New Delhi Apr 26 PTI Opposition BJP and Congress Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the knowledge sharing agreement signed between Punjab and Delhi governments alleging it was his way to control the AAP dispensation in the state from the national capital The MoU was signed by Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Singh Mann enabling the two AAP governments to send and receive officials ministers and other personnel to learn and share their knowledge experience and skills for public welfare BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged that the purpose of the MoU was to enable Kejriwal to run Punjab by controlling the states bureaucracy This MoU btwn Punjab Delhi Govt is nothing less than a mortgage of Punjabs interest sovereignty to ArvindKejriwal Kejriwal Ji your East India company like agenda to control confiscate Punjab is not acceptable to Punjabis CM BhagwantMann we urge you not to surrender Sirsa tweeted after signing of the MoU Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar charged that Knowledge Sharing Agreement was Kejriwals devious method to remote-control the Punjab government in an unconstitutional manner The recent incident of Kejriwal meeting senior Punjab officials including the Chief Secretary of the state undermined the powers of the Punjab CM Kumar claimed BJP member and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri slammed the agreement saying Kejriwal wanted to rule Punjab sitting in Delhi In the name of this agreement Kejriwal will now summon ministers and officers of Punjab and run the government of the state from Delhi It will render Punjab Chief Minister into a puppet he alleged The AAP campaigned in Punjab elections selling its Delhi Model of governance so everyone knew the government in the state won by the party will follow it Bidhuri said and questioned the need of the MoU In a joint press conference with Mann after signing of the MoU Kejriwal hit back at Opposition parties over their criticism Manish Sisodia Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister visited Europe and Finland to learn about their education system It will be stupid if someone says the Delhi government is being run by Finland Recently Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin visited Delhi It cant be alleged that the Tamil Nadu government is being run from Delhi Kejriwal said The two-day visit of the Punjab Chief Minister to see working of Kejriwal governments schools hospitals and Mohalla Clinic concluded on Tuesday PTI VIT TIR TIR

New Delhi Apr 24 PTI The Congress and the BJP engaged in a war of words on Sunday over Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoors allegation that he was forced to buy an M F Husain painting from party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with the Opposition party calling it political vendetta and the ruling party accusing the Gandhi family of being extortionistsKapoor has told the Enforcement Directorate that he was forced to buy the M F Husain painting from Priyanka Gandhi and the sale proceeds were utilised by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New York according to the charge sheet filed by the federal anti-money laundering agency in a special court in MumbaiHe told the Enforcement Directorate ED that he was told by the then petroleum minister Murli Deora that the refusal to buy the painting will not only prevent him from building a relationship with the Gandhi family but also prevent him from getting the Padma Bhushan awardKapoor also told the agency that Ahmed Patel a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi had told him that by supporting the Gandhi family at an opportune time for medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi I Kapoor had performed a good deed for the family and it would be duly considered for the Padma Bhushan awardAsked about the allegations at a press conference Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said This is absolutely astonishing I dont want to use a strong word it is absolutely disgusting that a 2010 transaction a person who is behind bars for years whose 20-30 bail applications have been rejected who is called a crook and a fraudster makes allegations about dead people and the government is jumping with joy only because it suits their political angle The government wants to keep the pot boiling for 2022 for a transaction in 2010 when neither Murli Deora is here to deny it nor Ahmed Patel is here to deny Singhvi saidWhat is the objective of this is it the result of your government pressure tactics and coercion on a person behind bars eager to get his freedom to record statements against political opponents and to keep a 12-year-old thing boiling just for convenience of politics the Rajya Sabha MP said hitting out at the governmentThe BJP alleged that the Congress and the Gandhis are extortionists and were also selling the Padma BhushanReferring to the Congress election symbol of hand BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said The Congress hand is with corruptionwhile common people were suffering the Congress and the Gandhi family were enjoyingAddressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here Bhatia said that when the Congress was in power members of the Gandhi family used to put pressure on party leaders to ensure the painting is boughtPriyanka Gandhi put pressure to ensure that the painting worth Rs 2 crore is bought by Kapoor he saidBJPs IT Cell head Amit Malviya said it is quite clear from Kapoors confession to the ED that the Gandhis and Congress are not just extortionist but were also selling the countrys highest civilian honour to the highest bidder or durbaris who did their bidding It was an instrument to buy loyalty or silenceBhatia claimed that Kapoor did not want to give Rs 2 crore for the painting but the ministers of the Congress government put pressure on him that if he does not buy the painting from Priyanka Gandhi then the Gandhi family will wreak havoc on himIn his response to the allegations Singhvi cited that in March 2014 the Yes Bank loan book stood at Rs 55000 crore and in March 2019 it had increased nearly five times to Rs 241 lakh croreThe loan book of Yes Bank also showed a very dramatic increase between two other dates which are very inconvenient for the Modi government about which neither the government nor the prime minister talk about anymore In March 2016 it was Rs 98000 crore and in March 2018 it became 203 lakh crore about more than double Remember when demonetisation happened November 2016 he saidSinghvi also pointed out that the BJP-led Haryana government invested Rs 2500 crore as government money into accounts of a sinking Yes BankThey are trying to create a fear psychosis to scare people to do political vendetta they should know better than that At least spare the dead At least dont defame people like Deora and Ahmed Patel he saidWe all know the credibility of the ED and more than that the credibility of the person accused in this case who is supposed to have made this statement he addedThe statements of Rana Kapoor are part of the second supplementary charge sheet overall third filed in the special court recently against the Yes Bank co-founder his family Dewan Housing Finance Limited DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan and others in a money laundering caseStating that he had paid a cheque of Rs 2 crore Kapoor claimed that Milind Deora son of the late Murli Deora and former Congress MP later conveyed to him confidentially that the sale proceeds were utilised by the Gandhi family for the medical treatment of Sonia Gandhi in New YorkKapoor is currently in judicial custody following his arrest in the case in March 2020 The Wadhwans too are in jail custody after their arrest in another case PTI ASKJTR ASK ANB ANB

