Thiruvananthapuram, July 6 (IANS) With the Election Commission all set to announce the dates for bypolls to two Assembly constituencies and for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, the BJP launched its campaign at Palakkad on Saturday.

The Assembly bye-elections at Palakkad and Chelakkara were necessitated after sitting legislators Shafi Paramabil (Congress at Palakkad) and K Radhakrishnan (CPI-M at Chelakkara) vacated their seats after winning the Lok Sabha polls.

The Palakkad unit of the BJP launched its campaign after a function to felicitate the two party Cabinet members from Kerala.

Suresh Gopi won from the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat while George Kurian a senior party leader will soon be brought into the Rajya Sabha from another state.

Gopi said that just like the people at Thrissur gave BJP the seat, he was confident that the people at Palakkad would also give the seat to the party.

The BJP has now started its search for a suitable candidate for Palakkad and the name of Kerala BJP President, K Surendran, is doing the rounds.

A popular leader, he came a distant third in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat which has now been vacated by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.

Apart from K Surendran, the names of Sobha Surendran who contested the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat and Krishnakumar who contested the Palakkad Lok Sabha seat are also doing the rounds.

The BJP is also seriously looking at apolitical candidates like legendary railway engineer E Sreedharan, as the party is confident that such people can help it open its account in the 140-member Kerala Assembly.

This is especially true at Palakkad as the BJP candidates at the previous two Assembly elections, finished second, pushing the CPI(M) candidates to third place.

Meanwhile at Chelakkara which is a reserved constituency for Scheduled Caste candidates, where the BJP doesn’t hold much of a chance, the party is not going to sit idle and might bring in TN Sarassu, a retired principal of a state-run college.

TN Sarassu had been harassed by the student wing of the CPI(M) on the day she retired from service a few years ago.

Incidentally, TN Sarassu was the BJP’s candidate in the Alathur Lok Sabha constituency, in which the Chelakkara Assembly constituency is located.

Even though she lost the Lok Sabha polls, she was able to increase the BJP’s votes in a major way, as compared to the 2019 General Elections.

Incidentally with the bye-election to the Wayanad Lok Sabha polls also being held and the Congress announcing Priyanka Gandhi as its candidate, there will be a galaxy of leaders from the Congress and BJP arriving for campaigning for the seat.

These leaders are also expected to campaign at Palakkad and Chelakkara, thereby giving these constituencies a feel of high-voltage campaigns.

–IANS

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Kolkata, July 6 (IANS) Two of the four assembly constituencies, Bagdah in North 24 Parganas district and Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia, which will be going to by-polls on July 10, are under the scanner of the Election Commission (EC) from security perspectives.

In terms of central armed police forces (CAPF) deployment, insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said, the Commission is stressing higher mobilisation of forces in terms of polling booth deployment and quick response team (QRT) formation as both the seats are sensitive.

Bagdah will have maximum deployment, with 960 personnel for the polling booths and 192 personnel for the QRTs. Ranaghat Dakshin will follow with 900 personnel for the polling booths and 180 for the QRTs.

The deployment will be comparatively lesser for the two other assembly constituencies namely Maniktala in Kolkata and Raiganj in North Dinajpur district.

In the case of Raiganj, 672 personnel will be deployed at polling booths and 192 for QRTs. For Maniktala, 720 personnel will be deployed for polling booths and 144 for the QRTs.

Insiders from the CEO’s office said that in the by-polls, special focus had been given to the effective utilisation of QRTs in the backdrop of flooding complaints in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls of the late arrival of such teams in areas where tension broke out.

“This time, the Commission is strict that such complaints should not recur. So the deployment of CAPF at booth-level and for QRTs will be much higher in comparison to the limited areas covered under these four assembly constituencies,” said an official from the CEO’s office.

As per the statistics of the 2021 assembly polls and assembly-wise results in the Lok Sabha polls, BJP is comfortably placed in Raiganj, Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin while Trinamool has the edge in Maniktala.

–IANS

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Bengaluru, July 6 (IANS) An incident of an 11-year-old boy succumbing to dengue fever came to light here on Saturday. The deceased boy is identified as Gagan, a resident of Anjanapura in the outskirts of Bengaluru.

According to authorities, Gagan was being treated for dengue fever for a few days at a private hospital in Bengaluru and succumbed to the deadly virus on Friday late night. Gagan was a student of Chaitanya Techno School.

In a separate incident, a 74-year-old man died after being infected with Zika virus on Friday night in Gandhinagar in Shivamogga district of the state. The deceased was detected with Zika virus on June 21 and he was suffering from severe fever symptoms since June 19. He was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and was being treated at home.

Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao had asked the Deputy Commissioners in the state to be vigilant about the spread of Zika virus along with dengue cases.

Considering the rising cases of dengue, the state government has capped the prices of dengue testing at Rs 600. Karnataka has witnessed a rise of 42 per cent in dengue cases compared to last year and 6,187 positive cases of dengue have been detected in the state. Six persons have died from January to July 2.

–IANS

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Bengaluru, July 6 (IANS) Commenting on the stopping of sale of Bharat rice at an MRP of Rs 29 per kilo by the Centre to the state, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stated on Saturday that an agitation would be launched against it.

Speaking to reporters after participating in the function to mark the death anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram at the Vidhana Soudha, he stated, “We will have to start an agitation against stopping of Bharat rice by the central government. If they are unable to provide rice even as they have the stocks of rice, it is because of political ill-will.”

The Bharat rice was introduced for the purpose of election and they have stopped it once the elections are over, CM Siddaramaiah alleged.

“The central government is doing this to bring a bad name to our government. If there are no stocks of rice it is understandable, in this case, they have the rice but are not providing it. “When we approached the central government for rice to be given under the free rice programme ‘Anna Bhagya’, they refused to provide rice, even as they have enough stocks at the Food Corporation of India,” CM Siddaramaiah stated.

“It is very evident that the central government is not with the Dalits, poor and backwards. There are poor people among all castes, they refused to provide rice when the state government wanted to give rice to those poor sections of society,” CM Siddaramaiah reiterated.

“We were then forced to purchase rice. The central government has intentionally not provided rice to Karnataka,” he stated.

–IANS

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Bhopal, July 6 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday launched the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ campaign in Bhopal, saying that it will prove to be a milestone towards environment protection.

CM Yadav, accompanied by state BJP head V. D. Sharma, planted a sapling at Jamburi Maidan. The Chief Minister also carried a photograph of his mother while planting the sapling.

CM Yadav said, “This step is a resolution to protect the environment. The resolution of Bhopal residents to plant 12 lakh saplings will prove to be a milestone towards environmental protection, which will inspire other cities.”

Meanwhile, he also appealed to people in the state to participate in the campaign.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has initiated the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ campaign.

The Madhya Pradesh government is equally committed to environmental conservation, aiming to plant approximately 5.5 crore saplings across the state by July 15.

Notably, for the last few years, his predecessor Shivraj Singh Chouhan (now Union Minister) used to plant one sapling every day at Shyamala Hills.

Planting a sapling was a daily routine until he shifted to Delhi after becoming the Union Agriculture Minister.

–IANS

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