India’s opposition leader Narendra Modi, front-runner to be the country’s next prime minister after elections starting next month, will contest the polls from the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
Modi’s opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced late on Saturday the latest list of seats for candidates to contest the five-week-long elections that star on April 7.
“Grateful to the party for giving me opportunity to contest the election from the holy city of Varanasi! An honor to contest from Varanasi,” Modi tweeted soon after the announcement.
The move is part of the BJP’s tactics to win the critical northern battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, where the Hindu temple city of Varanasi, home to about 1.4 million people, is located.
However, the decision is also loaded with symbolism, given Modi’s roots as a Hindu hardliner and criticism of his handling of anti-Muslim riots that worry religious minorities and defenders of India’s officially secular character.
The ruling Congress party jumped on the decision on Sunday, saying it sent a clear signal to supporters of his intentions if elected to push a hardline Hindu nationalist agenda.
“Mr Modi’s calibrated camouflage of his communal intentions exposed by his choice of Varanasi,” Congress national party spokesman Sanjay Jha said on Twitter.
Modi, the chief minister of western Gujarat state, has avoided polarizing issues in the campaign, instead portraying himself as a pro-business reformer and a champion of economic development who can fix India’s slumping economy.
Modi has consistently denied claims that he failed to stop the riots that killed more than 1,000 people in 2002 in Gujarat while he was chief minister.
India will vote in nine phases starting on April 7 and running until May 12, with 814 million people eligible. The results will be announced on May 16.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
‘EAST SHIELD’: State-run Belma said it would produce up to 6 million mines to lay along Poland’s 800km eastern border, and sell excess to nations bordering Russia and Belarus Poland has decided to start producing anti-personnel mines for the first time since the Cold War, and plans to deploy them along its eastern border and might export them to Ukraine, the deputy defense minister said. Joining a broader regional shift that has seen almost all European countries bordering Russia, with the exception of Norway, announce plans to quit the global treaty banning such weapons, Poland wants to use anti-personnel mines to beef up its borders with Belarus and Russia. “We are interested in large quantities as soon as possible,” Deputy Minister of National Defense Pawel Zalewski said. The mines would be part
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS