No AAP, Navjot Singh Sidhu & Pargat Singh to float Awaaz-e-Punjab

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who quit his Rajya Sabha seat recently, has announced a new political outfit, Awaaz-e-Punjab, along with suspended Shiroman Akal Dal functionary Pargat Singh.

The announcement has ended speculation of Sidhu joining the Aam Aadmi Party. "We have decided to form a new front to fight all forces which have ruined Punjab. A formal announcement of the new front would be made in the next three-four days at a place to be decided soon,

Sidhu who joined politics after a career in cricket is yet to quit the BJP. Sidhu decided to float the outfit along with like-minded people after his talks with the AAP failed. He held a meeting with Singh and Bains brothers of Ludhiana — Simarjeet Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains — both of who are independent MLAs. AAP was taken aback by the development.

Sidhu had in mid-August met AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal at his residence and discussed plans of joining the party. Kejriwal's remarks on August 19 had indicated that things were not going according to plan when he said Sidhu needs "time to think." The news of Sidhu forming a political front comes at a time when AAP faces a vertical split in Punjab after state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur was sacked over allegations of bribery.

"We have learnt that Sidhu has formed a political front. It is up to him to comment whether they will launch a party or not," AAP's Punjab state in-charge Sanjay Singh said. Posters showing a photograph of Sidhu, Pargat and Bains brothers together were posted by Awaaz-e-Punjab leaders that said the four have joined hands for the politics of hope and faith



Source:-indiatimes
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On PM's Orders, BJP Assigns Each Rajya Sabha MP A Constituency Lost In 2014

Senators voted 61-20 to convict the country's first female president for illegally using money from state banks to bankroll public spending, marking the end of 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule.

Rousseff's opponents hailed her removal as paving the way for a change of fortunes for Brazil. Her conservative successor, Michel Temer, the former vice president who has run Brazil since her suspension in May, inherits a bitterly divided nation with voters in no mood for the austerity measures needed to heal public finances.

In his first televised address to the nation after being sworn in as president through 2018, Temer called on Brazilians to unite behind him in working to rescue the economy from a fiscal crisis and over 11 percent unemployment.

"This moment is one of hope and recovery of confidence in Brazil. Uncertainty has ended," Temer said in the speech broadcast after his departure for a G20 summit in China.

Until just a few years ago, Brazil was booming economically and its status was rising on the global stage.

The country then slid into its deepest recession in decades, and a graft scandal at state oil company Petrobras tarnished Rousseff's coalition. Millions took to the streets this year to demand her removal, less than two years after she was re-elected.

A string of corruption scandals, led by the Petrobras scheme, has engulfed vast swaths of Brazil's political class and business elites over the past 2-1/2 years.

New Delhi:  The BJP's 52 lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha or House of Elders don't have constituencies to nurture, but BJP Chief Amit Shah has just found them some. 

In another idea straight out of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi handbook for MPs, Mr Shah has told the Elders that they can no more stay away from the sweat and grime of electoral politics that their colleagues in the Lok Sabha go through to win their seats.

So they too will "work in a constituency" - they will each adopt one constituency that the party lost in 2014, and work to win it in 2019. This includes the 12 BJP members of Rajya Sabha who are ministers, they were informed at a special meeting addressed by the party president.

They will be expected to bolster the efforts of the local BJP candidate and take on the winner from a rival party who won the seat and their performance will be assessed - the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be considered when they are up for re-nomination to the Rajya Sabha.

"The party president said each member should take up one constituency lost in 2014 and work for the party organisation. They will handle the twin task of expanding the party base and its ideology," said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.

The lawmakers can spend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme or MPLADs funds allotted to them in the constituency they adopt. The BJP believes this will optimise use of both human resource and the MP funds.

Lawmakers from both houses get 5 crores as MPLAD funds. While Lok Sabha members are expected to spend this money to develop their parliamentary constituencies, Rajya Sabha members represent entire states and so allocate funds to institutions and other work in those states.  

"The whole exercise is to hold Rajya Sabha members accountable like Lok Sabha members are," said a BJP leader.

PM Modi, who has introduced several novel ways to ensure that party leaders demonstrate work on ground in their constituencies, will also address the MPs.

He had reminded the BJP's Lok Sabha MPs during this month's monsoon session that they had not been filing report cards on work done in constituencies regularly.

Source:-ndtv
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Navjot Singh Sidhu quits RS: Closeness with Badals cost BJP the Punjab ticket

Two-and-half months after he was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Narendra Modi government, Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday resigned from, what some may say, a highly coveted position of an MP. Adding insult to injury, Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur Singh, too resigned from the official post she held in Punjab.

A resignation of this kind, from a nominated member, in such short span is unprecedented and would reflect badly on BJP leadership's judgment.

This, however, is not the first time that Sidhu has tendered his resignation from the Parliament — he quit from Lok Sabha in December 2006 when he was convicted in an 18-year-old road rage case. Again in July 2009, it was reported that Sidhu quit Parliament due to a few developments in the Punjab BJP unit. However, he had sent his resignation letter to the party leadership and not to the Speaker of Lok Sabha.

His resignation was not accepted and he continued to be in the party and in the Parliament as an MP. His resignation from 2006 was soon forgotten because he was soon returned to Parliament after being re-elected from Amritsar.

But this time around, things will be different since the move comes ahead of Punjab Assembly elections. The resignation from Rajya Sabha could well be followed up with a resignation from the party. Technically, as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, he is not a BJP member.

Sidhu perhaps thought to be on the right of perceived public morality and quit from the post offered by the BJP before he makes his next move  — join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and lead its campaign in Punjab, with or without officially being named as its chief ministerial candidate. Sidhu's surprise resignation is undoubtedly a huge setback for the BJP and could prove to be a booster for the AAP.

The AAP had lately courted so many controversies simply because the party leaders, who para trooped from Delhi, didn't know the social and cultural practices of the state and weren't able to relate to their sensitivities. That was one of the reasons why Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal performed a sewa at the Golden temple to "atone" for mistakes committed by the party, albeit in most dramatic fashion, cleaning already cleaned plates.

It's interesting that within minutes of Sidhu's resignation, AAP Punjab convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur jumped the gun and virtually announced Sidhu's AAP turn:
Source:-Firstpost
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