Vote for Congress will cut into AAP share: Kejriwal
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that a vote for the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls will cut into his Aam Aadmi Party’s vote share and thus ensure a BJP win in the national capital. Kejriwal’s reaction came after he shared a tweet by VDP Associates — a polling agency studying electoral trends in India — which suggested that “the contest (in Delhi) is between the BJP and AAP.” On Monday, the AAP kicked off its election campaign and appealed to Delhi residents to vote out all seven Bharatiya Janata Party MPs in Delhi. AAP leaders made it clear that they were seeking support for AAP’s East Delhi incharge Atishi Marlena, though her candidature was not announced officially. After Atishi dropped her surname ‘Marlena’ on Twitter as it “sounded Christian”, the controversy over the alleged caste politics of the AAP continued to brew on Wednesday also, as former party leader Ashutosh accused it of using his surname for caste politics, only to clarify later that he was misunderstood and he is not part of the ‘anti-AAP brigade’. Reacting to the developments, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said that the Aam Aadmi Party and Kejriwal are “always ready to stoop to any level in politics”, be it politics of casteism or stoking religious feelings. (IANS)
NTR’s son, ex-MP Harikrishna dies in road accident
Hyderabad: TDP founder NTR’s son and actor-politician Nandamuri Harikrishna died in a road accident in Telangana’s Nalgonda district early on Wednesday. He was 61. Harikrishna, a former Rajya Sabha member and a former Andhra Pradesh Minister, sustained critical head injuries when the car which he was driving overturned near Anneparthi. The vehicle was flung in the air after hitting a divider and crashed into another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Harikrishna, who was not wearing the seat belt, was thrown out of the vehicle and sustained head injuries. He was shifted to Kamineni Hospital at Narketpally, where he succumbed. Two others accompanying him escaped with minor injuries. They said Harikrishna lost control of the vehicle when it hit a stone. The person driving the other car said he noticed the vehicle flying in the air and immediately veered it towards the left, thus avoiding the full impact of the collision. Harikrishna, son of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao, was on his way to Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh to attend a marriage. (IANS)
Cochin airport opens after two- week closure
Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) on Wednesday commenced normal operations after a two-week closure due to floods in Kerala. It was shut on August 15 after the airport was flooded, causing widespread damage to infrastructure. The first aircraft, a domestic flight, touched down at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, airport officials said. CIAL authorities said that in a day or two, the airport would be functional like earlier. For the past three days, more than 1,000 people were engaged in putting the airport back in order, cleaning and repairing the systems which became non-functional after flood waters entered the complex. According to CIAL, the disaster has caused a loss of around Rs 300 crore to the airport. A temporary compound wall has been erected after the earlier one was washed away. The airport was first closed on August 9, for a few hours, after which it was again shut on August 15. The Cochin airport is the busiest of three airports in Kerala and handled 10 million passengers in 2017-18 fiscal. (IANS)
Policeman commits suicide in Maharashtra
Mumbai: A 32-year-old police naik allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself on Wendesday in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, a police official said. Anis Patel, in-charge of the riot control police, allegedly shot himself in the head with his service pistol in the Pusad police station complex in Yavatmal, located around 600 km from here, he said. A police staffer spotted Patel lying in a pool of blood near a police hall in the complex and informed the authorities, the official said. Patel was rushed to a state-run hospital where he was declared dead before admission, he said. The reason behind his extreme step was yet to be ascertained, he said, adding that a probe was on into the incident. Patel was posted at the police headquarters in Yavatmal and used to be on reserve duty with the riot control police for 15 days in a month, the official said. The body will be handed over to his family after the postmortem, he added. (PTI)
7 members of family buried alive in landslide
New Tehri: Seven members of a family, mostly women and children, were buried alive on Wednesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Uttarakhand’s Tehri district, officials said. A 10-year-old girl was rescued from the debris of the house in Kot village, Tehri District Magistrate Sonika said. One of the women killed was pregnant. The family was asleep when the landslide took place around 4 am. Seven bodies were later pulled out from the debris. (PTI)
3 killed, 15 injured in Bengal
Kolkata: Three persons were killed and at least 15 injured in West Bengal as violent political clashes over the formation of the state Panchayat boards continued, police said on Wednesday. Armed clashes took place between groups allegedly belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress and the CPI-M in North 24 Parganas district’s Amdanga block late on Tuesday night. “The clash erupted centering around the Gram Panchayat board formation in a number of villages in the block,” an officer from Amdanga police station said. According to local residents, two of the deceased were Trinamool Congress activists while the third person belonged to the CPI-M. Police have arrested 12 people including CPI-M district committee member Ahmed Khan, for inciting unrest in the area that was found littered with crude bombs, splinters, cartridges on Wednesday morning. Ten people have been allegedly killed since August 25 in political clashes over the Panchayat boards formation in different Bengal districts. The situation in several districts has been tense over the last few days over the Panchayat boards formation after the Supreme Court permitted the notification of the results of 20,159 un-contested seats in the state Panchayat polls. (IANS)