The Trinamool Congress has slammed the door shut on any alliance with the Congress in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha election, with party chief and State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee adding that the future of a national alliance would be considered after the election.
“I had no discussions with the Congress party or anyone else. We had given a proposal which they refused from the start. Since then, our party has decided that we will fight alone in West Bengal,” Banerjee said.
The TMC has expressed frustration with the seat-sharing talks, where it has offered two seats to the Congress, which had demanded six. Of the 42 MPs that West Bengal sends to the Lok Sabha, just two — from the Baharampur and Malda Dakshin seats — are currently from the Congress; 23 are from the TMC.
The Congress continued to cling to hope for a way forward in the discussions with the TMC, with communications chief Jairam Ramesh stressing that both parties were engaged in a fight against the BJP.
Banerjee also expressed her displeasure that the Congress had not informed her that its ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would enter West Bengal.
Asked whether she would continue to be part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, Banerjee emphasised that the alliance is not made of one party.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann reiterated that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2024 general election, dismissing possibility of alliance with the Congress party in the State.
Mann said that “AAP is not going with them (Congress)“, in response to a question about electoral alliance between AAP and the Congress in Punjab.
“I have said it on several occasion that Punjab will become a hero in the country and the AAP will win 13-0 in the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” he added.
He said that around 40 names of probable candidates for the 13 Parliamentary seats have come up after the party recently held deliberations on the election.
Congress president asks Home Minister to flag ‘security issues’ faced by Rahul Gandhi in Assam during Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra
Highlighting various “security issues” faced by Rahul Gandhi during the Assam leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY), Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to intervene and ensure that no untoward incident took place that may lead to “grave personal injury” towards Gandhi and other members of BJNY.
Kharge’s letter, written on Tuesday night and shared on social media platform X on Wednesday, came on a day when the Assam Police registered a case against Gandhi and other members of his team for trying to change the designated route of the yatra and forcibly trying to enter Guwahati city, permission for which was denied by the State government.
Mentioning several instances of security breaches in his letter, Kharge alleged that the Assam Police had been found wanting in providing adequate security to Gandhi, who is entitled to Z+ security.
In India, a person under Z+ protection is given the highest level of security with a team of 55 armed personnel. Listing out the incidents, the Congress chief alleged that the Assam Police was found protecting the posters of the BJP in Amguri, Sibsagar district on the first day instead of ensuring safe passage for the BJNY. “Miscreants associated with the BJP” were caught defacing and taking down posters and hoardings of the BJNY in Lakhimpur district the following day; and when the yatra returned from Arunachal Pradesh, there was “another outrageous attack” on senior leader Jairam Ramesh’s car in Sonitpur district, where the Superintendent of Police is the brother of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” the letter said.
“On the same day in Sonitpur district, the BJP’s district party workers approached and blocked Shri. Rahul Gandhi’s convoy. The BJP’s workers then physically assaulted the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Shri. Bhupen Borah, resulting in him bleeding profusely,” Kharge said in his letter.
In Nagaon district, BJP workers blocked Gandhi’s convoy, “came extremely close to him and created an extremely unsafe situation”, Kharge added.
“As the risk increases, and as the Yatra proceeds as planned, we request your intervention to ensure that the Chief Minister of Assam and the Director General of Police, Assam ensure that no such untoward incident takes place which may lead to grave personal injury to Shri. Rahul Gandhi or any members of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” Kharge said in the letter to Shah.
Hearing on Umar Khalid’s bail plea in UAPA case adjourned to January 31 by Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on January 24 adjourned till January 31 the hearing on the bail plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid in a case lodged under anti-terror law UAPA over his alleged involvement in the conspiracy behind the northeast Delhi riots of February 2020.
A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Ujjal Bhuyan deferred the matter as the bench was available only till lunch. “List on January 31. High on board,” the bench said.
Senior advocate C.U. Singh, appearing for Khalid, submitted that he was ready to argue but unfortunately this bench is rising after lunch. The matter was listed along with a batch of petitions challenging various provisions of the UAPA.
