Candidates send wish list of star campaigners to high command
Rahul- Akhilesh’s joint rally, PriyankaDimple’s road show INDIA Bloc’s top demand, Modi-Yogi rally top choice for BJP
PRAYAGRAJ: As the polling date for Phulpur and Allahabad parliamentary seats approaches closer , candidates of prominent parties in the fray have sent in their demands for star campaigners. Be it INDIA block or the ruling Bharatiya` Janata Party (BJP), the wish lists of the cankdidates and the local party leaders have been duly sent up to the high command.
The local units of Congress and Samajwadi Party, two major components of the INDIA Block, have sent the names of the star campaigners whom they want in Prayagraj, to their respective headquarters.
Congress leaders’ first choice is Rahul Gandhi while SP’s top preference is Akhilesh Yadav. There is also a demand to bring both the big star campaigners of their respective parties on one platform. Leaders of both parties claim that if Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav hold a meeting together, it will have a huge impact. They are also claiming that Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will definitely hold a joint rally in Prayagraj.
Along with this, Congressmen have also demanded a road show of Priyanka Gandhi while SP leaders have demanded a road show of Dimple Yadav.
Congress’s state general secretary Mukund Tiwari said that Priyanka Gandhi’s road show in Prayagraj was almost certain.
SP’s district spokesperson Dan Bahadur Madhur
that there was great demand for a road show of Dimple Yadav also. A joint road show of Priyanka and Dimple had also been demanded for greater impact , he added.
Congress’ Rajya Sabha member and local star campaigner Pramod Tiwari is set to hold two meetings, including one in trans-Yamuna area and another in the Sangam city area. Former Union minister Salman Khurshid is also expected to hold meetings in minority-dominated areas here. Apart from these, SP’s Shivpal Yadav, Prof Ramgopal Yadavand Samajwadi Party’s state president Naresh Uttam Patel can also hold meetings in rural areas.
BJP leaders and candidates too have formally requested campaigning and visits of many senior party leaders with most hard-pressed demand being for party’s biggest star campaigner—Prime Minister Narendra Modi— and chief minister
Yogi Adityanath.
Demands for national party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, party leader and Bhojpuri singer Manoj Tiwari, Union minister Smriti Irani, state president Bhupendra Singh, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak as well as leader of Apna Dal (S) which is part of NDA, Anupriya Patel are at the top.
Leaders have also requested campaigning by Bollywood stars, including BJP’s Mathura seat candidate and MP Hema Malini and Mandi seat candidate Kangana Ranaut in Prayagraj.
BJP’s city unit president Rajendra Mishra said that the outline of the programmes of star campaigners in Prayagraj would become available soon.
Not to be outdone, BSP workers too have demanded its star campaigners to campaign on both the parliamentary seats of the district.
BSP district president RB Tyagi said that the party had requested for its president Mayawati, national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra and senior leaders like Munkad Ali and Naushad Ali for campaigning.
BJP workers inviting traders to the road show of PM Modi to be organised on May 13 in Varanasi.
Jitendra Sarin
PRAYAGRAJ: Acting on a PIL moved by a five-year-old LKG student, the Allahabad High Court has directed the state government authorities to refrain from renewing the licence of a liquor shop near the school of the petitioner in Kanpur.
The petitioner – Atharva Dixit had sought direction to relocate the country made liquor shop in Azad Nagar at Kanpur Nagar and to refrain from granting it a fresh or renewed licence for 2024-25, as according to him the distance between the liquor shop and his school is only 30 metres. As the liquor shop remains open throughout the day and is a meeting point of anti-social elements, it is creating disturbance to the students of the school, the petitioner had pleaded.
While partly allowing a PIL filed by one Atharva Dixit, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar restrained the state excise authorities respondent from granting/ renewing the licence of the shop in question after expiry of the present licence on March 31, 2025, i.e. for the financial year 2025-26 onwards.
However, in response to the PIL, the state government relied on the provisions of Rule 5(4)(a) of the Uttar Pradesh Number and Location of Excise Shop Rules, 1968. The proviso to this rule stipulates a distance of 50 metres between a liquor shop and any place of public worship, school, hospital, or residential colony. Further, if any such place comes into existence after the establishment of the shop, the provisions of this rule do not apply. Since the shop in question has been operational for over 30 years and the school was established in 2019, it was submitted that there is no violation of the Rules of 1968.
However, the petitioner’s counsel took the plea that if a school is established after the liquor shop, it should not result in the closure of the shop during the current financial year.
However, once the licence in question expires, no fresh licence or renewal should be granted.
Therefore, rejecting the petitioner’s representation on these grounds is factually incorrect, the petitioner added.
The court in its decision dated May 2 further said, “The mere fact that the shop has been used as a liquor shop in a financial year prior to when the school came into existence, is not sufficient for invoking the proviso for the purpose of granting licence year after year inasmuch as the licence is issued to the licencee on his fulfilling the eligibility under Rule 8 of the Rules of 2002 and not to the shop in question. Any other interpretation to the said proviso, as projected by counsel for the respondents, would render the provisions of Rule 5 (4) (a) nugatory.”