India politics news in brief for Oct 12: BJP chief flags off 'Gaurav Yatra' in poll-bound Gujarat

Here are news in brief related to Indian politics for Wednesday, October 12, 2022:

JP Nadda, the national president of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday flagged off the 'Gaurav Yatra' (March of Pride) from the temple town of Bahucharaji in Mehsana district of the western Indian state of Gujarat. It will conclude at Mandvi in Kutch on October 20. "It is not the Gaurav Yatra of BJP or Gujarat but the one to establish India's pride. Gujarat is the Gangotri of India, which is striding ahead under the leadership of (Narendra) Modi; a self-reliant, developed India that takes everyone along," Nadda said on the occasion. The party chief also launched the yatra on another route from Dwarka. The BJP is rolling out the yatra on five different routes on Wednesday and Thursday (13). Gujarat, which is ruled by the BJP for more than two decades now, will go to polls in December.

The recent move by a group of eight state Indian National Congress lawmakers in Goa to merge with the ruling BJP was as per the constitutional norms, state Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said, Press Trust of India reported. Tawadkar told PTI that the political dynamics has changed in recent times and politics is now more "vibrant". On September 14, eight out of the 11 Congress MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) in Goa joined the BJP. They had passed a resolution to merge the Congress Legislature Party with the BJP. Asked about the last month's political development, Tawadkar said the merger was as per the constitutional provisions. “A group of two-third MLAs split from the party and merged with the BJP. Everything went as per the rule book,” he said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Wednesday alleged that Rutuja Latke, their candidate for the November 3 by-election to Andheri East Assembly seat in Mumbai, was being pressured by the Eknath Shinde camp to contest on their ticket, PTI reported. The by-election, necessitated by the death of incumbent Sena MLA and Rutuja Latke's husband Ramesh Latke, would be the first electoral test for the Thackeray faction following the split in the party in June this year. After the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed in June, Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra along with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. Latke on Wednesday said she has not met CM Shinde and maintained that she will contest the bypoll on the Thackeray faction's 'mashaal' (torch) symbol.

Indian National Congress's presidential poll candidate Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday listed fighting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the most important challenge before his party and accused the saffron outfit heading the Narendra Modi government of "destroying" the Constitution and "weakening" autonomous bodies. Talking to reporters in Bhopal in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Kharge said he believes in collective leadership and if elected president, will consult party leaders Sonia Gandhi as well as Rahul Gandhi on organisational matters. Asked who will be the Congress's prime ministerial candidate if he gets elected as party chief, he avoided a direct reply and quoted a proverb popular in his home state Karnataka to say, "If you survive on one festival, then you will dance on another event."

The National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Indian National Congress, and other prominent political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday flayed the Jammu administration's order on facilitating the registration of new voters who are from outside the union territory, while the BJP defended it saying it is in line with the laws, PTI reported. They were reacting after the Jammu administration authorised tehsildars (revenue officials) to issue a certificate of residence to those residing in the winter capital for more than a year to enable their registration as voters. While PDP president Mehbooba Mufti alleged that the Narendra Modi government's "colonial settler project" has been initiated in the region, the National Conference urged people of J-K to “defeat these conspiracies at the ballot box”. Former Congress leader and Democratic Azad Party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad said the order would increase social tensions in Jammu and Kashmir, while the Peoples Conference termed the Jammu's administrative order "highly suspicious".

Asserting that India has become the fifth largest economy in the world, president Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday said that the country's North Eastern Region will play an important role in making India a five-trillion-dollar (£4.5 trillion) economy by 2025, Asian News International reported. She said that there is immense potential for development in the North-Eastern Region. "Today, development of the region is getting a new impetus with various new projects of highways, railways, airways and waterways. The North Eastern Region, including Tripura, will play an important role in making India a five-trillion-dollar economy by 2025. She expressed confidence that the aspirations, innovation and entrepreneurship of the talented and hardworking people, especially the youth of Tripura, will play an important role in achieving this goal," Murmu said while inaugurating Tripura State Judicial Academy, a release by the president's secretariat said.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will visit Himachal Pradesh on Thursday (13) where in Una he will flag off Vande Bharat Express from Una Himachal railway station, ANI reported. Thereafter, in a public function, the PM will dedicate IIIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Una to the nation and lay the foundation stone of Bulk Drug Park in Una. After that, in a public function at Chamba, he will lay the foundation stone of two hydropower projects and launch Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III in Himachal Pradesh, read a press statement from the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Modi's clarion call for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) has led to the country moving swiftly towards attainment of self-reliance across multiple sectors, through support of various new initiatives of the government.