Chandy replaces Digvijaya as Cong general secretary
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday replaced senior leader Digvijaya Singh as general secretary of the party with former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, a party press release said.Chandy, 74, will take over from the 71-year-old Singh as the party’s Andhra Pradesh in-charge, the release added.Congress president Rahul Gandhi also relieved general secretary CP Joshi of the charge of West Bengal and appointed Kaliabor Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi in his place. Son of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the 35-yearold will also handle the party’s affairs in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha and former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha will take part in the Aam Aadmi Party’s five-phase padyatra against the Modi government starting from Varanasi on June 25.
The first phase of the agitation, Janadhikar Andolan, will end in Ballia on July 8.
Shatrughan Sinha, the BJP MP from Patna Sahib (Bihar), is often in the news for his comments against his party.
June 25 will mark the 43rd anniversary of imposition of Emergency late PM Indira Gandhi in 1975.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha.
“We will launch a five-phase padyatra starting from Varanasi to expose the Modi government that had failed to keep any of its promises,” Sanjay Singh, AAP’s general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, told reporters here on Sunday.
However, it is not clear whether Delhi chief minister and AAP’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal will be present in Varanasi at the start of the yatra.
“Prices of essential commodities and petrol have sky rocketed in the four-year tenure of the Modi government. The law and order situation is also not good in Uttar Pradesh,” Singh said.
The AAP general secretary has issued an appeal to voters to vote against the BJP in the Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly bypolls on Monday.
Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP national convenor, had contested against PM Modi from Varanasi in 2014 general election.
The dates of the five-phase padyatra are: (First phase) Varanasi-Ballia, June 25 to July 8 ; (second phase) Ayodhya-Lucknow, August 28 to September 6; (third phase) Bareilly to Amroha, September 11 to 18 ; (fourth phase) Lalitpur to Jhansi, September 25 to October 2 and (fifth phase) Aligarh to Agra via Mathura, October 20 to 26.
JUNE 25 WILL MARK THE 43RD ANNIVERSARY OF IMPOSITION OF EMERGENCY LATE PM INDIRA GANDHI IN 1975.