Civic polls: Eyeing young voters, BJP holds sports meet

NEW DELHI: With an eye on young voters in the upcoming municipal polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi is holding an eight-day sporting event.

Khel Delhi Khel, a programme to connect with firsttime voters (age group of 18-21 years), was inaugurated by minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Vijay Goel on Sunday at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

A senior Delhi BJP leader said more than 500 teams have registered for various six games, including kho-kho, kabbadi, volleyball, basketball, football and bodybuilding.

Vinay Mani Tripathi, convener of the event, said the party has received an overwhelming response from people.

The nominations from 395 teams were received through online process, he added.

The first prize for each category is a trophy and cash prize of ₹51,000.

The runner-up and second runner-up teams will get ₹21,000 and ₹11,000, respectively along with a trophy.

“Applications for participation were also submitted offline for all six sports. Including offline nominations, the event will see 400 teams, which include 6,000 participants,” he said.

Batman took the Razzie for worst supporting actor Jesse Eisenberg, who caused many a critic’s jaw to drop as he chewed the scenery as Lex Luthor.

The critical flop also won worst screen combo for duelling superheroes Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, as well as worst screenplay and worst remake, rip-off or sequel.

The Razzies were created in 1980 as an antidote to Hollywood’s star-studded, back-slapping annual awards season, which climaxes Sunday with the 89th Academy Awards.

Nominees rarely attend the Razzies, usually held in small venues somewhere in and around Los Angeles, and there was no ceremony at all this year. Sandra Bullock turned up in 2010 to accept worst actress for All About Steve, a day before winning best actress Oscar for The Blind Side.

Eight of the nine Razzie categories are chosen by the 800 or so members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, who earn voting rights by paying a $40 membership fee, with a $25 annual renewal.

Worst screen combo is determined by ratings from more than 80,000 users of the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website.

While they were neck-andneck for the award, there was some distance between this year’s two big Razzies winners at the box office.

Hillary’s America took just $13.1 million at the box office, while Batman v Superman grossed $873.2 million.

The annual Razzie Redeemer Award went to actor-director Mel Gibson, who has had glowing reviews for his war movie Hacksaw Ridge, 10 years after he was ostracized following a drunken antisemitic rant.

The disappearance of the group, which included six women and three children, sent shockwaves across the country. Most of these people were educated and came from upper middle class families.

Some of them later called up their relatives and told them they had joined Islamic State.

Intelligence agencies believe the messages originated in Afghanistan and recent media reports seem to back the claim. There were reports that the group was living in a remote area of Afghanistan and had no plans to return.

The father of the two missing youth from Palakkad had said his sons were in touch with controversial Muslim preacher from Mumbai Zakir Naik. Later police arrested two persons from Mumbai including an aide of Naik.

Five months back, the National Investigation Agency, which is looking into the missing case, busted an Islamic State module in Kerala. The cell was planning a series of strikes across south India, the NIA said.

IS announced its Khorasan branch -- an old name for Afghanistan and surrounding areas including parts of India -in January 2015.

It has claimed several terror strikes as it tries to expand outside the Arab world but has met with resistance and has lost several men in air raids.

Chakravarty was injured when a clash between two groups of students, one led by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and another by the All India Students Association (AISA), turned violent on Wednesday.

When contacted for his reaction, Chakravarty said he was not in a “physical condition” to hold conversation.

Sources said he was brought to the hospital at 6.30am and he left at 8.15am.

“His x-rays and ultrasound were normal and he was in stable condition. The injuries are not serious, but he has muscular sprain, which can be very painful. All we need to do is pain management,” said a hospital spokesperson.

Chakravarty was taken to Bara Hindu Rao hospital earlier on Wednesday after being roughed up by suspected ABVP members.

He had then told HT, “I was beaten up by 15 people, possibly ABVP members... I was at the site to express my solidarity with the protesting students.”

The ABVP refuted the allegations of attacking teachers and students. “These are false allegations. No one among us indulged in any violent activity. Our opposition was to people who had raised slogans for freedom of Kashmir,” said Satinder Awana, former Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president.

Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) member Abha Dev Habib said Chakravarty, who was planning to join classes from Monday, might have to defer the joining.

MN Tiwari, DCP (Rohini), said there was no reason to suspect the family’s version. “We scanned the footage of a CCTV camera installed right outside their house. The boys’ mother is seen going out and returning in less than six minutes. There was no one else in the house at that time,” said the DCP.

Investigators said they “observed the behaviour” of the boys’ parents, relatives and neighbours for some time before ruling out foul play.

The washing machine was also checked thoroughly to see if there was anything inside that may have drawn the boys’ curiosity, but nothing was found.

Though the SP and Congress have joined hands to contest the UP election, in Amethi they are locked in a “friendly contest”, which is being repeated in Gauriganj seat of the district.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi represents Amethi in the Lok Sabha. There are five assembly segments in it and the poll outcome will be closely watched.

With just two phases remaining, top leaders criss-crossed the eastern region on Monday, addressing several rallies to hit out at opponents.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh mocked a feud within SP’s Yadav family, saying Mulayam Singh Yadavhas punctured the ‘cycle’ – the SP’s poll symbol – while his brother Shivpal broke its chain, “I really wonder how Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh will reach Lucknow riding the damaged cycle,” he said at an election rally in Ballia.

In Maharajganj, Akhilesh said the SP-Congress coalition was an alliance of youngsters that would change the course of national politics and reiterated his claim that the combine would win 300 seats.

His wife Dimple Yadav told a rally in Jaunpur that BJP chief Amit Shah was mistaken when he coined an abbreviation for ‘Kasab’ –the 2008 Mumbai attacks convict.

“BJP says ‘Ka’ stands for Congress. Your Akhilesh bhaiyya says ‘Ka’ (in Hindi) stands for Computer, ‘Sa’ stands for smartphone, through which you can get all the information about the policies of the government and ‘B’ stands for ‘bachche’ (children),” she said to loud applause.

The abbreviation by Shah – Ka for Congress, Sa for SP and B for BSP – triggered a high-decibel response from his opponents.

Akhilesh had responded to Shah by asking Gujarat brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan to not advertise “Gujarat ke gadhe” (donkeys of Gujarat). BSP chief Mayawati had dubbed Shah the biggest terrorist.

On Monday in Gorakhpur, she repeated an old promise of dividing UP and carving out a separate state for Purvanchal, a region where the BSP is looking to make inroads into.

“This election, you need to punish the Congress, the BJP and the SP, which have been opposing creation of Purvanchal,” she said.