just-concluded elections to the 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly while the ruling BJP-led NDA managed to retain power.
There is a perception that Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) directly or indirectly damaged the alliance. But does the result data support this charge? Here is an in-depth analysis:
AIMIM fielded 19 candidates, most of them in the four districts of eastern Bihar, popularly known as Seemanchal–Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia and Araria. Its candidates included 15 from the Muslim community, 2 from Scheduled Castes and 1 from Scheduled Tribes.
Out of these 19 seats, while MGB won 9 seats and NDA walked away with 5 seats, AIMIM also bagged 5 seats, its best performance ever in assembly polls outside Telangana.
Let’s first analyse the 5 seats won by NDA, including 3 by BJP. Did division of votes among non-NDA parties, including AIMIM, help NDA win those seats?
The table below shows that in all 5 seats won by NDA, the AIMIM was nowhere in the fight. In 3 seats, AIMIM got less than 3,000 votes and in 2 others it got less than 6,000 votes. NDA won all these seats directly, defeating MGB with a sizable margin of more than 15,000 votes in 3 constituencies.
The lowest victory margin for NDA (2,304 votes) was in the Raniganj (SC) reserved seat. Here, AIMIM’s Roshan Devi got 2,412 votes but some other smaller parties, and even NOTA, got more votes than AIMIM’s. The seat was won by BJP.
Another seat won by BJP with low margin was Pranpur in Katihar. The party won the seat by defeating Tauqeer Alam of the Congress with a margin of 2,972 votes. Here, AIMIM’s Hasan Mahmood Ahmad got just 508 votes while even an Independent candidate Ishrat Parween got 19,746 votes.
Division of Votes on Seats Won by NDA |
Candidate |
Constituency (District) |
AIMIM |
Mahagathbandhan |
NDA |
Winner (Victory Margin) |
Hadis |
Narpatganj(Araria) |
5495 |
69787 (RJD) |
98397 (BJP) |
BJP28610 |
Roshan Devi |
Raniganj (SC)(Araria) |
2412 |
79597 (RJD) |
81901 (JDU) |
JDU2304 |
Hasan Mahmood Ahmad |
Pranpur(Katihar) |
508 |
77002 (Congress)Tauqeer Alam |
79974 (BJP) |
BJP2972 |
Alam |
Chhatapur(Supaul) |
1990 |
73120 (RJD) |
93755 (BJP) |
BJP20635 |
Md. Moqeem |
Sahebganj(Muzaffarpur) |
4055 |
65870 (RJD) |
81203 (VIP) |
VIP15333 |
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Let’s now move to the 5 seats won by AIMIM. Did Owaisi’s party win these seats by defeating MGB candidates?
The table below will make it clear that the AIMIM won 4 of these seats by directly defeating NDA candidates, not MGB, and with huge margins–the highest above 50,000 votes. It defeated 2 candidates of JDU and 1 each of BJP and VIP. On Jokihat seat, AIMIM defeated sitting MLA of RJD Sarfaraz Alam.
AIMIM got its biggest victory margin in Amour seat in Purnia district where party’s Bihar president Akhtarul Iman polled 94,459 votes and defeated Saba Zafar of JDU with a whopping 52,515-vote margin. Saba Zafar had won this seat as BJP’s lone Muslim candidate in the 2010 Bihar assembly polls–he had won the seat by defeating Abdul Jalil Mastan of the Congress with a margin of 18,828 votes. This time, Mastan finished on the third position.
It is interesting to know that in the 2015 assembly elections, JDU had won 2 of these 5 seats, the Congress 2 and RJD had won 1 seat. All the winners were Muslim faces. This time, Muslim faces of AIMIM have won these seats.
