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Kailash Vijayvargiya says he was approached by Digvijay, Scindia to topple Kamal Nath government in MP

In a shocking admission, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, while addressing the Kisan Aakrosh Rally (Farmers agitation rally) in Madhya Pradesh, said that he was approached by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and asked to bring down Kamal Nath’s government in Madhya Pradesh.

He levied allegations against Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Suresh Pachauri also, of approaching him in order to topple the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.

“Digvijaya Singh and two MLAs approached me and said the Kailash ji the government will fall if you would want. I said I don’t want to bring down the government. Then Scindia ji’s people approached me and said that they want to bring down the government run by a fraudster Kamal Nath. He is a fraudster, they said. We are with you. Then Suresh Pachouri’s people approached me to topple the government,” Kailash Vijayvargiya said during the rally.

He went on to further attack Kamal Nath by calling him a ‘fraudster’, stating that he has let down the people in the state. Kailash Vijayvargiya said that all the OSDs of Kamalnath have a machine to count money.

Vijayvargiya went on to say that Madhya Pradesh has witnessed the maximum number of police transfers. The posts are sold, he alleged, claiming that a police officer in Madhya Pradesh had told him that even after taking a bribe of Rs 25 lakh, Kamal Nath government did not transfer him.

Things have not been going in Congress’ Kamal Nath’s favour after he became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, post his victory in the Assembly elections that took place in November-December 2018. Congress in Madhya Pradesh, faced the public wrath as they could not fulfil the promise of farm loan waivers to the farmers, the biggest promise on the basis of which the party had fought the Assembly elections.

Moreover, raids had been conducted in April on close associates of the MP CM, Kamal Nath, which had led to the recovery of huge sums of cash. More than 300 IT Income Tax sleuths had conducted raids in 50 locations connected to him.

Post polls, Times Now has reportedly accessed a transcript of a conversation between Nath and his Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Praveen Kakkar that exposed rampant dubious financial transactions, rampant round tripping and even intimidation of government officials to win the Lok Sabha elections.

Kamal Nath had also offered to resign from the post of the party’s state unit chief, taking moral responsibility of the party’s loss in Madhya Pradesh.

Fact check: Viral video of ‘robbery attempt’ in Noida was a stunt being performed for a YouTube channel

A video has gone viral in social media showing two cars speeding along the roads of Noida in what seemed like a robbery attempt. In the video, a man could be seen leaning out of his moving vehicle and attempting to beat up the passenger of the vehicle he was chasing.

He could be seen waving a weapon at him, threatening him to stop the car. The video was widely shared on Twitter while tagging the handles of Noida and UP police asking them to take action.


However, in response to one of the users, Noida police have said that the passengers of both the vehicles were in fact friends and that this was stunt performed by them. This wasn’t a real robbery attempt.


Noida police have clarified that the video was fake.


The police also took to Twitter to clarify that the video was shot by some people for their Youtube channel and suitable legal action is being taken against them for causing a public nuisance.

AAP leaders fight amongst themselves over which is best way to protest against child sexual abuse

When leaders of parody party Aam Aadmi Party get bored of blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for their own inefficiency they start fighting amongst themselves to keep themselves occupied. The latest fight took place on Twitter after AAP Haryana Twitter account posted pictures of AAP Haryana chief Pandit Naveen Jaihind doing a ‘Tapasya’ in wake of the incidents of child sexual abuse taking place in the country.


The above tweet got a lot of flak from netizens who felt this was quite uncalled for.


Aam Aadmi Party Madhya Pradesh convenor Alok Agarwal too criticized Pandit Naveen Jaihind for this, calling his ‘Tapasya’ a ‘drama’.