Supreme Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra had on August 9 recused himself from hearing Khalid’s plea. Khalid’s petition challenging the October 18, 2022 order of the Delhi High Court, which had rejected his bail plea in the matter, had come up for hearing before a bench of Justices A S Bopanna and Mishra.
The High Court had rejected Khalid’s bail plea, saying he was in constant touch with other co-accused and the allegations against him were prima facie true. The High Court had also said the actions of the accused prima facie qualified as “terrorist act” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and several others have been booked under the anti-terror law UAPA and several provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the “masterminds” of the February 2020 riots, which left 53 people dead and over 700 injured.
The violence had erupted during the protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Khalid, arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2020, had sought bail on grounds that he neither had any criminal role in the violence nor any “conspiratorial connect” with any other accused in the case.
The Delhi Police had opposed Khalid’s bail plea in the high court, saying the speech delivered by him was “very calculated” and he brought up contentious issues like Babri Masjid, triple talaq, Kashmir, the alleged suppression of Muslims and the CAA and NRC.
Manipur group sets peace terms for CM, MLAs
The AT had a week ago summoned all the Valley-based MLAs, including Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh and his Congress predecessor Okram Ibobi Singh to the historic Kangla Fort in the State’s capital Imphal to discuss a six-point demand.
The Imphal Valley, dominated by the non-tribal Meitei community, has a total of 39 MLAs, while the surrounding hills have 20 MLAs divided between the Naga and the Kuki-Zo tribes. Jiribam, a largely plain area adjoining southern Assam beyond the hills, yields the 60th legislator.
“The MLAs assured us that they will convey the concerns of our people to the Centre within 15 days to ensure peace in Manipur,” AT chief Korounganga Khuman said after an oath was administered to the MLAs for protecting the integrity of Manipur.
Apart from the MLAs, the oath was administered to Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, and Rajya Sabha member Leishemba Sanajaoba.
“Our demands include the removal of the Suspension of Operations (SoO), the implementation of the National Register of Citizens, fencing of the border with Myanmar, the replacement of the Assam Rifles by another force, and the removal of Kuki illegal immigrants from the Scheduled Tribe list,” Khuman said.
The SoO agreement was signed between the Centre, the Manipur government, and two conglomerates of Kuki-Zo militant outfits — the Kuki National Organisations and the United Peoples Front — in 2008. These armed groups are accused of carrying out attacks on Meiteis.
Khuman said the idea behind summoning the MLAs to Kangla Fort was to demonstrate that they were answerable to the people. “They agreed not to fight among themselves and carry on the movement to protect Manipur along with the people if the Centre does not listen to our concerns,” he added.
The oath-taking event, held amid tight security, followed a meeting between a three-member team of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the AT leaders at the residence of Sanajaoba on Monday.
The seat of power of the Manipur royals till 1891, the Kangla Fort is in a high security area comprising the Raj Bhavan, the Chief Minister’s residence, the Manipur Police Headquarters, and the 1st Manipur Rifles complex.
Ten Manipur MLAs belonging to the Kuki-Zomi group, who fled Imphal after the ethnic conflict broke out on May 3, 2023, on Wednesday asked Home Minister Amit Shah to reimpose the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 in the Imphal Valley.
Citing the improvement in the law-and-order situation in Manipur, the Centre in March 2023 had facilitated the removal of the AFSPA from areas under four police stations across the Imphal Valley. The AFSPA was removed from areas under 15 other Valley police stations about two decades ago.
The 10 MLAs said that the reimposition of the AFSPA would help the Army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles have full powers to recover the arms looted from the State security establishments across Imphal Valley by “Meitei militias”.
Russia accuses Ukraine of shooting down military transport plane, killing 65 Ukrainian POWs aboard
Russia’s Defence Ministry on January 24 accused Ukrainian forces of shooting down a military transport plane, killing all 74 people aboard, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war being swapped.