Vote Share on Seats won by AIMIM |
Seat (District) |
AIMIM |
1st Runner-up |
2nd Runner-up |
Victory Margin-AIMIM |
Winner in 2015 |
Bahadurganj(Kishanganj) |
Md Anzar Nayeemi85855 votes |
Lakhan Lal Pandit (VIP)40640 votes |
Md. Tauseef Alam (Congress) 30204 votes |
45215 votes |
Md. Tauseef Alam (Congress) |
Kochadhaman(Kishanganj) |
Muhammad Izhar Asfi 79893 votes |
Mujahid Alam (JDU) 43750 votes |
Mohammad Shahid Alam (RJD) 26134 votes |
36143 votes |
Mujahid Alam (JDU) |
Jokihat(Araria) |
Shahnawaz59596 votes |
Sarfaraz Alam (RJD) 52213 votes |
Ranjit Yadav (BJP) 48933 votes |
7383 votes |
Sarfraz Alam (JDU) |
Baisi(Purnia) |
Syed Ruknuddin Ahmad 68416 votes |
Vinod Kumar (BJP) 52043 votes |
Abdus Subhan (RJD) 38254 votes |
16373 votes |
Abdus Subhan (RJD) |
Amour(Purnia) |
Akhtarul Iman94459 votes |
Saba Zafar (JDU) 41944 votes |
Abdul Jalil Mastan (Congress) 31863 votes |
52515 votes |
Abdul Jalil Mastan (Congress) |
In the October 2015 assembly polls in Bihar, Owaisi’s AIMIM had fielded six candidates. They together polled 80,248 votes. Five out of six candidates had forfeited their deposits. However, four years later, in May 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party fielded its state president Akhtarul Iman in Kishanganj and he got a record number of 2,95,029 votes but finished at No. 2. The seat was won by Congress candidate Dr Mohammad Jawaid.
Division of Votes on 19 Seats Contested by AIMIM |
Candidate |
Constituency (District) |
AIMIM |
Mahagathbandhan |
NDA |
Winner (Victory Margin) |
Mohammad Anzar Nayeemi |
Bahadurganj(Kishanganj) |
85855 |
30204 (Congress) |
40640 (VIP) |
AIMIM 45215 |
Muhammad Izhar Asfi |
Kochadhaman(Kishanganj) |
79893 |
26134 (RJD) |
43750 (JDU) |
AIMIM 36143 |
Md. Qamrul Hoda |
Kishanganj(Kishanganj) |
41904 |
61078 (Congress) |
59697 (BJP) |
Congress 1381 M |
Mahbub Alam |
Thakurganj(Kishanganj) |
18925 |
79909 (RJD) |
22082 (JDU) |
RJD23887 M |
Shahnawaz |
Jokihat(Araria) |
59596 |
52213 (RJD) |
48933 (BJP) |
AIMIM7383 |
Hadis |
Narpatganj(Araria) |
5495 |
69787 (RJD) |
98397 (BJP) |
BJP28610 |
Roshan Devi |
Raniganj (SC)(Araria) |
2412 |
79597 (RJD) |
81901 (JDU) |
JDU2304 |
Md. Rashid Answer |
Araria(Araria) |
8924 |
103054 (Congress) |
55118 (JDU) |
Congress 47936 M |
Hasan Mahmood Ahmad |
Pranpur(Katihar) |
508 |
77002 (Congress)Tauqeer Alam |
79974 (BJP) |
BJP2972 |
Goreti Murmu |
Manihari (ST)(Katihar) |
2475 |
83032 (Congress) |
61823 (JDU) |
Congress 21209 |
Syed Ruknuddin Ahmad |
Baisi(Purnia) |
68416 |
38254 (RJD) |
52043 (BJP) |
AIMIM 16373 |
Akhtarul Iman |
Amour(Purnia) |
94459 |
31863 (Congress) |
41944 (JDU) |
AIMIM 52515 |
Md Shahbaz Alam |
Kasba(Purnia) |
5316 |
77410 (Congress) |
60132 (LJP) |
Congress17278 |
Rizwanullah |
Sikta(Paschim Champaran) |
8519 |
49075 (CPI-ML(L)) |
35798 (JDU) |
CPI-ML(L)2302 |
Alam |
Chhatapur(Supaul) |
1990 |
73120 (RJD) |
93755 (BJP) |
BJP20635 |
Md. Moqeem |
Sahebganj(Muzaffarpur) |
4055 |
65870 (RJD) |
81203 (VIP) |
VIP15333 |
Gore Lal Ray |
Sahebpur Kamal(Begusarai) |
7933 |
64888 (RJD) |
50663 (JDU) |
RJD14225 |
Kumari Pratibha |
Phulwari (SC)(Patna) |
5019 |
91124 (CPI-ML(L)) |
77267 (JDU) |
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by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Opinions

Pappu Yadav (second from left) and other alliance leaders in Patna ( File Photo Courtesy Facebook)

Shams Khan
By Shams Khan |Patna
Even as NDA is battling a strong anti-incumbency wave ahead of Bihar Assembly election the formation of two additional fronts could provide some breather for it. The composition of both the front primarily featuring Yadav, Muslim and Dalits– the constituencies on which the opposition Grand Alliance’s hope depends– suggest some design.

