Dismissing some survey reports suggesting that there would be a “hung” assembly in Telangana after the November 30 polls, BRS MLC K Kavitha said on Saturday that her party is going to triumph in the elections while Congress and others win only in surveys.

Replying to a host of questions from netizens on “X”, she also said with the blessings of the Telangana people, BRS is going to win between 95 and 105 seats in the 119-member house.

“They played the same trick in 2018. Many surveys were thrown at the people in 2018 as well .. but BRS won with a thumping majority. Let Congress & others win the surveys this time also & BRS will win the election,” she replied when asked about some surveys’ results on the hung assembly.

On Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that the BJP, if it wins the polls in Telangana, will make a BC candidate as chief minister, she ridiculed that the saffron party replaced a BC leader with an OC (open category) person as state unit head. The Central government also refused to conduct an OBC caste census across the country, she said.

“BJP refuses to give reservations to OBC women. BJP refuses to form BC welfare ministry at the Centre. BJP refuses to give a 33% OBC quota in parliament & assemblies. Now the same BJP says that they’ll make BC a CM…what I see is just another election Gimmick,” she slammed.

When asked who her favourite politician other than her father (K Chandrasekhar Rao), she replied it is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

K Kavitha said the arrest of former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu, is “unfortunate” and her sympathies are with his family. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called Western powers “the main culprit” behind the Israeli army’s “massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Turkish leader has been a leading international supporter of Palestinian rights during his two-decade rule.

He took a more cautious line in the first days after Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on October 7 during which they seized more than 220 hostages and claimed more than 1,400 lives.

But he has become much more vocal as the reported death count from Israel’s military response has grown.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people — mainly civilians — with more than 3,500 of them children.

Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party staged a massive pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul on Saturday that the Turkish leader said had drawn a crowd of 1.5 million.

He unleashed a scathing attack at Israel and its Western supporters after taking the stage with a microphone in his hand.

“The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West,” Erdogan told the Turkish and Palestinian flag-waving crowd.

“If we leave aside some conscientious voices… the massacre in Gaza is entirely the work of the West.”

Erdogan added that Israel was behaving like a “war criminal”.

“Of course, every country has the right to defend itself. But where is the justice in this case?”

He accused Western powers of “shedding tears” over the death of civilians in Ukraine and turning a blind eye on the death of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“We are against all these double standards and all these hypocrisies,” he said.

And he accused Israel’s allies of creating a “crusade war atmosphere” pitting Christians against Muslims.

“Listen to our call for dialogue,” President Erdogan said. “No one loses from a just peace.”

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to the “very poor” category on Saturday and is predicted to worsen further due to unfavourable meteorological conditions, according to weather monitoring agencies.

The city’s 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 304, worsening from 261 (poor category) on Friday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.

It was 256 on Thursday, 243 on Wednesday and 220 on Tuesday.

The AQI was 291 in neighbouring Ghaziabad, 272 in Faridabad, 252 in Gurugram, 284 in Noida and 346 in Greater Noida.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.

According to the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the city’s air quality deteriorated to the ‘very poor’ category due to slow wind speed at night and a dip in temperatures.

The air quality is expected to remain very poor till the end of the month, it said.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the number of stubble-burning incidents recorded in neighbouring states so far is fewer than last year and the overall contribution of farm fires to the city’s air pollution is expected to reduce.

However, he cautioned that air pollution may increase in the coming days due to unfavourable meteorological conditions.

Only around 2,500 stubble-burning incidents have been recorded so far, compared to 5,000 such cases during the same period last year, he told reporters here.

According to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Punjab, which accounts for the maximum number of cases of stubble burning every year, reported 49,922 farm fires in 2022, compared to 71,304 the previous year and 83,002 in 2020.

The agrarian state logged 50,738 incidents of stubble burning in 2019, 59,684 in 2018, 67,079 in 2017, and 1,02,379 in 2016.

Haryana recorded 3,661 farm fires in 2022, down from 6,987 in 2021 and 4,202 in 2020.

The neighbouring state witnessed 6,364 incidents of stubble burning in 2019, 9,225 in 2018, 13,085 in 2017, and 15,686 in 2016.

Unfavourable meteorological conditions and a cocktail of emissions from firecrackers and paddy straw burning, in addition to local sources of pollution, push Delhi-NCR’s air quality to hazardous levels during winter.

According to an analysis conducted by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the capital experienced peak pollution from November 1 to November 15 when stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana peak.

While Delhi is facing a sharp decline in air quality in the coming days, crucial data that helped the government prepare a strategy to mitigate the air pollution problem is missing.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, which provided data about the contribution of smoke from farm fires to Delhi’s air pollution, has not been providing updates, and associated officials are unaware of the reason.

“We are not aware of why updates on the SAFAR portal have stopped,” said an official at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, which operates the website.

Similarly, data from the Decision Support System, a numerical model-based framework capable of identifying sources of particulate matter pollution in Delhi, isn’t accessible to the general public anymore.

Recently, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai alleged the city government’s study to determine pollution sources in the national capital has been halted “unilaterally and arbitrarily” on the orders of DPCC Chairman Ashwani Kumar.

The Delhi government had last month launched a 15-point action plan to mitigate air pollution in the capital during the winter season, with a strong emphasis on addressing dust pollution, vehicular emissions, and the open burning of garbage.

Special drives to check dust, vehicular and industrial pollution are already underway in the city.

In keeping with the practice of the last three years, Delhi had last month announced a comprehensive ban on the manufacture, storage, sale and use of firecrackers within the city.

A public awareness campaign, ‘Patakhe Nahi Diye Jalao,’ will soon be reintroduced to discourage firecracker burning.

The government has also prepared a pollution mitigation plan for each of the 13 identified pollution hotspots — Narela, Bawana, Mundka, Wazirpur, Rohini, R K Puram, Okhla, Jahangirpuri, Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Mayapuri, Dwarka.

Rai recently said the government has identified eight more pollution hotspots in addition to the existing 13 in the national capital and special teams will be deployed there to check pollution sources.

He said the government has also decided to use suppressant powder to prevent dust pollution in the city.

Dust suppressants could include chemical agents like calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, lignosulfonates and various polymers. These chemicals work by attracting and binding fine dust particles together, making them too heavy to become airborne.