Ukrainian officials did not comment on the crash in Russia’s Belgorod border region, and The Associated Press could not confirm who was aboard or other details on what brought the plane down. Officials in Kyiv cautioned against sharing unverified information.
In addition to the 65 POWs, the Il-76 transport carried a crew of six and three other passengers, the Russian military said. According to the statement, Russian radar registered the launch of two Ukrainian missiles from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region bordering Belgorod. The Ministry called the attack “a terrorist act.”
Video of the crash posted on social media showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area, and a massive ball of fire erupting where it apparently hit the ground.
Firefighters, ambulances and police rushed to the site in the Korochansky district of Belgorod, state news agency Tass reported, citing a local emergency services official.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the POWs were being transported to the region for a prisoner exchange when the plane was downed at 11:15 a.m. local time (0815 GMT).
The plane was en route to the Belgorod region from the Chkalovsky air field in the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital, and the POW swap was scheduled to take place later on January 24 at the Kolotilovka crossing on the Russian-Ukrainian border, the statement read.
Russia has largely ensured its air dominance during the war, which marked its 700th day on January 24, against Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet-era warplanes. But the Russian air force has suffered a string of crashes that some observers have attributed to a higher number of flights amid the fighting in Ukraine.
At the same time, Kyiv has boasted recently about shooting down two Russian command and control planes, which would be a major feat for Ukraine if true. Cross-border attacks on Russia’s Belgorod region also have been ramped up lately, with the deadliest one killing 21 people in late December.
Shortly before the crash, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel that a “missile alert” had been triggered in the region and warned residents to take shelter.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said it was looking into the crash but did not immediately provide any information. Instead, it cautioned against sharing “unverified information.”
“We emphasise that the enemy is actively conducting information special operations against Ukraine aimed at destabilising Ukrainian society,” it said in a statement on Telegram. The Russian Defence Ministry said a special military commission was on the way to the crash site.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on his call with reporters that he could not comment on the crash because he did not have enough information about it. The Il-76 is designed to carry up to 225 troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons, according to Russia’s military export agency.
The war’s 1,500-kilometer front line has been largely static amid a second winter of fighting. As both sides seek to replenish their weapons stockpiles, the war recently has focused on long-range strikes.
Odisha to establish a melanistic tiger safari – a first of its kind in the world
The Odisha Government on January 24 announced the establishment of a melanistic tiger safari — a first of its kind in the world.
The safari will be established near Baripada, district headquarter town of Mayurbhanj. An area of 200 hectares adjoining National Highway-18 has been identified for the purpose. About 100 hectares will be the display area and the balance area shall be utilised for creation of veterinary care facilities, including rescue centre, staff infrastructure and visitor amenities.
“Glad to announce that Odisha is setting up an exclusive melanistic tiger safari near Similipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj. Tourists and visitors can now have a glimpse of the rare and majestic species found only in Odisha,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced on social platform site ‘X’.
According to Susanta Nanda, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), the site is about 15 km from the Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) matching the same landscape.
The STR is the only home for melanistic tigers in wild in the world. As per the last All India Tiger Estimation Report published by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2018, melanistic tigers have been found in wild only in the Similipal Tiger Reserve.
“Surplus tigers from the Nandankanan Zoo and rescued or orphaned tigers which are not fit for wild but fit for display will be housed in the safari in an open enclosure,” said Nanda.
The State Forest and Environment Department said the safari was set to elevate the wildlife tourism sector in Odisha to new heights.
As per the ‘All India Tiger Estimation’ report, there are around 20 tigers in the State in 2022. However, cameras installed for tiger estimation have recently captured good number of tigers in Odisha forests.
In brief
A Varanasi district court judge on January 24 allowed all parties to get the certified copy of the report of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey done at the Gyanvapi mosque. This ASI, earlier this month, had asked the court to not to make the ASI report public or share it with other parties as this would spread misinformation as the matter is also sub judice in the Allahabad High court. The ASI has requested that even if the parties (both Hindus and Muslims) are getting the copy of the report, they must give an undertaking that they will not share it further with anyone.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