For example, Pappu Yadav’s outfit Jan Adhikar Party stitched an alliance with Dalit leader Chandra Shekhar Azad Raven’s Azad Samaj Party along with Social Democratic Party of India.
Then, Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party joined hands with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, Omprakash Rajbhar Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and former Union minister Devendra Prasad Smajwadi Janata Dal Democratic to form Grand Democratic Secular Front.
True, Muslim voters are as politically conscious as any other community of the state. Thus, in spite of leaders like Chandra Shekhar Azad, Pappu Yadav and Assaduddin Owaisi touching their sensibilities, it is highly unlikely that they will vote for these leaders in any sizeable number, considering they do not have a social base.
Yet, apart from their appeal since these leaders are fielding large number of Muslim candidates, it could certainly cause confusion. This is also due to the fact that AIMIM is known for its community-oriented rhetoric. Ironically, the Hyderabad based party goes overboard to blame the Congress and RJD for the backwardness of the community in the state, though the duo has been out of power for the last one and half decades.
What is inherent in this type of Muslim politics is that it causes counter polarisation. Be it in Bihar, Jharkhand and UP and Bihar the AIMIM has got insignificant number of votes, yet the party has succeeded in pushing a large number of neutral majority community votes towards the BJP.
“Our objective is to poach away as much Muslim vote as possible as we know they would primarily be voting for RJD and its allies. Even if we get success in tucking away 10-15%votes, it would cost Grand Alliance dearly and consequently will ease the way of NDA” a Janata Dal United leader privately revealed the strategy of his party to this correspondent.
JDU has given tickets to 11 Muslims candidates therefore it is clear that the party is going along with its plan. What is important to note here is that despite strong prevailing anger of common Muslims towards JDU after the party supported the Citizenship Amendment Bill a section of religious leadership have been still showing their loyalty towards chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Similarly, efforts are on by all the alliances to woo Yadav voters by giving tickets to a sizeable number of candidates of this caste. Though JDU has given tickets to 19 Yadav’s yet it is expected that the votes of this caste will overwhelmingly go for RJD.
If even a small amount of Muslim and Yadav get scatter it may spoil the prospect of GA in some constituencies, where the battle is very tough.
Independent political observers fear that the scattering of Muslim votes may in the long run decrease the electoral importance of the community in the state.
Shams Khan is a Patna based journalist and associated with https://www.thenewsweb.in
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions

Image – ET
By Ram Puniyani
As Covid 19 has created havoc all rounds, the rulers of certain countries are using it to further intensify their set agendas. The democratic freedoms are being curtailed in certain forms, the reaction to which has come in America in the form of a campaign, which is opposing “stifling” cultural climate that is imposing “ideological conformity” and weakening “norms of open debate and toleration of differences”. In India similar intimidations have been intensified. In addition the occasion has been used by the sectarian forces first to link the spread of Corona to Muslim community and now in the name of reducing the burden of curriculum certain chapters on core concepts related to Indian nationalism are being deleted from the text books.
It has been reported that chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism, Human Rights, Legal Aid and Local Self Government and the like are being dropped. Education has been an important area for communal forces and they constantly keep saying that leftists have dominated the curriculum content, it suffers from the impact of Macaulay, Marx and Mohammad and so needs to be Indianized. The first such attempt was done when BJP came to power in 1998 as NDA and had Murli Manohar Joshi as the MHRD minister. He brought the changes which were termed as ‘saffronization of education’. Their focus is more on social science. Some of the highlights of this were introduction of subjects like Astrology and Paurohitya, and chapters defending caste system, nationalism of the type of Hitler was praised.
With defeat of NDA in 2004, the UPA did try to rectify some of these distortions. Again after 2014 the RSS affiliates working in the area of education have been active, interacting with MHRD officials to impress upon them the need to change the curriculum matching with their Hindu nationalist agenda. Its ‘Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas’ has been asking for removal of English, Urdu words in the texts. It has asked for removal of thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on Nationalism, extracts of autobiography of M F Husain, references to benevolence of Muslim rulers, references to BJP being Hindu party, apology of Dr. Manmohan Singh for anti Sikh pogrom of 1984, the reference to killings of Gujarat carnage in 2002 among others. This they call as Bhartiykaran of syllabus.
