The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday complained to the Karnataka election panel’s chief that the police were acting like the ruling Congress’ “puppet,” harassing and implicating its party workers in criminal cases in the run up to the May 12 assembly polls.

In its memorandum to Karnataka chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar, the saffron party also complained of ‘rigid and arbitrary” interpretation of the Model Code by poll panel’s officials and said it was creating problems for them.

A BJP delegation, including Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ananthkumar and party general secretary P Muralidhar Rao met CEC and submitted the party’s memorandum to him.

Accusing the police of harassing BJP workers and its others sympathisers, the memorandum said false cases were being lodged against them.

“The police department is acting as a puppet of the ruling Congress party, arresting several right wing activists. No action has been taken against the biased officials,” it said.

The BJP petition also referred to the implementation of the election code of conduct with “rigid and arbitrary interpretation.”

It said the “Mushti Dhaanya” programme (collecting of fistful of food grains from farmers household), aimed at showing solidarity with farmers in distress, covering all 224 assembly constituencies, was to conclude with sharing food with them at Yeddyurappa’s residence.

The government officials, however, restricted the party leaders from holding the event. The programme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally recently.

“The programe had begun much before the announcement of elections. However, the Election Commission officials, under the guise of Model Code of Conduct, are restricting farmers from reaching the house of Yeddyurappa.

“It is beyond our imagination why the EC is creating obstructions to the smooth conduct of the in-house programme,” the memorandum said.

It also alleged that officials were preventing party workers from holding bike rally, though BJP is a cadre-based party having a large base of workers who voluntarily want to participate in the programmes.

 Rajasthan Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who had blamed party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his advisors for 2014 poll debacle has been suspended.

“Rajasthan Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma suspended from party for attack on Rahul Gandhi,” PCC spokesperson Archana Sharma said on Sunday.

Terming Rahul as 'MD of a team of jokers' Sharma had critisised him saying that he has neither direction nor any policy.

Adding that the party was in its worst days because of Rahul, Sharma had suggested that party president Sonia Gandhi should focus on strengthening the grand old party instead of having affection for her son.
"Rahul Gandhi is directionless and has no policy. He and his advisors are responsible for the party's embarrassment and defeat in elections as there is no huge mass support for him," Sharma has said to the reporters.

Further hinting towards a leadership change in Congress after a drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, Sharma had said that the time has come for the party to think beyond Rahul and Priyanka Vadra.

Hitting out at Rahul in strongest words, Sharma had said that Rahul was enjoying authority as he belonged to the Gandhi family and he did not enter the party through a democratic process.

India's Congress party president Sonia Gandhi's has filed a new motion to dismiss a human rights violation lawsuit against her by Sikhs for Justice, a New York based human rights group.

In a reply memorandum filed in the district court of New York's eastern district, Gandhi's lawyers said the plaintiffs had unjustly argued for "unlimited extraterritorial jurisdiction and corporate liability to reach the tragic events of 1984 in India, and hold an innocent Gandhi liable.

Saying that "two wrongs don't make a right," the motion said the plaintiffs "fail to attribute actual acts or omissions to Gandhi".
The plaintiffs complaint was also devoid of any "factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged," they said.

US federal court for the Eastern District of New York had in Sep 2013 issued summons against Sonia Gandhi on a complaint filed by SFJ and some victims of anti-Sikh violence in India in November 1984.

The group has sought compensatory and punitive damages against Gandhi for her alleged role in shielding and protecting Congress party leaders including Kamal Nath, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Amitabh Bachchan from prosecution for their alleged role in the 1984 violence.

A crucial meeting of the Political Affairs Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) began on Monday to discuss the results of the public referendum on whether or not to take Congress support in forming government in Delhi.

According to reports, meeting is being attended by all top AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Dr Kumar Viswas and all newly-elected MLA of the party.

After the meeting, the AAP chief is likely to hold a press conference to announce his party's decision on the issue of government formation in Delhi.

Kejriwal is also due to meet Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung in the afternoon to apprise him about his party's stand on ending the political stalemate in Delhi.

Kejriwal's meeting with the Lt Governor comes amid clear signs that his party is preparing to take power in Delhi with Congress support.

After five days of a virtual referendum on whether or not AAP should form a minority government, there were enough indications - but no announcement - that the one-year-old AAP was ready for the plunge.

Officially, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who could become a minister if Kejriwal forms a government, told that the final decision would be taken only Monday morning.

“I can't say now if we will indeed form a government,” he said late Sunday. “We still need to hold a few meetings. The final decision will be taken only on Monday.”

Kejriwal said earlier Sunday that “a major announcement” would be made Monday. The party said the activist-turned-politician would meet the media Monday before meeting Jung.

As the party's campaign to elicit a 'yes' or 'no' from people in the capital on government formation entered its final phase, the AAP said that most voters favoured an AAP government.

“Majority of the feedback we have received is 'yes',” spokesperson Ashwathi Muralidharan told reporters.

The party has got responses from over 6.5 lakh people through SMS, interactive voice response (IVR), Facebook and the AAP web site, she said.

Separately, AAP held public meetings in some 270 municipal wards across Delhi where too most people rooted for an AAP government by raising their hands, party leaders said.

A former Indian Revenue Service officer whose social activism won him the Ramon Magsaysay award, Kejriwal indicated that his party was readying to take power with Congress backing.

He denied that the promises made by his party – providing 700 litres of water daily to homes and sharply cutting power tariff among others – were utopian in nature.

“We will deliver whatever assurances we made in our manifesto. It (manifesto) was prepared after wide consultations, and a lot of thought went into it,” he told the media.

“Moreover, the people of Delhi are expecting much more from us, and we will perform.”

Later in the evening, Kejriwal told a public meeting in Sarojini Nagar in south Delhi that his party will keep “returning to the people” on major issues – even after forming a government.

“This is democracy, this is real democracy,” he said, denying criticism that the AAP decision to seek a referendum on whether or not to take power was “nautanki” (drama).

But AAP leaders made it clear that there would be no alliance with the Congress, which has only eight seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly but which, after being ousted from power, agreed to prop up a government of AAP (28 seats) in order to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) away.

The BJP, which finished as the largest group with 31 seats, decided not to form a government after falling short of the half-way mark by five.

The BJP's 'no' led the Lt. Governor to invite the AAP to try form a government. Kejriwal then said he was in a moral dilemma on whether or not to take power with Congress help.

So he decided to seek the views of the people in the capital, a move which again Sunday came under criticism from the BJP.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said on Facebook: “The AAP had categorically stated that it represents alternative politics. It is guided by idealism. It will neither support nor accept support from either the Congress or BJP.

“Obviously, if the AAP stands by its publicly stated commitment, the Delhi assembly becomes a deadlocked assembly wherein after a reasonable time a fresh poll has to be ordered.

 Congress MP Nitesh Rane has been arrested for smashing a Goa transport department-operated border toll booth near here, police said on Tuesday.

An official said that Rane, Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra's Sindhudurg constituency which borders the state, was on his way to Goa when his entourage was stopped at a toll booth in Dhargal, 30 km from here, for payment as a part of a new entry system put in place by the state for vehicles registered outside Goa.

The enraged Rane along with his supporters tried to assault the occupants of the booth and smash the boom barrier and the toll operator cabin as well.

He was later picked up by police from a hotel in Calangute which is operated by a company owned by the Rane family.

A senior police official confirmed Rane's arrest.

"A first information report has been registered at the Pernem police station," the official said.