AP By-elections: EC Announced Schedule

The Election Commission of India on Thursday announced By-elections schedule for the seven constituencies in Andhra Pradesh to be held on 18 March 2012. Of the seven seats, six are in Telangana and one in Seemandhra's Nellore district. The bypolls are to be held for the Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Station Ghanpur, Kollapur, Adilabad and Kamareddy assembly seats in Telangana and Kovur assembly seat in Nellore district.

Polling Schedule:
Nominations Start from: Feb 22, 2012
Last Date of Nominations: Feb 29, 2012
Scrutiny of Nominations: March 1st, 2012
Last date for withdrawal of Candidates: March 3, 2012
Date of Poll: March 18, 2012 Sunday
Counting: March 21, 2012
Polling Time: 8 am to 5 pm

The vacancy in Mahabubnagar seat was caused due to the death of independent M Rajeshwar Reddy, while the bypoll in Nagarkurnool was necessitated due to the resignation of Nagam Janardhan Reddy from the TDP over the Telangana issue. In Station Ghanpur and Kollapur, Congress MLAs T Rajaiah and Jupalli Krishna Rao quit the ruling party for T cause and joined the TRS. Similarly, TDP MLAs Jogu Ramanna and Gampa Goverdhan quit the TDP and joined the TRS. The lone vacancy in Kovur was caused due to the resignation of TDP MLA N Prasanna Kumar Reddy to join the YSR Congress.

Modi Is Not Our PM: Owaisi

MIM is a recognized state political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the old city of Hyderabad, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen founded in 1927. Unlike most of the regional and national level parties, MIM party leaders ‘fight’ only for the well-being of Muslims, whereas no other party has such communal feelings. In their each and every speech, MIM leaders speak only about Muslims. If these leaders are here to fight for Muslims, then why there are no development works are happening in old city area for decades. Akbaruddin Owaisi faced criticism for making hate remarks on Narendra Modi and Hindus. Recently, his elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi made some notorious annotations. In a one-on-one debate between BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi on the topic of demonetization in a popular Hindi channel, the former left no stone unturned in exposing the latter’s communal designs. Owaisi claimed how most of the Muslim community still remains unbanked and that demonetization has caused severe inconvenience to Muslims. He even went on to say that ATM’s in Muslim-dominated areas weren’t fed enough money. He indirectly alleged that the Modi government hadn’t done anything for Muslims. Even after being pressurized Owaisi didn’t call Narendra Modi as his Prime Minister. He went on said, “Your Prime Minister…” On the other hand, Sambit spoke wisely and called Owaisi a leader of small stature because he talked only of Muslims. He said that no area was Muslim or Hindu and that all areas belonged to India. Owaisi was constantly quoting an RBI report, to which Sambit challenged him to show where the RBI had used the word ‘Muslim’. Sambit even said that if a Muslim leader speaks of Muslims it’s not an issue, but the moment a VHP leader speaks of Hindus people go crazy accusing them of imposing the Hindutva ideology. The most amazing of his counters was to Owaisi’s claims of Muslims not having been brought into the banking system. Sambit said that when banks or ATMs are to be opened in Muslim areas leaders like Owaisi shout that banking is un-Islamic and that Muslims should refrain from it! This video of debate between Sambit Patra and Asaduddin Owaisi is going viral in social media.