Polls to 11 RS Seats in UP and Uttarakhand in November
Elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and 1 in Uttarakhand, falling vacant next month, will be held on November 9.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav are among the 10 members from Uttar Pradesh retiring on November 25.
Actor-politician Raj Babbar's term as Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand also ends on November 25.
Fifth Meeting India-Mexico High Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation
The fifth meeting of India Mexico bilateral high-level group on trade, investment and cooperation was held virtually. The countries reviewed their bilateral trade and commercial relations.
The countries discussed bilateral investment treaty, audio visual co-production, cooperation Framework on phyto sanitary and sanitary products, market access for Agricultural Products and technical barriers to trade. The countries also discussed on cooperation in intellectual property rights. They held talks about ways to promote tourism and people to people contact.
The countries also agreed to diversify their trade relationship in the the fields of medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, Agro products, Health care, fisheries, Aerospace and food processing industries.
During the fifth meeting of bilateral high level group on trade investment in cooperation, the countries signed two Memorandum of understanding. An MoU was signed between Mexican Chamber of Electronics telecommunication and information Technologies, called CANIETI and Electronics and Computer software export Promotion Council of India, called ESC.
Mehbooba Mufti Released
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti was released as the Union Territory administration revoked the Public Safety Act charges against her, more than a year after she was detained following the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state.
Mehbooba was initially put under preventive custody on August 5, 2019, and later booked under the stringent PSA in February.
Oct 13, 2020
BJP Expels 9 Party Leaders Contesting Polls on LJP Ticket
The Bharatiya Janata Party expelled nine of its party leaders who have filed their nominations for the Assembly elections on the Lok Janshakti Party ticket, on disciplinary grounds.
State president Sanjay Jaiswal expelled them for six years for their anti-party activities.
The leaders are Rajendra Singh, Usha Vidyarthi, Rameshwar Chaurasia, Mrinal Shekhar, Ravindra Yadav, Shweta Singh, Indu Kashyap, Anil Kumar and Ajay Pratap. They were ticket hopefuls to contest the poll but under NDA coalition.
The LJP had declared that it would contest the polls against the JD (U) but not the BJP. Names of all these nine BJP leaders had figured in the list of the LJP.
Left Parties Resolve to Support Nageshwar: Telangana
The Left parties have resolved to field journalist B. Jayasarathi Reddy of the CPI as their combined candidate from Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates constituency and support former MLC K. Nageshwar, who will contest from Hyderabad – Rangareddy – Mahbubnagar graduates constituency in the elections to the Legislative Council.
This was announced at a media conference by CPI, CPI(M), Socialist Unity Centre of India (C), Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc. Their leaders held elaborate discussions on the choice of candidates before coming to the conclusion.
CPI (M) State secretary T. Veerabhadram and his CPI counterpart Chada Venkat Reddy said that the parties tried to evolve consensus among the opposition parties, including the TDP and the TJS, for fielding a common candidate, but in vain.
Oct 12, 2020
Surjewala Chief of Congress Key Committee
Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala was named chairperson of the party's election management and coordination committee for the Bihar elections.
Surjewala will chair the 14-member panel, which has among members former Speaker Meira Kumar, former minister Subodh Kant Sahay and star campaigners for the state Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Azad. The panel convener is former general secretary of the Congress Mohan Prakash.
The panel also features CWC member Tariq Anwar, former AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and former Haryana minister Ajay Yadav.
Sonia Gandhi also approved the setting up of the publicity committee, media coordination committee, public meeting and logistics committee, legal committee and office management committee for the elections.
Khushbu Sundar Resigns from Congress, to Join BJP
Popular actor-turned politician Khushbu Sundar resigned from the Congress party. In her resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi she wrote, "few elements seated at higher level within the party, people who've no connectivity with ground reality or public recognition are dictating terms".
The party, meanwhile, announced in Delhi that Sundar was removed from her post of All India Congress Committee spokesperson with immediate effect.
As per reports, she is likely to join BJP. This could be a significant move ahead of assembly elections in her home state Tamil Nadu next year.
Sundar was with the DMK before joining the Congress party in 2014.
Oct 11, 2020
States and UTs Abolish Interview for Government Jobs
Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that interview for recruitment in government jobs has been abolished in 23 States and 8 Union Territories so far.
This is a follow-up to the abolition of interview for Group-B (non-gazetted) and Group-C posts in the Central government ever since 2016.
It was in 2015 while speaking from the Red Fort in New Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested the abolition of the interview and making the job selection totally on the basis of the written test because whenever an interview call was received by a candidate, his entire family would get disturbed with apprehension and anxiety.
Oct 10, 2020
Shiv Sena to Contest 50 Seats in Bihar Polls
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that his party can contest from as many as 50 seats in the forthcoming Bihar Assembly elections, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and State Minister Aaditya Thackeray will address virtual rallies there.
Elections to the 243-seat Bihar Assembly will be held in three phases--October 28, November 3, and 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.
Goa First State to Complete Har Ghar Nal Jal Yojna
Goa became the first state in the country to provide 100 per cent tap water connections in rural areas covering 2.30 lakh households.
The government's Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide piped water to all rural households by 2024.
Two districts -- North Goa with 1.65 lakh rural households and South Goa with 98,000 rural households in 191 gram panchayats -- are "fully saturated" with assured piped water supply through tap connections.