As RSS is a multithreaded hydra one of its pracharak Dinanath Batra has set up ‘Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan Samiti’ which has been pressurizing various publishers to drop the books which are not conforming to their ideology. One recalls their pressuring withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s ‘The Hindus’, as it does present the ancient India through the concerns of dalits and women. Mr. Batra has already come out with a set of nine books for school curriculum, giving the RSS view of the past and RSS understanding of social sciences. These have already been translated into Gujarati and thousands of the sets of these books are being used in Gujarat Schools.
The present step of deleting parts of curriculum which gives the basics of Indian Nationalism, secularism and human rights is a further step in the same direction. These are the topics which have made the Hindu nationalists uncomfortable during last few years. They have been defaming secularism. They removed it from the preamble of Indian constitution, when they put out an ad on the eve of Republic day in 2015. From last few decades since the Ram Temple movement was brought up, simultaneously the secular ethos of India’s freedom movement and secular values of Indian constitution have been constantly criticized. Many an RSS ideologues and BJP leaders have been asking for change of Indian Constitution for this very reason.
Secularism is part of the concept of Indian nationalism. In the name of religious nationalism, sectarian divisive nationalism they have been attacking various student leaders in particular. When we study Nationalism, the very genesis of Indian nationalism tells us the plurality of our freedom movement with its anti colonial roots. The struggle was for Indian nationalism and so the Muslims and Hindu communalists kept aloof from this great struggle against colonial masters, it was this struggle which built the Indian nation with all its diversity.
Similarly as we have equal rights as citizens the chapters on citizenship are being dropped. Federalism has been the core part of India’s administrative and political structure. As the dictatorial tendencies are becoming stronger, federalism is bound to suffer and that explains the dropping of this subject. Democracy is decentralization of power. Power reaching the lowermost part of the system, the villages and average citizens. This got reflected in Local self Government. The power is distributed among villages, cities, state and center. By removing chapters on federalism and local self government, the indications of the ideology of ruling party are on display.
While we are not dealing with all the portents of the planned omissions, one more aspect that related to dropping of chapter on Human rights needs our attention. The concept of Human rights and dignity are interlinked. This concept of Human rights also has international ramifications. India is signatory to many an UN covenants related to Human rights. The indications are clear that now rights will be for the few elite and ‘duties’ for the large deprived sections will be put on the forefront.
In a way this incidental ‘Corona gifted opportunity’ to the ruling Government is being fully used to enhance the agenda of ruling party in the arena of Educational Curriculum. The part of curriculum with which the ruling party is uncomfortable is being removed. This act of omission does supplement their other acts of commission in changing the shape of educational curriculum, which are reflected in RSS affiliates’ suggestions to MHRD regarding Bhartiyakaran of contents of syllabus. As per this the things like regarding the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata as History, the things like India having all the stem cell technology, plastic surgery, aviation science etc. will have a place in the changes planned by communal forces!
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Economy, Events, News, Politics
New Delhi : Noting that his government had achieved the unprecedented dual objective of sustained high growth combined with low inflation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said innovation and technology would provide the backbone of “resurgence” for a “new India”.
Addressing the ET Global Business Summit, Modi said that unlike earlier governments in the post-liberalisation era, the outgoing National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had achieved both sustained high growth of over 7 per cent and low single-digit inflation.
“The previous government achieved an average annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent with inflation in double digits,” he said.
“However, between 2014 and 2019, the average annual growth rate has been 7.4 per cent, while the average inflation rate has been 4.5 per cent. Post the liberalisation in 1991, this has been the highest rate of average growth combined with the lowest average rate of inflation.”
He said the current transformation underway in the economy was the result of sound macroeconomic fundamentals which is reflected, for instance, in the “increasing bouquet of financing resources”.
“There is no more the sole dependence on bank credit for raising capital. While between 2012 and 2014, the average finance raised through equity was Rs 14,000 crore per annum, in the last four years this average has gone up to Rs 43,000 crore,” he said.
“Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) raised less than an average of Rs 4,000 crore between 2011-14, but under our government AIF, during 2014-18, this figure has gone up to Rs 81,000 crore, recording a jump of 20 times,” Modi added.
Declaring that “New India” would be an active contributor to the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the Prime Minister said that “innovation and technology will form the backbone of this resurgence”.
Citing indicators of the resurgence, Modi said that the number of patents granted had gone up over three-fold, from 4,000 in 2013 to 13,000 in 2017-18.
“Trademarks registered have gone up from 68,000 in 2013-14 to 2.5 lakh in 2016-17, a four-fold increase,” he added.
—IANS