National
BJP's poll preparation in Telangana to get fillip with Amit Shah's visit
Hyderabad, March 11 (IANS) The preparation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) preparations for Lok Sabha elections in Telangana will get a fillip with Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit on Tuesday.
The top BJP leader will interact with the party’s social media strategists. He will also address a meeting of polling booth presidents of the party.
The meeting titled ‘Vijay Sankalp Sammelan’ is scheduled to be held at L.B. Stadium at 1 p.m.
He is also expected to give directions to the state BJP leadership on the strategy to be adopted for the upcoming polls.
HM Amit Shah is likely to set the roadmap for the party cadres to achieve the target by highlighting the achievements of the BJP-led government at the Centre during the last 10 years and emphasising the need to elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi as PM for a third consecutive term.
HM Amit Shah had last visited Hyderabad on December 28. He had addressed a meeting of the mandal presidents of the BJP as part of the poll preparations.
He had asked the party workers to work hard to win a majority of the seats in the state and increase the vote share to 35 per cent.
This was HM Amit Shah’s first visit to Telangana after the recent Assembly elections, in which BJP secured eight seats in the 119-member House.
The BJP is upbeat as two sitting MPs and several other leaders from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) joined its camp during the last few days.
BJP leaders are confident of making a clean sweep this time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state last week boosted the morale of the party cadres.
During his two-day visit, PM Modi addressed public meetings at Adilabad and Sangareddy after launching various development projects.
The recent Vijay Sankalp Yatras of the BJP across the state also lifted the spirits of the party cadres.
Several central ministers, chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states and other senior leaders had participated in the yatras, which covered all Lok Sabha constituencies.
In the recent Assembly elections, the BJP bagged eight seats, up from just one in the 2018 elections.
The BJP also managed to double its vote share from 6.98 per cent in 2018 to almost 14 per cent.
However, compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the vote share of the BJP came down.
This time, the BJP contested 111 seats and left eight segments for its ally Jana Sena Party (JSP), which drew a blank.
The BJP had won just a single seat in the 2018 Assembly elections.
It had later improved its tally to three after winning two seats in the by-elections.
In 2019, the BJP had polled 19.45 per cent votes and bagged four out of 17 Lok Sabha seats.
It had contested alone and this was the highest number of seats won by the party in two decades.
The BJP early this month announced candidates for nine out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Three out of four sitting MPs featured in the list.
They include Union Minister for Tourism and Culture and state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and BJP general secretary Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
The BJP decided to field B.B. Patil from Zahirabad.
The BRS MP had joined the BJP a day ago.
The BJP named Pothuganti Bharat as its candidate from Nagarkurnool.
He along with his father and sitting MP Pothuganti Ramulu joined the BJP on February 29.
On March 10, four leaders of BRS joined the BJP.
Former MPs, Sitaram Naik and Godam Nagesh and former MLAs — S. Saidi Reddy and Jalgam Venkat Rao joined the BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of BJP general secretary in-charge of Telangana Tarun Chugh.
–IANS
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National
Defence Ministry: Year 2025 will be year of reforms
On Wednesday, the Defence Ministry announced that 2025 will be designated as the “Year of Reforms,” with a primary focus on establishing integrated theatre commands to enhance collaboration among the three branches of the military.
These reforms are aimed at transforming the armed forces into a technologically advanced, combat-ready force capable of executing multi-domain integrated operations, the ministry stated.
The initiative will emphasize emerging domains such as cyber and space, alongside cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, hypersonics, and robotics.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh described the “Year of Reforms” as a pivotal milestone in the modernization of the armed forces.
“It will set the stage for significant advancements in the nation’s defense capabilities, ensuring the security and sovereignty of India in the face of 21st-century challenges,” he said.
National
A 3.2 magnitude tremor struck Gujarat’s Kutch district on Wednesday morning
A 3.2 magnitude tremor struck Gujarat’s Kutch district on Wednesday morning, according to the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR).
The district administration reported no casualties or property damage following the quake.
The tremor occurred at 10:24 am, with its epicenter located 23 kilometers north-northeast (NNE) of Bhachau, as per the Gandhinagar-based ISR.
