The Opposition INDIA bloc received another blow today — though not an unexpected one –– as the Samajwadi Party released a list of 16 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh amid seat-sharing talks with the Congress. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav made it clear that his party will do what it thinks is best and no clearance from the Congress is needed.
 
The Congress has been rebuffed by Mamata Banerjee in Bengal and AAP’s Bhagwant Mann in Punjab in terms of seat sharing. The whole Opposition has been jilted by NItish Kumar, who defected and took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for the ninth time on Sunday, to head an alliance government with the BJP.

That the Samajwadi Party could be “difficult” became clear last year after the Congress’s local leaders in Madhya Pradesh refused to honour the central leadership’s agreement with Akhilesh Yadav for six seats.

State party chief Kamal Nath’s “Don’t know any Akhilesh-Vakilesh” comment had made it to headlines, sparking deep anger in the Samajwadi camp.

Mr Yadav issued a list of 16 candidates, sending a message to the Congress that if they want alliance in UP, they have to agree on what the Samajwadi Party offers. It is a clear indication that in UP, the Samajwadi Party will take decisions in the alliance in its own way.

In 80-seat Uttar Pradesh, Mr Yadav has offered the Congress 11 seats. In 2019, in alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party had not contested from Amethi and Rae Bareli as a gesture of courtesy.

Among the candidates named today is Dimple Yadav, the wife of the SP chief, who will be contesting from family bastion Mainpuri.

Mamata Banerjee has refused to share no more than two seats in Bengal, and in view of the Congress’s ambition for more, asked the party to introspect on its results. A similar point was made earlier by Akhilesh Yadav.

In 2019, the Congress had won 44 seats — very few of them in in the northeast or the Hindi belt. In Uttar Pradesh, it won only one seat, Raebareli, as Rahul Gandhi lost to Smriti Irani in Amethi

Mamata Banerjee has remarked that giving the Congress more than two seats is equivalent to giving them away to the BJP — a party she has been fighting for the last five years. In Bengal, the BJP has slid into the second spot, pushing out the Left Front.

A Maldives Jumhooree Party (JP) leader, Qasim Ibrahim, has urged Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu to formally apologise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India.

This comes as the country’s main opoosition MDP, which holds a majority in the Maldivian Parliament, said it plans to submit a motion to impeach their President – a development that followed clashes that  broke out in the House between pro-government MPs and opposition lawmakers following differences over the approval of four members of his cabinet.

“Regarding any country, especially a neighbouring one, we shouldn’t speak in a way that affects the relationship. We have an obligation to our state that must be considered. President Solih did consider this obligation and issued a Presidential Decree banning the “India Out” campaign. Now, Yameen (former president Abdulla Yameen) is questioning why Muizzu, who participated with him in the India Out Campaign, has not nullified the Presidential Decree,” he said.

He added, “The Decree should not be nullified, as it would only result in a loss to the nation. That cannot be done. I would tell Muizzu that it shouldn’t be done. Also, I call on President Muizzu to formally apologise to the Indian government and Prime Minister Modi regarding his remarks after the China trip.”

Earlier last year, then Maldives President Ibrahim Solih signed a decree stating that the opposition’s ‘India Out’ campaign is a “threat to national security”. This allows security agencies to take down campaign banners and provides constitutional cover to take action against opposition parties.

The opposition, led by former president Abdulla Yameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) was spearheading an ‘India Out’ campaign for over the last year propagating the unproven claim that Indian military officers stationed in the Indian Ocean island nation are a violation of Maldives’ sovereignty.

The campaign’s implicit target was then Maldivian President Solih and the Maldivian Democratic Party, both perceived as close to India.

Notably, Solih was one of the prominent Maldives leader to condemn the derogatory remarks made by some junior ministers which led to a diplomatic standoff between the two nations.India and the Maldives on January 14 “agreed to fast-track the withdrawal of Indian military personnel” from the island nation, according to the Maldives’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The removal of Indian troops in the Maldives was the main campaign plank of Muizzu’s party during the presidential elections. Currently, there are around 70 Indian troops, along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters, stationed On the second day of assuming office, Muizzu officially requested the Indian government to withdraw its military personnel from the Maldives.

Apart from the call for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel, a massive row erupted after a Maldivian deputy minister, along with other cabinet members and government officials, made disparaging and unsavoury references to Primer Minister Narendra Modi’s recent Lakshadweep visit and call to development the Indian archipelago as a global retreat for beach tourism.

The Maldives government, however, distanced itself from the remarks.

The cycle of violence in Manipur continued on Tuesday with two people dying and at least five – including a top BJP youth leader from the state – getting injured in fresh firing between two groups. 

Police sources said the exchange of fire broke out at Koutruk village in Imphal West district and that the number of deaths is likely to go up. At least one person is also said to be missing. 

Manoharmayum Barish Sharma, a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha – the youth wing of the BJP – sustained injuries in the firing and has been rushed to a hospital. 

The sources said the gunfight erupted between village volunteers of two communities on the border of the Imphal West and Kangpokpi districts. There are also reports of residents fleeing the Kadangband, Koutruk and Kangchup villages in the Imphal valley following the fresh violence.

Tuesday’s incident comes just two days after a village defence volunteer was killed and four people were injured in a gunfight between two armed groups in an area between state capital Imphal and Kangpokpi district.

Over 180 people have lost their lives and more than 3,000 have been injured in the violence in Manipur, which began on May 3 last year, when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.

Thousands have also been displaced and the opposition has been questioning why the violence has gone on for over eight months despite at least 60,000 personnel from the central security forces being posted in the state.