Issue of PM candidate will be taken up after polls: Opposition

Opposition parties have reached a “strategic understanding to work together” to stop the BJP-RSS combine from coming to power in 2019 and the issue of a Prime Ministerial candidate will be tackled later in a two-stage action plan, top Congress sources said on Friday.

Top leaders said discussions on the Prime Ministerial candidate is divisive at this stage. “So the focus is to have one platform where every like-minded Opposition party can be accommodated without any confusion and disruption.”

Leaving the choice of a PM candidate for post-poll discussions is significant as already West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has positioned herself as the front-runner. BSP chief Mayawati too has not shied away from expressing her prime ministerial ambitions if the grand alliance does well in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress is of the view that alliances and pre-poll understanding in States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra are crucial in the Opposition’s effort to stop PM Narendra Modi.

Party leaders claim that the alliance in Maharashtra with Sharad Pawar’s NCP is cemented and so is the case with Lalu Prasad’s RJD in Bihar. But in Uttar Pradesh, which elects 80 Lok Sabha members, the party is yet to stitch up a grand alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has authorized Congress chief Rahul Gandhi "to have alliances with like minded parties.

Top leaders admit that conversations are on for a tie up in Uttar pradesh even as they denied media reports that Congress may be offered no more than two or three seats in the State on the basis of its strength.

Congress pins hopes on Hindi heartland

The party is looking at Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Haryana among States where it expects to do well in next Lok Sabha polls. And that will help catapult it to the centre-stage of an opposition alliance.

In States like Delhi and Punjab, where the Congress and AAP are on the same side in their opposition the Modi government, top leadership of the Congress will give priority to the views of the State unit.

Despite its now strident opposition to the BJP, the Congress will not have any understanding with Shiv Sena since their ideologies don't align.

Senior leaders of the Congress are of the view that if the BJP doesn't get 230 seats or more on its own, NDA allies may prefer another Prime Ministerial candidate over Mr Narendra Modi.

Top leaders of the Congress asserted that despite attempts to tie them down in a polarising discourse, the Congress would run a campaign that would focus on a new deal for farmers, jobs and opportunities for India's youth.

the man made flood of chennai

The WRD had claimed that a supervision mechanism was in place but the CAG report said that no record was made available on any communications between the Section Officer (in-charge of the tank) with departmental/government officials.

Even if there was communication with the Chief Engineer as claimed by the WRD, the fact remains that the actual inflow and outflow was not regulated as per Central Water Commission (CWC) norms, the report charged.

The WRD had the opportunity to store 0.268 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) more at the tank where the storage stood at 3.377 tmc on December 1, 2015 at 2 pm when the discharge was increased from 12,000 cusecs to 20,960 cusecs.

Auditor’s report says indiscriminate discharge of water from Chembarambakkam lake burdened the Adyar river

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has been scathing in its criticism of the government’s handling of the Chennai floods of 2015, going so far as to categorise it as a “man- made disaster”. It has held the government of Tamil Nadu responsible for the scale of the catastrophe, which the latter had termed a “natural disaster”.

The CAG report, ‘Flood management and response in Chennai and its suburban areas’, was tabled by the AIADMK government on Monday.

Though the report was submitted to the government in March 2016, it was not tabled, and the opposition had raised the issue in the Assembly during the last budget session.

Tabled in the Assembly during the last day of the session, the report has found fault with the government on many counts, with the Water Resources Department (WRD) drawing the maximum flak.

The report said that there was indiscriminate discharge of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir, in excess of inflows, which burdened the Adyar river, leading to floods in the city and its suburbs.'

SC to hear Delhi govt.’s pleas over exercise of its power next week

The five-judge bench had clarified that issues would be dealt separately by an appropriate smaller bench.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week the appeals of the Delhi government relating to the scope of its various powers in view of the recent verdict by a Constitution bench that held that the Lieutenant Governor has no independent power to take decisions.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had recently laid down broad parameters for the governance of the national capital, which has witnessed a power struggle between the Centre and Delhi government since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in 2014.

The bench had clarified that issues regarding various notifications issued by the Delhi government in exercise of its administrative and legislative powers would be dealt separately by an appropriate smaller bench.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the submission of the Delhi government that even after the verdict the stalemate over the issue of public services was continuing and that needed to be dealt with by an appropriate bench.

“It will be listed sometime in next week,” the bench told lawyer Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government.

The apex court had in its July 4 ruling, vindicated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has long accused the LG of preventing his government from functioning properly.

It had said that barring three issues of public order, police and land, the Delhi government has the power to legislate and govern on other issues.

There were two LGs - incumbent Anil Baijal and his predecessor Najeeb Jung- with whom Mr. Kejriwal was at loggerheads, accusing them of preventing the functioning of his government at the behest of the Centre.

Two soldiers injured in ongoing Shopian gunfight

Two soldiers have been injured as security forces encircle a group of militants in a residential area in south Kashmir's Shopian on Tuesday morning.

Initial reports suggest two Army men, including a junior commissioned officer, received injuries in the first exchange of fire, as the militants are holed up inside a house at Kundalan village, over 60 km away from Srinagar.

"Two to three militants are believed to be trapped at the encounter site," a police official said.

The Army’s 34 Rashtriya Rifles, the police's Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF gave engaged the militants in a gunfight. 

Locals said the father of an active militant, Zeenat Naikoo from Memender, died of a cardiac arrest after the militant reportedly spoke to his family on the phone. However, the police could not confirm whether Naikoo is trapped or not at the encounter site.

Scores of locals in the area resorted to stone pelting around the place of encounter. Three youth were injured in the clashes and were shifted to hospitals.

2 soldiers injured in ongoing Shopian gunfightThe district administration has ordered to close all schools "as a precautionary measure". 

Aircel-Maxis case: Chidambaram, son get protection from arrest till Aug 7

A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case till August 7.

Mr. Chidambaram had on May 30 moved the court seeking protection from arrest in the case, saying all evidence in the matter appears to be documentary in nature which is already in the possession of the incumbent government and nothing was to be recovered from him.

The court had earlier granted interim protection from arrest till Tuesday to Mr. Karti in two cases filed by the CBI and ED in 2011 and 2012, respectively in the Aircel-Maxis matter arising out of 2G spectrum cases.

The matter pertains to grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd for investment in Aircel.

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