India News
Chief election officer of poll-bound Mizoram replaced following protests

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Days before Assembly elections in Mizoram, the Election Commission (EC) today (Thursday, Nov 15), replaced state’s Chief Electoral Officer SB Shashank following widespread protests in the state demanding his ouster – an unprecedented phenomenon.
IAS officer Ashish Kundra has been appointed in his place.
The crisis in the poll-bound state stems from Shashank alleging interference by the state government in preparations for the polls, scheduled on November 28. He wrote to the EC in the last week of October, mentioning an “active role” played by the state Home Department in this interference.
The department was then headed by Principal Secretary (Home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo, a 1987-batch Gujarat-cadre IAS officer serving in Mizoram on an inter-cadre deputation.
Shashank had accused Chuaungo of interfering with the revision of electoral rolls of Bru refugees from Mizoram, who have been living in relief camps in Tripura since ethnic violence drove them away in 1997. Most Mizos, including the state government, are opposed to the Election Commission’s proposal for allowing Brus to vote at their camps and want them to return to Mizoram for that.
Less than a week after receiving the letter from Shashank, the poll panel issued orders to the state government to remove Chuaungo with immediate effect.
Chuango’s removal led to demands for Shashank’s removal as the CEO. The protesters had asked Shashank to quit by November 5 and leave the state after Chuaungo was removed.
Two of the main demands by the groups led by the Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee or MNCC were to reappoint ousted principal secretary of home Lalnunmawia Chuaungo, and allowing Bru tribe refugees who are living in neighbouring Tripura to vote only in Mizoram and not from their camps in the other state.
After thousands of people gathered outside Shashank’s office in Aizawl on Tuesday to seek his removal ahead of the November 28 assembly polls, an EC team comprising Jharkhand CEO Lalbiakthanga Khiangte, EC director Nikhil Kumar and EC secretary S.B. Joshi held talks with the Mizoram NGO Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization of non-government organisations and civil society groups.
Following the talks, the Coordination Committee Wednesday submitted a resolution, demanding that the poll panel stand by its April 2014 commitment that in any future parliamentary or assembly elections in Mizoram, the Bru refugees living in camps in neighbouring Tripura could only vote within the state. It also reiterated the demand that Shashank be removed from his post and the state.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
India News
BJP Mahila Morcha gets 2024 task after PM Modi hands over PMAY house keys in Kanpur
The BJP Mahila Morcha will reach out to all women PMAY beneficiaries from June 3, the party wants women beneficiaries to share their thoughts with PM Modi and write postcards to him, expressing thanks since they are now owners of houses worth lakhs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over the keys to beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in Kanpur in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior BJP leaders.
The programme was held to mark the nine years of the PM Modi led-government at the Centre. The BJP Mahila Morcha will reach out to all women PMAY beneficiaries from June 3. The Morcha wants women beneficiaries to share their thoughts with PM Modi and write postcards to him, expressing thanks since they are now owners of houses worth lakhs as part of the Lakhpati Didi campaign.
The BJP Mahila Morcha will visit the women beneficiaries to understand and identify their ideology and ask them their reasons to subscribe to it, BJP Mahila Morcha UP unit president and Rajya Sabha member Geeta Shakya said. This campaign has been organised ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election and is likely to be end by June 19.
Not just PMAY beneficiaries, the BJP Mahila Morcha will also visit beneficiaries of Ujwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission to know their experience and its impact on their lives. They will get it shot on camera to share with PM Modi, Shakya said. Those who share pictures with their PMAY house, will be able to share it on the NaMo App.
The BJP women’s wing has been given the responsibility to mark the completion of nine years of Modi government as part of the Maha Sampark Abhiyan. Apart from this, the women’s wing is going to cover the 18-25 age group which voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and will ask them what they thought of the last five years of the Modi government and their expectation from the Modi government in the future.
Another programme, the Nav-matdata Yuvati Sammelan, to appeal to young women, who are first-time voters in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is also on the cards. Mahila Morcha workers will also visit anganwadis to meet parents of children and gauge their views on the government scheme and its impact on their lives.
India News
Darshan Solanki suicide: Mumbai Police chargesheet lists caste bias in IIT Bombay
Filed on Tuesday in the Special Court hearing cases hearing offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the chargesheet has the statement made by Solanki’s mother.

The Mumbai Police chargesheet into the suicide of IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki has revealed that he faced large scale caste discrimination when his classmates got to know of his caste.
Filed on Tuesday in the Special Court hearing cases hearing offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the chargesheet has the statement made by Solanki’s mother. She said her son had told his sister sometime in December 2022 over a call that his fellow students’ behaviour to him underwent a sea change once they got to he was a Dalit.
Solanki had died by suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the hostel in the IIT Bombay campus on February 12, 2023, a day after semester exams ended. Aman Khatri, a fellow student, who has been named in the chargesheet is out on bail after his arrest on the charges of abetment to suicide.
Khatri had allegedly threatened to kill Solanki after the latter had spoken offensively about his religion. Solanki’s mother told police of the change in behaviour of his friends when they came to know of his caste. Solanki had again raised this when he came on vacation for Makar Sakranti in January 2023. On February 12, he spoke to his mother on the phone around 12:20 pm and said that he would visit home on February 14, and they should invite their relatives for a get-together. Two hours later, his father got a call that Solanki had committed suicide.
He told his parents that he was enjoying his studies at the Institute but some students taunted him that he was getting free education. The chargesheet include statements of 55 witnesses, including some students and professors from IIT Bombay.
Dalit students continue to face the unrelenting pressure of caste discrimination in elite institutions in engineering, medicine and the humanities. Many have died by suicide as a result.
Karnataka News
Congress’s poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu appointed Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s chief advisor with cabinet minister rank
Amid the finalisation of the new cabinet formation in the state, the CM office has shared the news of Kanugolu’s appointment as the chief advisor.

Top poll strategist and the man behind Congress campaigns in the recent held Karnataka elections Sunil Kanugolu has been appointed as the chief advisor to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with cabinet minister rank.
Congress after coming to the power in Karnataka after marking a landslide victory officially took charge after Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar were sworn in as the CM and Deputy Chief Ministers respectively on May 20.
Amid the finalisation of the new cabinet formation in the state, the CM office has shared the news of Kanugolu’s appointment as the chief advisor.
Kanugolu, known to be a champion strategist for political parties for political parties was born in the Ballari district of Karnataka.
Congress which secured a huge mandate of 135 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections was said to be because of its campaigns that hit success reaching out to the masses.
Reports said, Kanugolu’s micro-management strategies was what Congress relied heavily on, he was the part of the core strategy building team of the party contributing in the making of catchy campaigns for the party to encircle the BJP during elections.
Some of the key campaigns were PayCM, 40 percent commission among others.
Kanugolu is a key member of the Congress Task Force 2024, who got appointed in May last year, a team created to execute the Nav Sankalp declaration of the grand old party after its brainstorming session held in Udaipur last year.
The Task Force also includes senior leaders of the party Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and others.
Kanugolu was earlier associated with the sharp witted poll strategist Prashant Kishor and was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign.
Kanugolu has earlier also worked for the DMK and AIADMK.
As per reports, the data driven strategist was also behind the planning of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
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