Panaji Mar 19 PTI One person was seriously injured in a clash between Congress and BJP members in Mormugao in South Goa police said on Saturday The clash took place during Holi celebrations on Friday and the injured person has been identified as the father of a BJP worker an official said Both groups filed cross complaints Police personnel were deployed in large numbers in the area to maintain law and order he said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant visited the hospital on Saturday to meet the injured person Visited Shri Pradeep Mayekar at Chicalim Hospital father of our Karyakarta from Mormugao He has been physically assaulted by Congress supporters after election results We will not tolerate such acts of violence I have asked the police to take strict action against the culprits Sawant wrote on Facebook after his visit to the hospital and posted pictures with the patient The Congress Sankalp Amonkar won from Mormugao after defeating former social welfare minister and BJP candidate Milind Naik in the recent Assembly polls results of which were declared on March 10 PTI RPS BNM BNM

Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], February 9 (ANI): After accepting support of Congress MLAs for the alliance which includes Bharatiya Janata Party, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics.

Dehradun Jan 27 PTI With fear of disgruntled aspirants playing spoilsport against the official candidates looming large both the Congress and the BJP have intensified their efforts to suppress the rebellion within the party ranks The last-minute shifting out of Congress General Secretary and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat from Ramnagar to Lalkuan seat is also considered as a step in this direction Harish Rawats change of seat assumes significance as the partys state working president Ranjit Rawat too wanted to contest from Ramnagar The Congress high command did not budge to his demand either and instead fielded him from Salt Assembly constituency his old seat On the other hand former cabinet minister Harish Chandra Durgapal had threatened to quit the party in protest against the Congress previously announced candidate for Lalkuan constituency Sandhya Dalakoti After Harish Rawats candidature was confirmed from Lalkuan Durgapal on Thursday said he will continue to work for the Congress and ensure Rawats victory The party also changed its candidates in two other seats to persuade disgruntled leaders it fielded Gaurav Choudhary in place of Mohit Uniyal from Doiwala and Ravi Bahadur in place of Barkha Rani from Jwalapur The BJP too has intensified its efforts to dissuade disgruntled leaders from going against the party Almora BJP MLA and deputy speaker Raghunath Singh Chauhan who was vocal against the partys decision to field Kailash Sharma in his place had threatened to quit the party and contest as an independent candidate However after talks with senior leaders he said he had changed his stand I have been associated with the BJP for the last 40 years and will campaign for the party he said Senior BJP leaders in the state including Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami succeeded in convincing the disgruntled Tharali MLA Munni Devi Shah who was upset over the party fielding Bhopalram Tamta Sitting BJP MLA from Rudrapur Rajkumar Thukral on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the BJP after being denied a ticket Incumbent MLA from Jhabreda Deshraj Karnwal too is reportedly upset with the party as it denied him a ticket State BJP vice-president Devendra Bhasin however said there is no major resentment in the party and leaders are striving for the partys landslide victory If there are minor resentments the party is addressing them and everything will calm down in a day or so he said On reports of rift in the Congress over candidatures in some constituencies state Congress vice-president Surendra Kumar said the displeasure among the contenders is justified to an extent but the party is trying to persuade them PTI DPT ALM CJ CJ

Kolkata Dec 19 PTI Sinking their political differences members of the CPIM BJP and the Congress held a sit-in outside a police station in Kolkata to protest against alleged rigging by the Trinamool Congress in two booths in the area during the civic poll in the city on SundayActivists of the three parties holding their respective flags sat side by side outside Burtola police station in north Kolkatas Hatibagan area They shouted slogans against Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and demanded repoll in those two boothsTMC Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said The opposition parties have ganged up to discredit the Trinamool Congress and the administration They have no agenda have lost all contact with people and are sure about the defeat in the polls The Kolkata Municipal Corporation election was held on SundayThe SEC State Election Commission has taken all steps for free and fair polls and the Kolkata Police have done a commendable job Chatterjee addedLeader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that terror tactics and rigging and rigging by the TMC in the KMC polls have snatched the democratic rights of all opposition parties- BJP as well as Left Front and the CongressSo it is in the fitness of things that they all came together to protest the murder of Democracy Adhikari a BJP leader saidThe KMC election on Sunday passed off by and large peacefully barring a few incidents of skirmishes and hurling of bombs with an estimated voter turnout of 6363 per cent according to the SEC PTI SUS NN NN

New Delhi [India], September 13 (ANI): A day after the first-time MLA, Bhupendra Patel was chosen as the new leader of the BJP Legislative Party in Gujarat, Congress leader Raashid Alvi lashed out at the party on Monday and said that the move was to "mislead" the people of the state adding that the party replaces chief ministers to "transfer blame for all their crimes".