Last month, the region experienced four seismic events exceeding a magnitude of 3, including a 3.2 magnitude tremor just three days ago, with its epicenter also near Bhachau.
Earlier tremors in the area included a 3.7 magnitude earthquake on December 23 and a 3.2 magnitude event on December 7, according to ISR reports.
Kutch was also jolted by a 4.0 magnitude earthquake on November 18, 2024. On November 15, a 4.2 magnitude quake hit Patan in north Gujarat, based on ISR data.
Gujarat is considered a high-risk earthquake zone, having experienced nine major earthquakes over the past 200 years, according to the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA). The 2001 earthquake in Kutch, which occurred on January 26, was the third-largest and second-most destructive in India in the last two centuries, according to the GSDMA.
National
Diljit Dosanjh faces legal action over concert songs
Singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh’s much-anticipated New Year’s Eve concert in Ludhiana faced legal hurdles after a complaint was filed by Punditrao Dharenavar, an assistant professor from Chandigarh.
Following the complaint, the Deputy Director of the Women and Child Department, Government of Punjab, issued a formal notice to Ludhiana’s District Commissioner, urging them to prohibit Dosanjh from performing specific songs during his live show on December 31, 2024.
The notice specifically targets songs accused of promoting alcohol, including Patiala Peg, 5 Tara Theke, and Case (Jeeb Vicho Feem Labbiya), even if the lyrics are slightly modified. The complaint points to previous warnings issued to Dosanjh by various commissions advising against performing these controversial tracks.
Despite these warnings, the singer allegedly continues to perform the songs with minor alterations. Dharenavar raised serious concerns about the influence of such music on young audiences, especially when minors are present at live events.
Adding to the controversy, Dharenavar referenced a 2019 Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling, which directed law enforcement to ensure that songs promoting alcohol, drugs, or violence are not played at public events, including concerts. This ruling underscores the legal basis for the complaint and has further intensified the scrutiny surrounding the event.
National
UP Minister’s convoy overturns, 5 person injured
Five people sustained injuries when a vehicle in the convoy of Uttar Pradesh Minister and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad overturned into a ditch near Januan village in the Khejuri Police Station area of Ballia district late last night.
Sanjay Nishad shared details of the incident, stating that the accident injured five party workers, including four women.
“I was traveling with the convoy to participate in the Constitutional Rights Yatra organized by the party on Tuesday night. Near Januan village in the Khejuri area, one of the vehicles following the convoy lost control while trying to avoid an animal and overturned into a ditch,” Nishad explained.
The injured individuals have been identified as Rakesh Nishad, Ramrati, Usha, Geeta, and Iravati Nishad.
Senior police and administrative officials quickly arrived at the scene following the incident to oversee the situation.
National
Suchir Balaji’s mother alleges Murder
The mother of Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher found dead after accusing the company of copyright violations, has alleged that her son was “murdered” and called for a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe.
Poornima Rao, Suchir’s mother, claimed her son’s death was a “cold-blooded murder” that authorities wrongly ruled as suicide. She further disclosed that a private autopsy report conflicted with the findings of the initial police investigation.
Rao alleged that her son’s apartment had been “ransacked” and cited evidence of a struggle in the bathroom, including bloodstains that suggested he had been assaulted.
“We hired a private investigator and conducted a second autopsy to uncover the truth. The private autopsy does not confirm the cause of death stated by the police. Suchir’s apartment was ransacked, there were signs of a struggle in the bathroom, and it appears he was hit based on blood spots. This is a cold-blooded murder being misclassified as a suicide. Lobbying in San Francisco won’t deter us from seeking justice. We demand an FBI investigation,” Rao wrote on X.
Elon Musk reacted to Rao’s post, commenting, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.”
Balaji was discovered dead in his San Francisco apartment months after accusing OpenAI of violating copyright laws during the development of ChatGPT, as reported by Fox News. Despite these claims, the San Francisco Police Department found no evidence of foul play and ruled the death a suicide.
On October 24, shortly before his death, Balaji voiced doubts about the “fair use” defense in generative artificial intelligence. “I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m skeptical ‘fair use’ would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products,” he wrote on X.
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