"The BJP's battle for Bihar just got murkier with the party's own lawmaker and former Home Secretary RK Singh alleging that money has changed hands for tickets. "They are giving tickets to criminals. How will they give a clean government? This is injustice to the people of Bihar. Some people have sold tickets to criminals. Many BJP workers are angry over seat distribution," Mr Singh said in Patna today. "When the tickets were distributed, I called Sushil Kumar Modi, but he did not receive my call," he added.
"After sending more MPs with serious criminal cases against them to Parliament over the last time, Maharashtra has now elected a higher number of tainted politicians as MLAs. In the 2014 Assembly, 165 (57%) of the 288 MLAs have declared criminal records. Of them, 115 (40%) face serious charges. In 2009, the corresponding figures were 148 (52%) and 94 (23%).
"A study of the affidavits of 2,336 of the 4,119 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections has revealed that as many as 798 of them are facing criminal cases with Shiv Sena topping the list of such nominees, followed by erstwhile ally BJP. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which studied the affidavits, found that 169 (61 per cent) of the 278 Sena candidates analysed have criminal cases registered against them whereas BJP has 138 (53 pc) such contenders out of its 258 nominees who were examined, said the NGO's head Major General (retd) Anil Verma..."
"A 47-year-old woman, a member of the Etah district panchayat, was shot dead on Monday at point blank range outside the ashram of former BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj in Uttar Pradesh. Sakshi Maharaj is absconding and a manhunt has been launched for him, the police alleged. The woman, Sujata Verma, was reportedly a close side of the former BJP MP. She was shot from behind, the bullet piercing through her chest and killing her on the spot... An OBC leader, Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi Maharaj has been a Lok Sabha MP thrice from Farrukhabad in Uttar Padesh.
'The political responses to Rajan Vichare, a Shiv Sena MP, stuffing a chapati into a fasting Muslim’s mouth at the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi last week tell us something about the texture of Indian politics after the general election... When the story broke, the Shiv Sena’s reaction was to flatly deny that such an incident had occurred.
"Taking law and order into his own hands is not something new for Rajan Vichare, the Shiv Sena MP from Thane who force-fed a Muslim catering supervisor to break his Ramzan fast at Maharashtra Sadan last week. In the last 25 years, around 24 cases have been registered against the senior Sena leader in various police stations of Thane...
"...RESUME
AMIT SHAH...
II. EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:
1) Arrested on July 25, 2010 on charges of murder, conspiracy, kidnapping and extortion besides five other sections of Indian penal Code in connection with the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter. Also, later for eliminating his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati. (Please NOTE that this was the FIRST instance in the history of independent India that a serving home minister had been arrested on such charges.)
'WHEN, on February 4, 2000, Jog Haider’s Austrian Freedom Party, described by The Economist as “a party with Nazi echoes”, joined Austria’s new coalition government, 14 countries in the European Union imposed sanctions on Austria. If Narendra Damodardas Modi’s assumption of power as Prime Minister of India, on May 26, 2014, has not incurred the same measures, it is not because any one in this wide world has any illusions about his communal and blatantly autocratic tendencies. It is because India is far too great and powerful.
(This article was originally published by DNA, but subsequently removed from its website. We are carrying the full piece here.)
"Late last week, a special CBI court adjourned the bail application of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter cases, accepting his excuse that he was engaged in political work in New Delhi. Shah, 49, the first serving Home minister of a state to have gone behind bars in a criminal case of murder and conspiracy had a legitimate reason to skip court hearings. He was presiding and taking part in day-long meetings in Delhi with senior RSS leaders and BJP functionaries who were all set to seal his fate as the next BJP President...
