Indian National Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will launch the party's campaign for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections from Monday. Gandhi will be on a two-day visit to the state. The state Congress has planned several interaction programmes on March 1. She will then address a rally on March 2 in Tezpur. On February 14, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited Sivasagaar in Assam and addressed a rally in he conveyed a message that Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be highlighted as the prime focus if Congress is voted to power.
In an opinion poll conducted on Saturday by ABP News C-Voter in four Indian states and a union territory where Assembly elections will be held from March 27 revealed that the ruling BJP government will retains its throne in Assam once again. The opinion poll results were published after the Election Commission announced the election dates for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Pondicherry on Friday. The elections across all the states and union territory will begin from March 27 and the results will be announced from May 2. The opinion poll results stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party will have a sweeping win in Assam and Pondicherry.
The newly floated regional party in the state, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) on Sunday released the party's registration number and symbol of a 'Ship' allotted to the party by the Election Commission of India for the upcoming state legislative assembly elections. Earlier today at a press meet, AJP President Lurinjyoti Gogoi along with other party members released the party symbol and the registration number 56/161/2020-2021/PPS-1.
In a major boost to rural and developmental journalism in Assam, journalist Jahida Parbin has been selected for the 11th edition of Laadli Media Fellowship, 2021. Parbin is one among the 15 selected for the fellowship and the journalists represent 14 states and 8 languages. Furthermore, she is the only one from Assam who has been granted the prestigious media fellowship. Parbin who hails from Kamrup Rural is a freelance journalist and also contributes to the Assamese daily Gana Adhikar.
Bodoland People's Front (BPF) chief Hagrama Mohilary, just a day after joining the Congress-led coalition, said they would get absolute majority in the upcoming Assam polls and form the government with 70 seats. "We will definitely form the government. We have to oust the BJP from Assam. Sixty-four seats are required to form the government. We will get 70," Mohilary said during a press conference in Guwahati on Sunday. Earlier yesterday, Mohilary announced that the BPF is quitting the alliance with the BJP and will join the Congress-led coalition.
Ahead of the Assam Assembly Election, a cold war begins with the state political parties as Assam Jatiya Parishad's (AJP) president Lurin Jyoti Gogoi's convoy has been attacked by alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters on Sunday in Nalbari. As per reports, the BJP supporters were lead by Narayan Deka, MLA of Barkhetri constituency. It may be stated that the attack took place when Gogoi had traveled to the Barkhetri constituency for an election campaign. During the attack, Gogoi was accompanied by Pulakesh Barua, Former speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly and active member of AJP.
The Congress-led "Mahajath" grand alliance on Sunday said its chief ministerial candidate for Assam will be decided after consulting with other constituencies when the assembly elections are over. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary of Assam, Anirudh Singh, while addressing a press conference, said that the prime concern of the grouping is to defeat the BJP and its partners. "After the polls are over, all the parties will sit together and decide about the chief ministerial candidate," he said . He further said that the "Mahajath" will surely reach its target of winning 101 out of the total 126 assembly seats in the upcoming polls after BPF joined the grand alliance.
In his latest blog post, Indian megastar Amitabh Bachchan informed his fans and well wishers that he will be undergoing a surgery due to a unknown medical condition on Saturday night. The blog post also mentioned that the legendary actor is unable to write much. The blog stirred massive reactions among the actor's fanbase and messages of wishing him speedy recovery flooded on the post's comments.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday launched the first mission of 2021 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 8.54am on Saturday. At 10.24 am today, PSLV-C51 carrying Amazonia-1, an optical earth observation satellite from Brazil, and 18 other satellites lifted off from the launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport. This is the 53rd flight of PSLV and the 78th launch vehicle mission. As per reports, the 18 other satellites in the present mission include Satish Dhawan SAT (SDSAT) built by Space Kidz India and UNITYsat, a combination of three satellites, designed and built by three colleges — Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Coimbatore, JPR Institute of Technology in Sriperumbudur and GH Raisoni College of Engineering in Nagpur. It also includes SindhuNetra, an Indian technology demonstration satellite, SAI-1 NanoConnect-2, a technology demonstration satellite from the US, and 12 SpaceBEEs satellites for two-way satellite communications and data relay.
Assam Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade on Saturday informed that the state has 1.08 lakh D or Doubtful voters who will not exercise their franchise in the upcoming Assembly elections starting from March 27 in three phases. As per the data revealed by Khade, the numbers of D-voters have significantly decreased from 1.13 lakh last year to 1.08 lakh this year. Doubtful voters are those persons who are identified during electoral roll revision as D-voters, cases of which are pending with the Foreigners Tribunals or declared as foreigners by the Tribunal. Meanwhile, during a recent visit to the state, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora had said that the citizens whose names aren't in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but is present in electoral roll can vote for the polls.
A pan-India army recruitment exam has been cancelled after the paper was found to have been leaked. Three persons have been arrested in connection to it. "The Indian Army has zero tolerance towards corrupt practices in the recruitment process for selection of suitable candidates," an official said as reported by PTI. A case of possible leakage of question paper for the Common Entrance Examination for Recruitment of Soldiers (General Duty) was reported after a joint operation with Pune police, he added. The examination has now been cancelled to ensure continuous transparency in the recruitment process. Further investigation is still underway.
As India gears up for the next phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive for people above 60 years and those aged 45 and above with comorbidities will begin from 1 March and registration on the Co-WIN 2.0 portal will open at 9 am on Monday. Citizens will be able to register and book an appointment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the Co-WIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as Arogya Setu. Registration will open at 9 am on 1 March at www.cowin.gov.in, the ministry said.
In a recent development, Maharashtra Forest Minister Sanjay Rathod on Sunday resigned from his position after the BJP linked him to a 23-year-old woman's alleged death by suicide in Pune. "I have submitted my resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Since I have been accused of being linked to the woman's death, maligned, I don't think I should continue on this post…I will appeal (to the authorities) that a swift investigation should be conducted in this matter so that the truth comes out," he said. The woman, Pooja Chavan, was a tiktoker and used to live with her brother and his friends to pursue an English-speaking course in Pune. She allegedly died by suicide on February 8. Two days after her death, an audio clip surfaced on social media in which two men are talking about the woman's death. The BJP claims one of the men in the audio clip is Mr Rathod.The Shiv Sena leader has denied the charge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday during his Mann Ki Baat broadcast called for a 100-day campaign to clean up water bodies and prepare them for harvesting prior to monsoons. PM Modi said water has been crucial for the development of humankind for centuries. "We have to understand our collective responsibility towards water conservation," he said. The message came in ahead of the World Water Day on March 22. In this regard, the prime minister suggested if there could be a 100-day public campaign to clean up all nearby water bodies and prepare those for rain water conservation.
On Sunday, Arunachal Pradesh became the first coronavirus-free state this year with three active cases recovering from the disease. No fresh cases have been recorded in the last nine days. The total caseload in the northeastern state remained at 16,836, while the number of recoveries stood at 16,780. 56 patients have succumbed to the disease. Arunachal Pradesh's recovery rate and positivity rate are at 99.66 per cent and zero per cent, respectively, the official said.
