News18 Daybreak | BJP to Announce Pre-Poll Alliance with AIADMK and Other Stories You Need to Watch Out For

After the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to announce its alliance with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu today.

Last week BJP’s election-in-charge Piyush Goyal held midnight parleys with chief minister EK Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam where the alliance and the seat sharing arrangement has firmed.

In Tamil Nadu: Following the talks last Thursday, News18 had reported that while deal is finalised, seat sharing negotiations are still underway as sources say the BJP wants to contest at least 8 seats this time around.

The DMDK, led by Vijayakanth, Tamil Maanila Congress led by GK Vasan, and two other regional parties are also likely to be part of the alliance.

The BJP had planned a series of visits by top leaders such as Nitin Gadkari and others to meet with the party cadre, industry groups and social groups but they are likely to be rescheduled after the terrorist attack in Pulwama on Thursday.

Making Amends: Meanwhile, in Maharashtra it seems like the Shiv Sena and the BJP have decided to bury the hatchet and contest the Lok Sabha polls and the state assembly elections together.

CM Devendra Fadnavis with BJP President Amit Shah and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray announced in a press conference on Monday that Sena will fight on 23 seats and the BJP will contest on 25 seats for the upcoming polls.

The announcement comes following months of bickering between the two parties as the Sena has been publicly disagreed with its allied party on various issues.

Just last week, Sena leader Sanjay Raut paid a surprise visit to Chandrababu Naidu's dharna in Delhi pressing for special status for Andhra Pradesh. Naidu's dharna was attended by opposition leaders, including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

What next: However, even with the party firming up on alliance with Shiv Sena and AIADMK, it has yet to find allies in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. How will this affect the party’s chances in the southern states, especially in Karnataka where it has the most number of seats? Read Stacy Pereira and Deepa Balakrishnan’s analysis.

 Jadhav-Pulwama

Amid rising tensions over the Pulwama attack, India and Pakistan have now locked horns in the International Court of Justice in the ongoing public hearing of the Kulbhushan Jadhav case.

Jadhav, 48, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage. The petitioner, India, on Monday had argued that Pakistani military court "hopelessly failed" to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process and requested the ICJ at the Hague to declare it “unlawful”. The hearing will continue on for its second day today.

Meanwhile, two of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militants, including the commander who masterminded Thursday’s terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, were killed in an encounter in the Pinglan area, in which four army personnel and a civilian also died. The slain terrorists were identified as Kamran, a Pakistani national and top commander of the Jaish, and Hilal Ahmad, a local recruited by the terror group, an official said. Amongst the casualities in the gunfight were also army personnel major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, hawaldar Sheo Ram, sepoy Hari Singh and sepoy Ajay Kumar of the 55 Rashtriya Rifles. The security operation comes days after the 40 CRPF personnel were killed when a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based terror outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammad, blew up an explosive-laden vehicle.

Saudi Prince

The Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman is slated to arrive in New Delhi last on Tuesday after his visiting Pakistan. On Monday, the Prince vowed to try to "de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Pulwama by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad.

According to officials, the Prince was briefed about the details of the attack and the aftermath by the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday. Saudi Arabia has influence over Pakistan and the Crown Prince during two-day visit inked at least seven MoUs and agreement to make investments of worth USD 20 billion.

Popularly known as MBS, the Princewill be given a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday after which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host him at lunch and President Ram Nath Kovind will host an official banquet. The Saudi prince's visit comes nearly three years after PM Modi's visit to Riyadh in 2016, during which the two nations expanded cooperation across diverse areas including trade, investment and counter-terrorism. The two nations had also inked a pact on the exchange of intelligence related to money laundering and terrorism.

RBI

Reserve Bank will pay an interim dividend of Rs 28,000 crore to the government, a move that will help the Centre keep fiscal deficit in check. The announcement on Monday came after the bank's Central Board meeting, which was addressed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. RBI had given Rs 30,663 crore as dividend to the government in 2017-18. In his address to the Board, Jaitley outlined various reforms and policy measures taken by the government over the last four years and the effects thereof.

What You May Have Missed

Priyadarshini-Jyotiraditya

With husband Jyotiraditya Scindia working on the Congress poll campaign in western Uttar Pradesh, wife Priyadarshini Raje Scindia began a nine-day public campaign on Monday in Guna, the parliamentary constituency of her husband, fuelling speculation of her taking a possible political plunge in the forthcoming general elections. Priyadarshini met several women workers at the booth level on day one of campaigning and is expected to meet female workers of the block level at the block level. Although she was seen seeking votes for her husband, several party leaders have pitched for her candidature in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, especially since the recent and much-awaited entry of Congress-in-charge of UP east Priyanka Gandhi.

 sidhu

 Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal on Monday was forced to cut short his budget presentation in the assembly on Monday due to protests by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders over cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s remarks on the Pulwama attack.

SAD MLAs trooped into the Well of the House demanding the resignation of the Congress leader, who had said a country (Pakistan) can’t be blamed for the actions of a few individuals.

In the assembly, SAD leader Bikram Majithia and his supporters shouted slogans against Sidhu and hurled copies of the photographs at him. The legislators, who were wearing black badges, also tried to disrupt Sidhu’s reply by yelling slogans against him.

Sidhu had drawn flak with his comment that a nation cannot be held responsible for the acts of terrorists, which was seen to support Pakistan and its Prime Minister Imran Khan (a former cricket legend) despite New Delhi's strong resolve to work for Pakistan's isolation post the Pulwama attack.

On Monday, Sidhu lashed out at the critics for branding him "anti-national" over his stand on Pulwama attack and said that these people should tell who had handed Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar to Pakistan in 1999.