He urged Arvind Kejriwal to stop the drama since it makes AAP leaders a laughing stock. To this, Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson and AAP Haryana chief Pandit Naveen Jaihind’s wife Swati Maliwal took an offence and hit back on Agarwal, questioning him why has he not even tweeted on the child abuse. The DCW chief was visibly upset that the ‘Tapasya’ carried out by her husband when the mercury is soaring in the heatwave, was referred to as ‘nautanki’ by Agarwal.


She asked the Madhya Pradesh convenor to ‘do something’ about the rape case in Ujjain instead. She even told him that it is because of ‘shameless’ leaders like Agarwal, the country is in such a state. Maliwal also mentions that the 2 year old girl in Aligarh was raped. However, that is factually inaccurate since the post-mortem report has been inconclusive with regard to rape of the child.

Agarwal then hit back on Maliwal and asked her to control her language.


He added how Naveen had first worn a saffron kurta to hold a press conference. He alleged that later he prefixed ‘Pandit’ to his name when initially he had added ‘Jai Hindi’ as the last name to not give out his caste and then put up a picture with a huge tilak. He questioned Maliwal whether she thinks people don’t understand the symbolism in politics despite being a politician?

Meanwhile, AAP rebel leader Kapil Mishra had a different take on the entire matter. He suggested that Swati Maliwal’s husband was actually targeting Kejriwal through this setup.


Mishra even claimed that a ‘Kejriwal’ made out of cow dung was used by Naveen and ‘sacrificed’. He added that such rituals are carried out by people to release near and dear ones who are bewitched or are under a spell of black magic.

Aam Aadmi Party, which came into existence six-and-a-half-years ago is quickly disintegrating. AAP has ended up being exactly what they promised they won’t be, sometimes even surpassing the existing political parties in setting a lower bar. Now they have taken to fight amongst themselves over which is an appropriate manner to protest against child abuse and what falls under the category of ‘nautanki’.

Local Muslims attack Hindu family in Begusarai and force them to sell their house, say ‘even Bajrang Dal won’t be able to save you’

In a shocking incident, a Muslim mob in Nurpur, Begusarai, Bihar attacked a family and sexually assaulted two women belonging to Mahadalit community, while trying to kill one of the members of the family on the night of June 10.

According to a special investigation report by Swarajya, a Hindu family was attacked by a few locals Muslims who were pressuring them to sell their house and leave. The Muslim mob had previously threatened the family saying that the locality has few Hindu families and thus they wouldn’t be able to help them with the issue. “Even Bajrang Dal won’t help you,” the men allegedly told the family, that lives in refinery area of Barauni tehsil’s Nurpur village.

Swati Goel Sharma, senior journalist at Swarajya has shared videos of the family members sharing their ordeal after they were attacked and allegedly molested by few Muslim men. Victim Munni Kumari in her complaint states that of the three men entered her house at 1 am, two were masked and one was completely naked. The naked man began to rape her mother, while one of the masked men turned towards her and tore off her kurta.

The other masked man held a pistol at her brother’s head. Finally, the struggle ended and the family managed to get out of their grip, but one of the men tried to strangulate her brother. His brother was thrashed by the Muslim men, who also threw a cycle at them.


Munni Kumari has named Laddu Alam, son of Feroze Alam, belonging to Nurpur as one of the three men who had stormed to their house. The complaint also states that when Kumari reached the Barauni police station to file an FIR, no officer was present and thus she could only hand over a hand-written complaint.

Speaking to Swarajya, Munna, brother of Munni said that Muslim men were pressurising them to sell off their house to them for Rs 16 lakh. Munna also said that the Muslim men threatened them by claiming the support of the local Congress leader. Munna said they were one of the only two Hindu houses among about 200 Muslim families. He alleged that the Muslims have been pressuring them for a few months to leave the area. “We have told them that this house belongs to our ancestors and there is no way we are leaving. But they use force. They beat me up last month also,” he said.


According to News18, the Refinery police station has arrested one of the three accused and have begun an investigation into the issue. However, Munna said they have been pressurised by a senior police officer to take back the case or else there would be a counter case against him. When Munna had approached the police after he was beaten up last month, the police allegedly had pressurised him to ‘compromise’.

Soon after the incident, Bajrang Dal staged a protest against the police officers for rejecting the complaint and deliberately delaying the probe in the matter. Bajrang Dal also expressed their apprehensions about the increasing number of such incidents targetting the Hindu communities in the area. Bajrang Dal added that there are chances of Nurpur being another Kairana or Kashmir from where a mass exodus of Hindus have taken place earlier after Muslims began to violently assert themselves.

Church aided by Kerala’s communist govt now accused of sponsoring land-grabbing in sacred forestland around Sabarimala

The Christian church with the alleged help of the communist government of Kerala is now accused of encroaching the ‘sacred forests’ associated with the Sabarimala temple, known as ‘Poonkavanam’ in Kerala, reported Organiser.

According to the Organiser, a report by the Malayalam newspaper Janmabhumi suggests that there has been a massive encroachment of forestland near Panchalimedu, a part of Sabarimala forests in Idukki district. The entire region has been designated as an ecologically fragile under the Environment (Protection) Act.

Panchalimedu, a sacred place for local Hindus named after Panchali/Draupadi, is believed to be a place inhabited by Pandavas during the 12 years of exile. An ancient Bhuvaneswari temple, under the Travancore Devaswom Board, is also situated nearby the encroached land. It is believed that the church is allegedly replicating their usual strategy to seize government and forestland by occupying it with support of the state.

The worrying issue is that the Church has already established boards and an arch in the forest area claiming it as a Christian pilgrimage centre. The reports suggest that the move is aimed at the Sabarimala temple which has been on the radar of the Conversion lobby for the past seventy years.

Four decades ago, the Christian organisations had made a similar attempt to grab the Sabarimala lands in Nilakkal by claiming that they had unearthed a stone cross established by Jesus’ apostle Saint Thomas in 57 A.D. The priest had brazenly staked his claim, proposing to build a Christian church on the site. Despite strong protests from Hindus, the government has handed over the Catholic Church around 5 acres of land free of cost.

The Kerala communist government has unsurprisingly remained silent on the issue, which otherwise unleashes its forces if the issue is concerned with the Hindus as it was evident during the Sabarimala protests. Reportedly, similar encroachments have been reported from Pappathichola in Munnar, but the revenue officials had removed it. However, the state government had again stepped in and had reinstalled the cross after the Chief Minister Vijayan and other CPM leaders intervened.

Forbes releases list of world’s highest paid athletes, only Kohli finds a place

Virat Kohli might be having some stress due to Dhawan’s injury in the World Cup, but on the personal front, he has some good news. As per Forbes Virat Kohli is the highest paid cricketer in the world.

The list of 100 World’s Highest Paid Athletes was released on Tuesday which includes players from 21 nations. The only Indian and also the only cricketer finds a place in the list is Virat Kolhi. He is at the 100th position.

Rank Name Pay Salary/Winnings Endorsements Sport
#100 Virat Kohli $25 M $4 M $21 M Cricket

 

In 2017, Kohli was ranked 7th in the most valuable brand among athletes by Forbes. Virat Kohli is the number one ODI and T20I batsman and has most runs in all three formats combined among a current lot of players.

Kohli endorses approx 17 brands (American Tourister, Audi, Boost, Colgate-Palmolive, Gillette, Gionee, Herbalife, MRF, Manyavar, New Era, Puma, Punjab National Bank, Tissot, Uber, Vicks, MPL, and one more).

Kohli has been seen quite often promoting Uber during the World Cup and MRF is automatically endorsed whenever he plays cricket as his bat has an MRF sticker on it. He has also seen doing an endorsement for Manyavar with his wife Anushka Sharma, a Bollywood superstar.

The couple married a year ago and are the most earning celebrity couples.

Is it a World Cup of cricket or World Cup of rains?

Two, yes first time in the history of World Cup, two straight games called off due to rain. Never before more than two matches were washed out in all World Cups combined, but this time, already three games have been called off either due to rain or wet outfield.

There had previously only been two complete abandonments (without a toss) in the history of the tournament – in 1992 and 2003.

The current World Cup edition is just 14 days old, and there are still 32 days of cricket left. It is a bit strange of ICC to not have reserve days for World Cup matches despite knowing that the English summers are mostly wet. The ICC takes into account statistical rainfall when creating its schedule.

The world cup is held every four years, and the ICC has been very unprofessional in terms of scheduling it without reserve days.

ICC CEO Dave Richardson (also former wicket-keeper from South Africa) said in a press release that the reserve days would have increased the length of the World Cup and there is no guarantee of rain-free reserve days.

“Factoring in a reserve day for every match at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver. It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteer and match officials availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly the spectators who in some instances have travelled hours to be at the game. There is also no guarantee that the reserve day would be free from rain either.” said Dave Richardson

The last world cup with reserve days was held in 2007 in the Carribean islands. Last time England hosted the World Cup was in 1999, and it too had reserved days keeping the rain in mind.

Richardson further said, “Up to 1200 people are on site to deliver a match and everything associated with it including getting it broadcast and a proportion of them are moving around the country so reserve days in the group stage would require a significant uplift in the number of staff. We have reserve days factored in for the knockout stages, knowing that throughout 45 group games we should play the large majority.”

More than a billion people watching this mega event, and ICC is more worried about 1200 extra men working for some 45 days. The reputation of cricket is already at stake as the World Cup is reduced from 14 teams to 10 teams this year.

Instead of focusing on the standard of umpiring and organizing a World Cup in the best possible way, it seems ICC seems more concerned about useless things.

It is also interesting to know that in World Cup 1999, a total number of 39 matches (Group and Super 6) were completed in 31 days with a reserve day for each game. The current World Cup edition has 45 group stage matches which will be completed in 38 days without reserve days for any of the game. The only relief is for the semi-finals and final, which got reserve days.

All previous 4 World Cups held in England got over by the end of June, this will be the first time a world cup match to be played in July. Last year was the driest English summer since 1976. With an increase in global warming, the weather is getting warmer and wetter compared to previous years. On average, there is a minimum of 3 days of rain in June, July, and August every year.

Sri Lanka is the only team that seems to be benefited from the rain. They lost the first match against New Zealand and were on the verge of losing against Afghanistan. However, they gained 1 point each from their washout games against Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both the teams had upper hand against Sri Lanka, on paper and current form and it is amusing to see Sri Lanka placed in a better position in the points table.

South Africa has a long history of their world cup campaign being affected by the rain. They had been knocked out of World Cup in 1992, 2003 and 2015 but are sitting at number 9 in the points table with 1 point, thanks to the rain. However, this will not help their cause to reach the top 4 in the points table as they have to win more matches than sharing points due to weather conditions.

The top four teams, New Zealand, India, Australia, and England, have not faced the weather issue. However, the weather forecast for the next few days doesn’t look promising at all. Rain is expected to play a significant role in Taunton, Nottingham, and Southampton where these 4 top teams are going to play their next games.

The next World Cup is set to be played in India (Feb-Mar 2023) in the rain-free season. England will get a chance to host another World Cup (most probably) in the year 2039 and who knows by then ICC will show some common sense and move the World Cup out of England.

Delhi govt didn’t give legal, financial assistance, no compensation. I am broken: Ankit Saxena’s father

Father of Ankit Saxena, a Delhi-based photographer who was brutally murdered in February last year by his Muslim girlfriend’s family who did not approve of the inter-religious love affair, has expressed his disappointment at Delhi government for not keeping up the promises.


Speaking to news agency ANI, Ankit’s father said that they have not received any of the promised compensation from Delhi government. Adding how the Delhi CM has let him down, he wondered if the rift between the two communities would have helped him get early compensation. He adds that they were told they would get legal and financial aid, but that didn’t happen. At first, the Delhi government had promised a compensation of Rs 5 lakh. Later, the Delhi CM had promised to increase the compensation but Arvind Kejriwal hasn’t reverted yet. “I am broken,” he said.

Yashpal Saxena added that despite sending several reminders to the Delhi government, Kejriwal government has not fulfilled its promise.

“Am I not being compensated because I did not allow the incident to become communal? I wanted love and harmony to prevail between the two communities. Am I being punished for it? Would the rift between the two communities have resulted in early compensation?” he asks.

Ankit Saxena, a Delhi based photographer was brutally murdered by the family of his Muslim girlfriend as they disapproved their inter-religious love affair. Subsequently, the girl’s mother, maternal uncle and minor brother have been arrested for the brutal crime.

The Delhi police, in the charge sheet filed in the case, also stated that the murder was premeditated. As reported, it was revealed that the girl’s family was vehemently against their daughter being in love with a Hindu boy and proceeded to kill him in a pre-planned manner by engineering a road rage incident. Ground reports too have highlighted the religious bigotry of the girl’s family with the mother being a staunch Muslim who had huge objections about inter-faith marriages.

A case was registered under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Akbar Ali, the father of Ankit’s girlfriend, mother Shahnaaz, a juvenile younger brother and uncle Mohammad Salim.

The incident predictably shocked the nation, with tributes and condolences flooding for Ankit and his family. The condolence ceremony also involved a prayer meeting which was attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. However, when the family demanded compensation for the loss of the sole breadwinner of their house, Kejriwal reportedly left the prayer meet mid-way.


Incidentally as pointed out by Mishra in his video, Kejriwal in the past had announced compensation worth Rs 1 crore each to the family members of deceased NIA officer Tanzil Ahmed and NDMC legal adviser MM Khan, hence it is not a new thing for him. This raises the question as to why is the Delhi CM not willing to keep his promise to Ankit Saxena’s family.

Ankit Saxena’s father, Yashpal Saxena had become the face of communal harmony after he appealed to everyone not to communalise his son’s murder by the hands of his Muslim girlfriend’s family who disapproved of their inter-religious relationship. He had even organised an inter-faith iftar party last year during Ramzan which was attended by various ‘social activists’. However, a year and a half later, he still awaits justice.

BJP leader Mukul Roy says attacks on BJP workers in WB done by TMC members on the instructions of Mamata Banerjee

BJP leader Mukul Roy has written to Home Minister Amit Shah in response to All India Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) letter sent to him a day earlier. TMC had written to Shah objecting the advisory sent by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) regarding the recent incidents of post-poll violence in the state of West Bengal.

Roy in his letter dismissed the contents of TMC’s letter as misleading and a bundle of lies.


Roy alleged that all the incidents of violence in the state are being carried out at the behest of TMC Supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with the support of the administration. He claimed that TMC workers are following Banerjee’s instructions wherein she had threatened to take revenge from BJP workers ‘inch by inch’.

Referring to the recent clashes between BJP and TMC workers at Sandeshkheli in, which some BJP workers lost their lives, Roy informed Shah about the complete constitutional breakdown in the state.

He alleged that violence at Sandeshkheli was executed as per instructions of TMC leader SK Shahjahan and that police participated like a mock spectator. He urged the Home Minister to take immediate and appropriate action to establish the rule of law in West Bengal.

Earlier, TMC in its letter addressed to Shah had termed the MHA advisory as an evil ploy to grab the power in states not ruled by the BJP by maligning the state government.

The full text of Mukul Roy’s letter to home minister Amit Shah is given below:

 

To,

Shri Amit Ji Shah Hon’ble
Minister-In-Charge,
Ministry of Home Affairs,
North Block
New Delhi -110001

Ref : Letter vide reference no. 2019/J6/9 dated 09/06/2019 issued by West Bengal Trinamool Congress Committee to Hon’ble Home Minister.

Sub: Reply of Letter vide reference no. 2019/J6/9 dated 09/06/2019 issued by West Bengal Trinamool Congress Committee.

I, Mukul Roy, Ex Minister In-charge. Ministry of Railways. National Executive Member Bharatiya Janata Party with reference to the above letter dated 09.06.2019 issued by West Bengal Trinamool Congress Committee, the contents of which are highly disputed is nothing but a bundle of lies and on purpose put in public domain to mislead the common people at large, before dealing with the allegation made in the above referred letter dated 09.06.2019 I strongly deny and dispute all the allegations made therein.

At the very outset I would like to draw the attention of respected Home Minster to the facts that there is complete anarchy and chaos throughout the State of West Bengal, there has been unprecedented poll violence especially post poll violence claiming life of numerous innocent people and damage and loss of property of our party workers. All the incidents of violence throughout the State is carried out by cadres of Trinamool Congress with active help and support of administration at the direct instance of AITC supremo the Hon’ble Chief Minister of the State Smt. Mamta Banejee.

Now dealing with the contents of above referred letter dated 09.06.2019 paragraph wise the allegation made in the first paragraph of the above referred letter is nothing but a blatant lie to hide the facts as if, the same is unknown to everybody, the facts remains there has been complete breakdown of Constitutional Machinery in the State and the ministry of MHA has rightly issued advisory regarding Law and order situation, the fact remains till date hundreds of our party workers have sustained serious injuries and lost their life, only in post poll violence 9 of our party workers were brutally murdered and property worth millions were damaged in State sponsored violence.

It is the ruling party of the State who has at the instance of their party supremo the Honble Chief Minister of the State Smt. Mamta Banerjee who openly threatened us on public platform that she will took revenge inch by inch from our party workers, her words and her wish has been put into action by the goons /antisocial controlled by her. The arbitrariness and negligent act the State administration has led to complete lawlessness and incidents of violence have become regular phenomena in the State.

With reference to paragraph 2, all the allegations and contentions are false, baseless and imaginary for the reason that MCC was not in force as being claimed in above referred letter since last 6 months and it is evident on the face of record that all the violence carried out in the State is done by cadres, goons of AITC. Whatever has been done by MHA is very much in accordance with the law and if the same is not implemented there will be more loss of life and damage of property and the reign of terror will continue in the State. It is also surprising that respected Home Minister who has assumed his office recently is also not spared clearly depicts the malafide intention behind the above referred letter dated 09.06.2019. The fact is well established in the State that the State administration is working as political cadre to satisfy tne arbitrariness of their master.

Now dealing paragraph 3 and 4, the incident of Sandeskhali which claimed life of two of our party workers and also numbers of party workers are missing from the said village having no trace till date, it is nothing but a baseless allegation merely to cover the fact that there has been complete Constitutional breakdown of our administration and State machinery and there is no Law and order in the State. I highly doubt any partial inquiry or investigation from the State agencies and situation is still tense and alarming in the area. As being informed from the media reports and information gathered from the locale it is well establish beyond any doubt that the violence that occurred in Sandeskhali was carried out at the instance of Sk. Shahjahan, the Trinamool party leader and while the violence was going on the police was acting as a mock spectator, homes of our party workers vandalized, our party workers were chased, tortured and brutally murdered by the AITC goons.

Now dealing with paragraph 5 and 6, all the contentions and allegations has been made up to cover the fact that the State Machinery has miserably failed to perform the duties and as the national executive of Bharatiya Janata Party and I took responsibility and has no hesitation to say that Bharatiya Janata Party had any goons or had any antisocial/goons under its fold rather the incident in Bhatpara, Naihati, Kankinara, Kanchrapara has led to forced migration of our party workers from the said areas under direct threat from State administration led by influential ministers of the State who themselves took charge to create reign of terror on our party workers in affected areas. That while making false & baseless allegations I do not hesitate to state that for political gain the WBTCC has even not spared a child. I specifically say and emphasize that the child’s death in Village Kestopur, Ashok Nagar, Habra, North 24 Parganas, that was reported in the above referred letter was due to complication developed due breast feeding as has been revealed by the post mortem report. This kind of allegations is not only baseless rather shameless and I condemn such allegation without any base only to malafidely malign our party’s name. As far as the incident of Uttar Pradesh is concern, to the best of my knowledge no such incident has been reported so far, this has been written merely to malign the image or nationalist party like ours.

I would like to state in fear of losing the recently held elections there has been a wind of change throughout the State of West Bengal and having sensed that the cadres, ministers at the instance of Chief Minister of State are creating reign of terror and unleashed an unprecedented violence / terror on our party workers, the list of the same is enclosed herewith for your kind perusal and reference. I take full responsibility that there has been a complete breakdown of State machinery as if we are in a state of emergency and if steps are not taken urgently to contain the situation the same will go out of hands.

I request Hon’ble Minister to kindly take immediate and appropriate action to safe guard the life of people of the state and further to establish the rule of law and oblige.

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully.

(Mukul Roy)

 

Telangana: Congress leaders stage protest against arrest of Congress legislature party leader on hunger strike

The Congress leaders in Telangana staged a ‘rasta roko’ protest at the BN Reddy circle Tuesday. They were protesting against the arrest and subsequent hospitalization of Telangana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.

The Telanaga police had on Monday taken Vikramarka into preventive detention and shifted him to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in view of his deteriorating health condition.

Vikramarka, Congress Leader of Opposition in Telangana Assembly was on a “satyagraha fast” over what he alleged the “undemocratic” merger of 12 out of 18 Congress MLAs with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

On Saturday, he started a 36-hour fast but later decided to sit indefinitely in a bid to exert pressure on Assembly Speaker P Srinivas Reddy to disqualify the 12 MLAs who defected to the TRS.

Even on June 6, as news about 12 MLAs meeting the speaker surfaced, Vikramarka had expressed his resentment over the defection by wrapping up his mouth with a black ribbon. He was then accompanied by TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy and Congress MLA Sreedhar Babu.

Meanwhile, the MLA on Monday had to call off the protest after he was forcibly shifted to a hospital by the Hyderabad police. The Telangana National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) staged the ‘rasta roko’ in protest after police forcibly removed Vikramarka from hunger strike camp at Indira Park in Hyderabad as his condition started to deteriorate.

After visiting Vikramarka at the hospital, Reddy divulged that he wanted to know why the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was trying to lure Congress legislators into his party though he has an unassailable majority in the Assembly.

“It appears he is doing all this to ensure there is no one to question the government’s actions in the Assembly,” Reddy said.

Reddy further accused speaker P Srinivas Reddy of inaction with respect to Congress’ complaints against the defection of its MLAs. “When our MLAs had joined TRS, separately, we complained to the speaker. However, later it was announced the MLAs had been merged into the TRSLP. It was made to sound as if the MLAs had joined TRS en masse. This is not true,” he said.

Reddy said that Congress had already filed a petition in the High Court and if necessary, the party will knock on the doors of the Supreme Court for justice.

The TPCC chief said he had even sought an appointment with the President of India to explain to him how the anti-defection law had been circumvented to admit the Congress legislators into the TRS.

On June 6 as many as 12 out of 18 MLAs of the Congress party had met Telangana assembly speaker to join Chief Minister’s party, TRS.

Prior to the Lok Sabha elections, 8 Congress MLAs had defected to TRS after meeting the chief minister.

In fact, not only the MLAs but many other party leaders who seem to be disenchanted with their party leaders are joining the ruling TRS.